Bhopal Notes :: 70 :: Plight of Bhopal Lake

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Lamenting the plight of the Upper Lake of Bhopal on the World Wetland Day on 1^st February last, a millennium-old inheritance of the town, Prof. Madhu Verma made a mention of her study on its economic value carried out more than 18 years ago. Her study revealed that the lake makes a contribution of around Rs. 61 crores annually to the state government’s coffers and yet it is not taken care of as it should be despite it’s being a valuable natural resource. Having specialized in Environmental Economics, Prof. Madhu Verma is a distinguished professor in the Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM), an only institute of its kind in the country. If I recall, her study was conducted under the aegis of the World Bank.  

After her more than two years long study she had submitted her report to the Government of Madhya Pradesh where, as happens to many such reports, no action was taken on it and the report continued to gather dust and, as is apparent now, has been killed and buried. This has happened when the government had invested in the study by way of deputing Ms. Verma for it and the World Bank had made available its financial resources for condct of the study. The government has full-fledged departments of environment and water resources (the lake is a vital source of drinking water for the local population) which could have initiated action on it to keep the lake waters healthy as a very large section of the city’s population use them for the purpose of quenching their thirst. Whether Ms. Verma’s report was studied at all is not known. Perhaps it was never examined by anybody in the government as otherwise some response would have been sent to its author.

During he study Prof. Verma had found numerous drains carrying sewage and waste water terminating in the lake contaminating its waters.  She had recommended early action to stop their flow into the Lake. A period of more than 18 years has elapsed and yet the situation by and large remains the same, Even the Bhoj Wetland Project financed by the Japanese Bank of International Cooperation had recommended the same. The Project ran for around 10 years (up to 2005) instead of the mandated 5 years yet the project authority could not spend the entire sum of Rs. 267 crores. Most of the amount was spent in infructuous expenditure like on auditorium, an interpretation centre and so on.  Very little of the amount at the disposal of the government was spent on keeping the Lake free of pollutants. By its own admission, the Municipal Corporation, the custodian of the Lake, eight or nine drains carrying sewage and waste water still flow into the Lake. During the intervening 18 years therefore there has hardly been any improvement in the quality of waters of the Lake. In fact very little was done to achieve it.

The government only seems to be keen on collecting reports on the Lake and does nothing to either reject or implement the recommendations. A similar, perhaps more elaborate study was carried out on various aspects of the Lake with a view to improve the condition of its waters, improve the inflow from its catchments, improve its maintenance so as to prolong its life for effective utilization. The study was conducted by none other than the Centre for Environmental Planning anf Technology, a reputed institution of Ahmedabad. Its report was submitted in 2013 but it has not seen the light of day so far. Whatever was done was done against its recommendations. The report was kept under wraps as the government did not find irs recommendations in accordance to its wishes, in fact the wishes of the construction lobby that wanted to make use of the lands in the catchment area of the Lake.

The Lake has thus been a subject of neglect and apathy by the government and its agencies like the Municipal Corporation. They have not been able to erect functional sewage treatment plants in the course of  a couple of decades indicating the utter neglect of the water body and unconcern for people who are made to drink its waters.

It is not that  that the Corporation has no money. When it comes to exploiting the Lake it can spend crores like it did for the amphithatre and musical fountains. It is reported to have spent Rs. 11 crores  for the musical fountains and the amphitheatre which has remained a non-starter. It could not become functional as before the Corporation was reafy to do so the waters reportedly receded making the fountains unworkable. The investment of Rs. 11 crores was nothing except a dead one and nobody is likely to be held accountable for this ill-advised investment. Surely some sewage treatment plants could have been constructed with this kind of money. Cheap eco-STPs which have the “cradle-to-cradle” technology are now available that can be used in promoting zero waste constructions. Cleaning up the waste water at the source is perhaps makes more sense than trying to purify the waters of the water body which the public agencies can hardly ever effectively ensure.

The municipality’s penchant for construction on the lake shores for the professed benefit of the people is remarkable. Its “Selfie Site” on the VIP Road is another such effort which is sparsely used by the people. While promotion of sites for collection of large number of people on the banks of the Lake are against all envitonmental norms the Corporation seems to care a fig for such norms. It thus keeps on wasting precious financial resources on such projects instead of trying to keep the waters of the Lake clean and pollution-free – for the benefit of the people. Worse, it is progressively giving more and more approvals for food joints near the Boat Club/

It seems unless the culture of taking for granted the available natural assets changes both, in the Municipal Corporation and government departments concerned nothing fruitful can be expected. That the available natural assets that serve the needs of the people require care and maintenance as a concept dawns on the authorities looking after them in the town these will, at best, limp on for some time before heading towards extinction in not too distant future. Already several researchers have predicted that the millennium-old Lake will remain functional for around 80 more years unless proper care is taken in its maintenance and upkeep.