Efforts on to restore pristine glory of Saroornagar lake

Saroornagar: Hyderabad's eminent Saroornagar lake, which was being cleaned by an NGO, will soon get a new look. Beside getting cleaned, the lake is to get a facelift with a floating island and walking tracks.

Almost after a decade's struggle by a city-based NGO Helping Hands Humanity (HHH) to rejuvenate the Saroornagar Lake, which was originally spread across 98 acres, is going to get a facelift in the coming months. A Floating Trash Collectors (FTC) have been deployed as part of the cleaning process.

With the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) authorities joining hands with the NGO, cleaning of the lake is going on for almost one-and-a-half months now. Moreover, a group of 16-20 volunteers along with MLA D Sudheer Reddy aid the cleaning process, every Sunday.

Only after sending several representations to the civic authorities for the restoration of the lake did they start cleaning the lake, informed Kota Saikumar, a volunteer who also thanked LB Nagar MLA for his support.

The NGO while cleaning the lake found that a huge amount of plastic and puja material was being dumped into the lake. They have started an awareness campaign to make residents not to use the lake as a dumping yard.

"For the past 18 months we have been engaged in cleaning the lake, but now with the active support from the MLA and authorities we are hopeful that the lake would get its past glory. Earlier we were cleaning manually and now with the deployment of equipment to clean the waste we are hopeful that the idea would materialise soon," said Prashanth, a volunteer of Helping Hands Humanity.

To upkeep, protect and clean the Saroornagar lake several measures have been taken, including spraying of mosquito repellent using drones and the two floating islands which would absorb the pollutants like phosphates and nitrates.

"Once the estimated amount gets sanctioned, the floating island and walking track would be developed. It is our responsibility to protect the lake. I also appeal to the locals not to throw trash into the lake," said Sudheer Reddy, LB Nagar MLA.