Encroachments on lake beds, Storm Water Drains and interconnecting rajakaluves have disrupted water flow gradients and patterns, often leading to floods. This is a cumulative effect of silt in lakes and encroachment of lake beds resulting in dwindling storage capacity, apart from encroachments and diversions of Storm Water Drains. Despite its name, it is clear that Storm Water Drains primarily carry sewage. But even once all the STPs are ready and the pipelines are in place, BWSSB will continue to face a ‘huge challenge’ convincing households that have come up alongside Storm Water Drains not to dump sewage and garbage. Take for instance Bellandur lake whose storage capacity is estimated to be 8,400 million litres.

Source: The Hindu August 03, 2016 01:30 UTC