https://reasonstobecheerful.world/bengaluru-india-city-of-lakes-revival/
"It was the autumn of 2022 in Bengaluru, in the southern state of Karnataka.
Drum beats punctured the air and over a thousand people in traditional attire,
carrying platters of flowers, sweets and fruit thronged the banks of
Kyalasanahalli Lake, which had overflowed for the first time in 23 years. A
ripple of excitement arose as the local deity was placed ceremoniously on a
boat and taken for a spin.
Amid this scene, it was hard to believe that merely six years earlier, this
lake did not exist. In its place was a wasteland of sewage, industrial waste
and water hyacinth.
Kyalasanahalli’s restoration is part of the growing revival of India’s City of
Lakes. When it was built in the 16th century, Bangalore — or Bengaluru, as it
is now known — had about 1,500 interconnected bodies of water, big and small.
These absorbed rainwater, kept groundwater levels high and helped maintain the
land-locked city’s uniquely moderate micro-climate. But in the last 50 years,
Bengaluru’s lakes and other bodies of water have degraded and shrunk as its
urban area has increased ten-fold, transforming a once-rural landscape into
India’s fourth-largest city. Sewage and water infrastructure have not been able
to keep up with this explosive growth, leading to two diametrically opposed but
equally acute urban woes: flooding and water scarcity.
In the last six years, to address these issues, a number of citizen- and
government-led initiatives have revived many of the city’s lakes, which had
either dried up completely or become cesspools of garbage, sewage and
effluents. Today, plans are afoot to revive 150 more in Bengaluru district.
While most of these projects have restored only a couple of lakes at the most,
one individual, Anand Malligavad, has had an outsize impact, successfully
reviving 30 lakes in Bengaluru district in the last six years."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
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mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
