Sembakkam lake restoration begins

The waterbody sprawling over 150 acres is under the maintenance of Water Resources Department (WRD) which gave permission for the restoration.

Over the years, the lake was rampantly encroached and now occupies merely 100 acres. “The works related to the rejuvenation of lake began on Sunday, and is is expected to be completed by December 2019,” said the Project Manager, Nisha Priya, of The Nature Conservancy.

The cost is estimated to be Rs 90 lakh. It will be carried out with the assistance of The Nature Conservancy, who is the donor agency and Care Earth Trust, an implementation agency, with the technical inputs from IIT-Madras.

Around 12 tests, including hydrology and hydrogeology, were conducted. The findings revealed that the lake was completely damaged, which is filled with aquatic weeds and hyacinth covers about 70 per cent of the lake. It is compounded with the accumulation of silt and garbage at an alarming level. The water source was not desilted for the past 40 years. “We have decided to carry out eco-restoration of the lake, which includes de-weeding, dredging, lake deepening, strengthening of embankment and plantation of vegetation. In the initial stage, we are removing the hyacinths before starting other works,” Priya added.

It is a shallow lake which can be desilted until 1.5 cm. Further, the waterbody has 9 inlets as the lake’s immediate surroundings lack underground drainage connections. In order to plug the outlet, the organisations are mulling over the alternate ways to resolve the issue permanently.

An expert who is working in the field of restoration of lakes said, “All the lakes in the city are polluted to a great extent. The cleaning of the lake alone will not help to restore the waterbody. The water should be utilised judiciously as the city has lost its characteristics of capturing, storing, retaining and recharging of groundwater. The rejuvenation of lake is the only solution which is carried out after conducting a series of tests. We are in a water-stressed region.”