Green Vigil Foundation, an Environment NGO in association with Earth Echo International, conducted Water Monitoring Program post-Ganapati Visarjan, also celebrating World Water Monitoring Day 2019.
Four major lakes of Nagpur namely – Sonegaon Lake, Sakkardara Lake, Gandhisagar Lake, and Futala Lake were monitored to analyze water quality by measuring parameters like pH, turbidity, Dissolved Oxygen and others. The above lakes were monitored to measure the impact of Ganpati Idol immersion and Nirmalaya dumping on these water bodies.
During the study, It was found that Sonegaon Lake is least affected due to Ganpati Visarjan as Dissolved Oxygen levels before and after Ganpati Immersion remains 4.0-4.5 mg/L, whereas satisfactory DO level of the lake should be 6 mg/L. Due to heavy rains, there is rise in level of water at sonegaon lake, resulting in reduction in turbidity levels from 60-65 JTU to 50-55 JTU .pH of the lake was found to be 8.
Studies reveal that Sakkardara is in very bad condition, majority of the lake being covered with water hyacinth have led to depleted DO levels from 4 mg/L to 3.5 mg/L, though few Nirmalaya were found on the banks in spite of barricading the lake, dip in DO is dues to eutrophication of lake. The pH and turbidity of lake were found to be 8 and 60-65 JTU respectively.
Another prominent lake of city, Gandhisagar Lake, which has a huge RCC artificial Tank especially for immersion, was also observed not in a very good site with pH as 8, increased turbidity levels, major reason being the excessive nirmalaya dumping and few idol immersions in lake post scheduled visarjan, inspite of cordoning the lake. DO Level was recorded as 3.5 – 4 mg/l against 4.0-4.5 mg/l before that of immersion.
Nagpur has more than 10 lakes, all lakes of Nagpur city except Futala Lake was barricaded during Ganpati Visarjan and were prohibited for idol immersion and Nirmalaya dumping, receiving a huge load of Ganpati Idol and Nirmalaya immersion a Futala, and this was more of a challenge as majority of the idols were diverted to a single lake, bearing the brunt.
Futala has been badly hit due to immersion has been reported with 3.0-3.5 mg/L DO, which was 4.0-4.5 mg/L before Ganpati immersion. Turbidity was recorded as 70 JTU and pH as 8.
Surbhi Jaiswal, Team Lead and Mehul Kosurkar, Deputy Team Lead of Green Vigil Foundation stressed on immediate cleaning of Nirmalaya and idol remains from Futala Lake by Nagpur Municipal Corporation & cleaning of water hyacinth from Sakkhardhara Lake, to stop further deterioration of lake’s water quality.
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