In association with the Government of Telangana, GHMC and Pernod Ricard India Charitable Foundation, SAHE has structured the first ever Lake Protection Committee that includes the Government, Citizens and Corporates working together for the common cause. The results have been truly encouraging!

The city of Hyderabad has been home to 800 lakes. Most of them have disappeared, leaving only 185 lakes alive as on today. These lakes are not in a good condition. The Kudikunta Lake has a population of about 25,000 and lot of waste used to be dumped and sewage released into the lake. All of which has been stopped now due to the restoration activities taken up by SAHE. Frothing of the lake acted as the point of action and motivation to restore it. The major solutions are drafted below:

 If we come together as communities to prevent lakes turning into public hazards.  Keeping the lake periphery clean with reduction in plastic usage with right disposal of waste & support from the government, we can thrive to restore what is left of the lakes.   

Contact Person – Kalpana Ramesh  

Mobile – +91 9885285382            

Email ID – kalpanaramesh@kaava.co

The post “Live the Lakes” – The Kudikunta Restoration appeared first on SAHE : Society for Advancement of Human Endeavour.

Jawahar Nagar is a village located in Medchal district, which falls under Shamirpet mandal. The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has its dumpsite located in this village and about 3500 metric tons of waste generated in Hyderabad is disposed over here on a daily basis.

Drive past Trimulgherry and you start to get a whiff of the stench that awaits you down the road because most of the trucks that transport the garbage, pass through here. Once you reach the suburbs of Kapra, Keesara and Dammaiguda, the filth, insects and stench becomes unbearable. The health of these helpless residents of Jawahar Nagar are clearly at stake.

This dump site has been in active use since a decade and has now reached saturation level. The problems faced by the residents of this locality have been getting worse every year and they have now reached a point where they are afraid to even drink water from their own homes. The air here is impossible to breathe and the ground water has been contaminated by the leachate – the fluid from rotting garbage – that is seeping into the ground and polluting the ground water. Water filled from the taps here have an oily layer on top. Officials from the groundwater directorate claim that the groundwater here is full of harmful chemicals. The amount of Total Dissolved Salts (TDS) in the groundwater present in the water can cause kidney stones and heart diseases. There is also abundance of chemicals such as magnesium, which can cause gastric problems.

The contract of managing this dump site was awarded to the Ramky group which is responsible for carrying out the capping in this area. Capping is a scientific method by which the garbage is covered in such a way that the leachate does not get into the ground, but the contaminated ground water is testimony to the fact that this is not being done. They do not even have a leachate treatment plant that can handle the garbage of this magnitude so the oozing liquid just seeps into the ground. This liquid is so toxic that it dissolves the stones that it comes in contact with, so we can only imagine what it can do to the health of a person. When questioned, both GHMC and Ramky were evasive with their answers.

Ramky has been served a notice by the Telangana State Pollution Control Board for multiple violations of environmental laws and causing health hazards. The state government is thinking of taking over the management of the dump and scrapping their contract after reviewing their MoU.

In addition, the Chief Minister has also instructed the GHMC Commissioner Somesh Kumar to locate and develop more dumping yards around the city. Since, finding a large land area in Hyderabad district that is at least 200 acres is hard, the government is focusing on the neighboring districts of Ranga Reddy, Medak, Mahbubnagar and Nalgonda for creating new dump yards. This is still hard because obviously nobody is interested in having a dump yard close to their locality.

Before any of these actions are implemented, the government needs to check the legalities of the agreement with the Ramky group. It also has to streamline the collection and transportation of garbage. About 2,500 additional rickshaws and vehicles need to be procured for effective transportation of the garbage and the door-to-door, two-bin garbage collection system should be strictly enforced.

Nearby slaughter houses have got into habit of disposing raw animal carcasses without proper treatment. The treatment plant of the Ramky group is unable to treat such waste so the slaughter houses should be made to treat their waste before they pass their garbage to the dump yard.

The GHMC has plans to take over the work of the Ramky group and cap the dump within 102 acres of land earmarked for the same. The area allocated for the active capping is 74.66 acres and passive capping is 28 acres. GHMC will bear the Rs 33.86 crore required for the passive capping and Rs 102.97 crore for the active capping. Once the capping is concluded, the area can be utilized to set up solar or wind power plants.

