Rs 188 crore plan to rejuvenate Kerala's Vembanad lake rolled out
The comprehensive project is aimed at cleaning, deepening and restoring the fragile ecosystem of the lake. Designed as a five-year action plan, the initiative is spearheaded by District Collector Alex Varghese and being executed in partnership with local self-government bodies.
The blueprint of the project — christened the 'Vembanad Lake Rejuvenation Project' — was recently presented to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. It outlines both immediate interventions and long-term ecological goals.
Alex said the cost estimates may undergo revisions following a detailed assessment by the Centre for Water Resources Development and Management, which is currently examining the region's water resources and irrigation potential.
'Short-term measures include removal of plastic debris, eradication of invasive weeds, construction of bio-shields to protect agricultural lands and the development of 31, one-km-long bio-bunds across as many as grama panchayats. Additional efforts such as fish ranching and waste collection drives are also on,' Alex said.
The long-term strategies envision a more sustainable future for Vembanad and surrounding areas. These include dredging the lake to increase water retention, encouraging organic farming to curb chemical run-off, restoring local biodiversity and establishing sewage and faecal sludge treatment facilities, particularly in flood-prone Kuttanad.
There are also plans to explore the economic potential of the water hyacinths by converting those into value-added products, alongside promoting tourism and boosting inland fish production.
Already, significant progress has been made, said officials. In a recent largescale clean-up backed by the district administration, 28.72 tonnes of plastic waste and an even higher quantity of water hyacinths were removed from the lake. However, the officials admitted that rejuvenating the waterbody will be an uphill task requiring extensive financial resources, advanced machinery, skilled manpower and inter-agency coordination.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NDTV
3 hours ago
- NDTV
Video: Man Tears Apart Month-Old Road By Hand In Maharashtra's Nanded
How long should it take before you can start tearing apart a road by hand? Centuries, you say? Well, in Maharashtra's Nanded, all it took was a month. A video that is swiftly going viral shows a man sitting in the middle of a stretch of a road in Nanded district's Biloli Taluka and attempting to pull out a portion of it with his bare hands. Amazingly, the surface of the road starts coming apart with very little effort, and he keeps pulling out more and more chunks of asphalt, exposing a layer of stones underneath. The road, between Dugaon in Nashik district and Dongargaon in Pune district, was constructed a month ago and potholes began appearing just days later. Local residents said very little asphalt was used on the road and the layer beneath it had also not been prepared properly. In the video, the man pulls out at least four feet of the asphalt layer, complaining all the while about the poor construction quality. Local residents have also demanded action against the contractor. In a similar incident in the state's Jalna district in 2023, villagers 'lifted' the top layer of a newly constructed road with their hands, exposing a cloth underneath. Last month, a road in Bihar had also made headlines because it was built around tall trees, giving rise to a real-life obstacle course. The road in Jehanabad, about 50 km from Patna, was constructed at a cost of Rs 100 crore and, local residents said many accidents have taken place because of the trees. The district administration had been denied permission to cut the trees and decided to build the road around them.
Indian Express
4 hours ago
- Indian Express
Gurgaon: Sushant Lok RWA funds borewell pump repair amid ‘neglect' by municipal corporation
A resident welfare association in Gurgaon Sector 55 has used its funds to repair a water pump after the municipal corporation allegedly failed to address an acute water shortage that affected over 1,000 families for days. Members of the RWA of Sushant Lok Blocks A and A1 have accused the civic body of neglect and poor contractor oversight. 'We have been highlighting our water problem for two years now, but there has been no help. Last month, the contractor installed a pump that failed in just two weeks, used substandard motors and wires, and the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram did nothing. Why hire such contractors? For five days, families suffered without water. Even now we are struggling and get water only once a day, another pump being maintained by the civic body is also in need of urgent repair,' said RWA president Vinita Sinha, adding that the repair, undertaken at a cost of Rs 5,000, was at best a 'band-aid' solution. Adding to the residents' woes, the Department of Town and Country Planning (DTCP) issued notices threatening to cut water and sewer lines in the area–a move Sinha described as ironic given the non-functional water supply and overflowing sewers. Residents also face challenges in contacting officials of the municipal corporation, Sinha said. 'We do not know who is responsible for our area. The numbers on the website yield no response; for everything we cannot go to the commissioner or a higher official,' she added. When contacted, Executive Engineer Sandeep Sihag said he was not aware of the issue as the RWA had not complained to him. 'We have resolved such issues fully when concerned RWAs/sectors have recently come forward,' he said. The Indian Express tried reaching out to Subdivisional Officer Kuldeep Kumar for comment. This report will be updated if Kumar comments. Last month, the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) directed the municipal corporation to disconnect illegal and direct connections made on master water supply pipelines of the GMDA and the civic body. The move, once implemented, will mean that there will be no direct water supply to households without it being rerouted through the designated boosting stations that regulate pressure and flow. The decision was taken following reports that certain housing societies were installing water pipelines routed from the master water supply lines of the GMDA and the municipal corporation.
New Indian Express
6 hours ago
- New Indian Express
Vana Mahotsavam 2025 to mark ecological restoration at agricultural varsity
HYDERABAD: In a major step towards ecological revival, the Telangana government will launch its flagship Vana Mahotsavam 2025 at Professor Jayashankar Telangana Agricultural University (PJTAU), Rajendranagar, on July 7. Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy will inaugurate the event by planting saplings, reaffirming the state's commitment to restoring green cover using indigenous species. The initiative kicks off a scientific restoration effort across 150 acres of PJTAU land long overrun by invasive weeds and exotic trees like eucalyptus and subabul. Once home to native species, the campus has been dominated by lantana, parthenium, prosopis juliflora (Sarkar Thumma), eucalyptus, and subabul, which disrupt local ecology and deplete groundwater. A joint survey by HMDA Urban Forestry and PJTAU in January 2025 identified 3,521 subabul and 869 eucalyptus trees across four plantation blocks, later marked for removal with Forest department approval. To ensure transparency, PJTAU held a public auction in May. As per a May 7 tender, 3,000 subabul and 521 eucalyptus trees were approved for felling. The highest bids: Rs 4,800/tonne for subabul (Madan Mohan, Sri Laxmi Wood Suppliers) and Rs 4,700/tonne for eucalyptus (Raghu Kumar, Sri Lorven Enterprises). ITC was awarded the extraction contract, and clearing began in mid-June.
