Lakes have always been a major source of safe and
clean drinking water. Rapid urbanization and poor upkeep of the existing lakes
have resulted in starvation and silting. In addition, general indifference
towards these water sources have further resulted in poor quality of the water
that is in these lakes. However to improve the situation, in India, there are
prevalent guidelines drawn out by central government. This guideline is to be
followed by state governments and help them with the objective of lake
conservation in India.
Then, the major guidelines which are available in the
form of ‘Guidelines for National Lake Conservation Plan’ are to manage and
properly revive polluted and degraded lakes that fall under semi-urban or urban
areas. These guidelines thus are not essentially for rural lake management. In
such cases, cues could be drawn from the existing guidelines and utilized as
per rural requirement.
In case of urban and semi-urban areas, it is not only
the level of water that needs to be monitored and maintained but it is also the
quality of water which is considered. Contrary to the rural area, where water
quality is maintained as a common responsibility, in the urban and semi-urban
area, it is imperative. Hence, in these areas, apart from level of water,
prevention of pollution through treatment or intolerance towards waste
discharge in the lake is executed through lake conservation plans.
Sewage also poses a threat and hence it is also taken
care of through the plan for lake conservation in India. Further, schemes are
utilized in accordance to rain water harvesting modules ensuring that the level
of water is maintained sufficiently. Among others, some of the prevalent
guidelines for lake conservation in India are mentioned below.
- In situ measures of lake cleaning such as de-silting, de-weeding, bioremediation, aeration, bio-manipulation, nutrient reduction, withdrawal of anoxic hypolimn ion, constructed wetland approach or any other successfully tested eco-technologies etc depending upon the site conditions.
- Catchment area treatment which may include afforestation, storm water drainage, and silt traps etc.
- Strengthening of bund, lake fencing, shoreline development etc.
- Lake front eco-development including public interface.
- Solid waste management2 & provision of dhobi ghats is generally not covered under NLCP.
- Prevention of pollution from non-point sources by providing low cost sanitation.
- Public awareness and public participation.
- Capacity building, training and research in the area of Lake Conservation.
- Any other activity depending upon location specific requirements.
These guidelines wherever employed properly have
yielded great results and have been able to turn around the fate of dying and
polluted lakes. However, it is just not possible to achieve results such as
conservation of lakes, only by following certain guidelines. Rather, there have
to be continuous and dedicated effort in the line of maintaining the water
level and restricting any sort of pollution from degrading the quality of water
in the managed lakes. When, these objectives are achieved and managed
continuously, the lakes remain a quality source of safe and clean water.
