Shrinking lakes shortening lives

Shrinking lakes shortening lives
Tuesday June 5 2007 09:06 IST

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World Environment Day

BANGALORE: The depletion of groundwater table and contaminated water are the most visible impacts of the increasing encroachment on city lakes.

The shrinking lung spaces and water bodies are the result of greedy people viewing them purely in economic terms rather than in environmental terms. The sliding water table and dirtying of surface water have a disastrous effect not just on human beings but on the entire aquatic life.

The constant dumping of construction debris, release of toxic wastes from nearby factories and domestic sewerage lines has led to increasing pollution of lakes. Plastics and domestic wastes are dumped and burnt in their vicinity. This has had a major impact on marshy land, affecting fishes, micro-organisms and dependent birds.

Speaking to this website’s newspaper, Eco-Watch chairman Suresh Heblikar said that any water body is an ecosystem in itself and has a great impact on its surroundings. ‘‘People are callously usurping lakes. Since these lakes are interconnected, water from the four valleys - Vrishabhavathi, Hebbal, Chellaghatta and Koramangala overflow into them along with the toxic elements. Due to encroachment they have lost their connectivity and are destroyed. Dumping of toxic wastes has killed the aquatic life and stopped percolation,’’ he said.

D R Prasanna Kumar, programme officer, Centre for Environment Education South, said that the major impact of increasing pollution level of lakes is seen in drinking water.

‘‘Water from drains enters bore wells, leading to various waterborne diseases. The earth’s layer can trap solid wastes but the micro-organic wastes get into the groundwater. This can be easily sighted during water scarcity, as colour and smell of water changes,’’ he said. ‘‘Cattle, especially cows should be prevented from drinking from the polluted lakes and grazing the land under encroachment because the toxicants reach humans via the milk we consume,’’ he said.