The Hindu : National : German formula for rejuvenating lakes

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Wednesday, Jul 23, 2008
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German formula for rejuvenating lakes

K. Venkateshwarlu

HYDERABAD: All but reduced to cesspools, restoration of polluted, filth-ridden lakes, ponds and wells has always been a challenging, time-consuming and expensive process.

Not anymore, as a novel German technique promises to make the clean-up process a little bit easy.

A German group, Lavaris Lake, has come up with a ‘carbon add’, a world-wide patented powdered combination of chemicals (such as calcium chloride, sodium bicarbonate and calcium carbonate) that works on the muddled pool “turning it into water of potable standards.”

“These chemicals are either mixed or applied on the water in a specific ratio, kicking off a process, which then depletes the insoluble filth and makes the water clean,” Carsten Pachnicke, top executive of Lavaris Lake, told The Hindu.

‘Relevant to India’

He says the ‘carbon add’ formula will be specially relevant to India having over three million small, medium and big tanks, ponds and wells used for drinking water and irrigation. Over half a million of them are in appalling condition, some virtually on deathbed, neglected and uncared, thanks to increasing urbanisation, industrialisation and population pressure. Realising the gravity of the situation and their potential for groundwater recharging, the Centre has come up with a scheme of rejuvenating these water bodies.

“Our technology is appropriate as we have proved it in the case of many a lake in Europe. In several of these, we have cleaned up sullied water and brought it to drinking water standards,” he added.

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