BANGALORE: Lakeathon 2017 is being organized by NETRA and Rotary to rejuvenate Doddanekundi Lake along with the launching of the greening project supported by Intel India on July 2, 2017, at Virla Park, Viswajit Layout, Vignan Nagar, Doddanekundi, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560037.
Association President Chenniappan informed that the lakeathon aims to spread awareness about the work that has been done to rejuvenate and preserve the lake. He said, “Our mission is to spread awareness on the need for continued and ongoing community participation to solve several issues that still plague the lake restoration and highlight the need for active community involvement to ensure that the civic authorities and elected representatives facilitate execution of high-quality work.”
He explained that “The area of Doddanekkundi lake is more than 100 acres” and the tank has four inlets –one each from Vibhutipura tank, Kaggadaspura lake, Mahadevapura tank and one from Nekkundi Tank.Rejuvenation work was announced and taken up by Government at the cost of Rs 10 crore a few years ago, and the work is in progress.
As a community initiative, a Trust called NeTRA (Nekundi Tank Rejuvenation Association) was formed with six resident welfare associations of communities living around the lake and Rotary Club of JB Nagar have teamed up to work for the rejuvenation of the lake.
Major problems faced by the lake are encroachment, dumping of debris and solid waste and untreated waste water flow into the lake. Other items on the agenda are children’s park and amphi theater, gym facility, completion of peripheral fencing work with security in place and installation of solar energy plant on the bund. Besides recharging ground water, there will be an overall improvement of the urban eco system, thus restoring ecological balance including fauna and flora. However, the projects planned are not making progress as planned by Netra, primarily for the lake of coordinated effort from Govt. Agencies.
Rotary JB Nagar President Jothish R talked about the partnership with NeTRA and the plan for setting up of Bio STPs to treat the waste water and lake will receive only treated water during the dry season and rain water in monsoon.
Rotary Jeevan Bima Nagar, and Netra has joined the movement with some of the leading corporates to rejuvenate and preserve the Doddanekundi Lake in partnership with the civic authorities and communities around the lake. NETRA Spokesperson and Trustee, Abhishek Ranjan mentioned that, It is a significant boost for the lake rejuvenation movement.
