The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Strategies to save lakes, water bodies discussed

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Monday, Apr 26, 2010
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Strategies to save lakes, water bodies discussed

Staff Reporter

Grand finale to Citizen's for City Contest

Hyderabad: Several brilliant minds came up with strategies to save the lakes and water bodies of Hyderabad during the grand finale of Citizen's for City Contest on Sunday.

Six teams from different organisation came forward to present their ideas in front of a jury which comprised of Dr. Rao V.B.J. Chelikani, president, International Foundation for Human Development, Dr. V.S. Chary, Director, ASCI-SEEUG and ID, J.V.G. Krishna Murthy, program manager, Safe Water Project, Path India and Sunil Kumar Gupta, Member, Environment, HMDA.

The first topic, Life Support to Hyderabad Lakes, presented by Deloitte- IV, laid emphasis on strengthening of lake fencing and bund constructions to prevent water bodies from getting polluted.

Emphasis was also laid on the importance of Grey Water Recycling and its benefits. “Most of the water used in bathrooms, laundry and kitchen sinks are classified as grey water.

If the water collected from bathrooms and laundry are filtered and recycled, the pressure on the Water Board to supply potable water would decrease phenomenally and also one can save power by avoiding excessive pumping of ground water,” said V.V. Saradhi, consultant.

“People living near lakes should be educated and roof top water collection should be encouraged as well as surface rain water harvesting to increase level of ground water,” P. Ramakrishna, from Team Infosys pointed out.

“Sewage flowing into lakes can be filtered out by planting reeds near the lake. Planting trees would also transform surroundings into a green buffer zone,” said. Vishnu M. Choudary, from Team City Zen.

“Treated water in STP's is not being distributed.

If STP's take up tertiary treatment of water to make it potable, the government can step in to supply treated water through tankers,” said Shardoon Joshi of Deloitte VI.

“Corporates can also adopt lakes and help the government promote eco tourism,” said Manish Sejwal of team Deloitte-VI.

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