Prevalent Guidelines for Lake Conservation in India

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.