Coimbatore : The recent report submitted by experts to the Centre for Urban Biodiversity Conservation and Education (CUBE) on the vegetation of Singanallur Lake has revealed a shocking truth claiming that poor water quality at the lake has eradicated aquatic plants from the lake.
As the Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation’s (CCMC) proposal to install water treatment plants at city lakes continue to be delayed, water quality continues to deteriorate
Coimbatore : The recent report submitted by experts to the Centre for Urban Biodiversity Conservation and Education (CUBE) on the vegetation of Singanallur Lake has revealed a shocking truth claiming that poor water quality at the lake has eradicated aquatic plants from the lake.
In the report titled ‘Survey and Documentation of Photodiversity in and Around Singanallur Lake’, the team headed by C. Kunnhikannan, Head of Biodiversity Division at the Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding (IFGTB), has stated that they were not able identify any aquatic plant during the one year study period.
“We could not find even the common of aquatic plants that you usually find in lakes. There were only Eichornia otherwise known as water hyacinth and ipomea aquatic, which are invasive plants,” Kunnikannan told the Simplicity.
Claiming that the level of alkali was high in the lake’s water, he further added that lack of aquatic plants would change the levels of oxygen and ph.
“The work of aquatic plants is to purify the water and oxygenate the entire water body. They would provide good breeding ground for fresh water creature. Whereas, invasive plants would cover the water surface and block sunlight, which is a threat for the creatures inside,” he said.
During the survey, the team found out that even the condition of the channels were very poor, being dirty and stinky.
On the contrary, the team had had a good hunt of vegetation outside the water spread area of the lake, identifying 453 plant species of which 72 per cent (328) are medicinal plants.
While most of the water bodies in Coimbatore have the same problem due to the mixing of effluents and sewage wastes, the Singanallur Lake has a serious threat caused by the fishermen. Even as water enters the lake through the three major inlets including the Sanganur channel, Rajavaikkal and Ganapathy Uppilipalayam odai, and two small inlets from nearby villages, the water is artificially trapped by the fishermen to retain the introduced fishlings.
Of the five outlets including two weir dams and three sluice gates, four of them have been reportedly damaged by miscreants blocking the flow of water. The quality of the stagnated polluted water is deteriorating day by day.
The Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) in 2015, introduced a proposal in the Council meeting back then to install water treatment plants in every lake, especially at the Singanallur Lake. This was also debated as a major issue in the council meeting back then and the proposal was introduced in the budget of CCMC during that time. However, no concrete steps have been taken in this regard.
Reacting to this, Sravan Kumar Jatavath, Commissioner of CCMC told the Simplicity that officials were planning to implement it as a part of lake rejuvenation project of Smart City.