Nagpur: Ganesh Chaturthi is round the corner, and like every year Green Vigil Foundation, has geared up for the preparation of Ganesh Visarjan to fight for the conservation of city lakes. To start with, Green Vigil monitored the condition of lakes namely Sonegaon, Gandhisagar and Futala by conducting Pre- Ganpati Visarjan water monitoring program, in association with World Water Federation, an NGO undertaking water monitoring program of surface water bodies to analyze its quality across the Globe.
Green Vigil Foundation has been surveying water quality of lakes of the city since 2012.The survey consists of monitoring of lake water throughout the year including Pre & Post Ganpati visarjan , Post Devi visarjan. The water monitoring program aims to analyze the impact of Ganesh & Devi visarjan on lakes and subsequent rejuvenating capacity of lakes.
The test consisted of monitoring of basic parameters like Dissolved Oxygen (DO), turbidity and pH levels to analyze the quality of water. Dissolved oxygen, the most important parameter refers to the presence of oxygen in dissolved form to the aquatic organisms, indicating good health of the water body. The Dissolved oxygen ( DO) level was found to be 5, 4 and 4-4.5 mg / L at Sonegaon, Gandhisagar and Futala Lake respectively. The lowest DO level is observed at Futala , which is already low and Ganpati Visarjan will lead to further dip in DO level. DO level going down below 2 mg/ L might result in collapse of aquatic ecosystem including death of fishes.
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Saturday 02 Nov. 2024
Another parameter accountable to study water quality is turbidity, which refers to the presence of suspended solids in water. The study showed 50-55, 70 and 50-70 JTU turbidity at Sonegaon, Gandhisagar and Futala Lake respectively. Sonegaon lake though seems fairly comfortable with 5 mg/l Dissolved Oxygen but present water availability in lake is too less. Incase, the water capacity of the lake does not increase, which is directly proportional to availability of rains, idol immersion in Sonegaon lake need to be completely banned. The artificial tank made of RCC Structure can be used for immersion of household idols like every year.
Surbhi Jaiswal, Co-ordinator Programs of Green Vigil while talking to Nagpur Today, pointed out, our lakes are not in a position to absorb the shock load of Ganpati & Devi Visarjan. We sincerely need to think of immersion of big idols in water bodies other than city lakes. May be some abundant quarry outside city limit is a better option, if it suits citizens as well as administration, she added.
Kaustav Chatterjee, Founder, GVF pointed out, in Nagpur lakes, the only way of oxygen transfer is by atmospheric diffusion. It can be observed, half of the Futala Lake has been covered by weeds. DO level too going down. There is an urgent need of cleaning Futala lake and restart the installed fountains, which will help in oxygen transfer.