As much as we blame the state government and the Ramky group for their negligence, we as citizens are equally at fault because we are the ones generating such humongous amounts of garbage. About 3500 tons of garbage is generated every day in Hyderabad. The average adult elephant weighs anything from 3 to 7 tons, so the city of Hyderabad generates garbage equivalent to the weight of 700 elephants every day! Everyone will agree that this is an alarming amount of garbage.

We need to reduce the amount of garbage we produce and reduce the load on the dump yard. This can be achieved in two ways:

1) Reduce the use of plastics and recycle and reuse them as much as possible so that they do not end up in the garbage.

2) Reduce the amount of kitchen garbage by using kitchen scraps to make compost at home. Those with a garden can create a compost pit in one corner of their garden while those living in apartments can use the compact composting bin that is available in the market these days.

It is imperative that private citizens, the government and corporates come together to solve this urgent crisis that is facing Hyderabad today. The health of our citizens and the environment of our beloved city is at stake.

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While the city progresses forward in technology and development, we unfortunately are progressing backwards in creating sustainable resources for the future us and it is clearly evident in the increasing scarcity of water availability in many areas in the city at present. Statistics show that more than 10000 new bore-wells are drilled every year in the city in addition to the already existing over 25 lakh borewells; out of which 50 percent are either defunct or dried up. Alarmingly, we are also staring at the problem of bore-wells stopping to yield water completely in some years due to lack of proper storage of rainwater to be stored or be absorbed into the soil. The predominant topography of the city is sloping rocky terrain of grey and pink granites dotted with small hills of the Deccan Plateau region. As of 2016, the groundwater level was at 15.6 MBGL (meters below ground level), which is of very huge concern to be addressed.

It is the need of the hour to restore and recharge the dried-up bore-wells through rainwater without further drilling, digging, breaking of walls, or construction. The community event, TEDxHyderabad Salon in 2016 paved way for the idea in conversation with ‘Smaran’, an NGO working for water and soil conservation. Simply put, the process involves channelizing rainwater hitting the rooftops through a four-inch pipe into the dwelling’s sump through a filter or directly into the bore. The data from Central Groundwater Board reports that the average level of the groundwater table in Greater Hyderabad was anywhere between 10 meters and 20 metres; while in areas close to the Musi river it was around five metres, in places like Banjara Hills and Jubilee Hills it was between 30 and 40 metres. So, all it requires is one rainy season to recharge the bores.

With statistics and plan in hand, the non-profit, Society for Advancement of Human Endeavour (SAHE), a community partner of the TEDxHyderabad events together with the NGO Smaran and the Hyderabad Software Exporters Association (HYSEA) designed the initiative ‘Save 10k Bores‘ with a focused aim to charge up the bore-wells in the city.

The detailed plans and resources were made available on SAHE’s website, with cost effective models for each of small homes, apartments, and gated communities. Small homes need only one plumber, four hours and Rs. 15000 to restore the defunct or dried up bore-wells as reported on the website to replenish and recharge their bores every rainy season.

Caption: The model for Save 10k Bores Initiative

With an active social media campaign and several enthusiastic community volunteers involvement, the initiative was able to restore around 150 of bore-wells in the city and is focused to achieve better results in this coming year. Due to rains and better groundwater harvesting methods through this initiative the level currently stands at 8.60 MBGL. Though, a good statistic, there is still need for improvement due to consistent rise in demand for water; a problem which Save 10k Bores initiative is trying to solve.

Caption: The Save 10k Bores initiative in progress

The Salon was again organised in May 2017, with a focused goal to take this initiative forward for not just borewells but also to revive other water bodies in and across the city.

On that note, this talk by David Sedlak, which was screened at the event, shares four practical solutions to tackle the ongoing urban water crisis by shifting our water supply towards new, local sources of water and create a system that is capable of withstanding any of the challenges climate change may throw at us in the coming years.

https://www.ted.com/talks/david_sedlak_4_ways_we_can_avoid_a_catastrophic_drought

In the event thought leader from various disciplines were invited to form a call-of-action to further the initiative with help of the attendees and the community.

The discussion lead to following outcomes and ideas for further water conservation:

1. The need to conserve step wells in the city and to create it to be a social and cultural space by active community engagement through encouraging adventure campus for architecture students or trail walks by Hyderabad Trails and Hyderabad Adventure Club. Another NGO, Kakatiya trails is an active part of heritage preservation of the culture of the city of Warangal.
2. To actively use technology to educate the community about water conservation.
3. To restore and conserve the existing lakes which have unusable water due to pollution and garbage as they are our largest catchment for rainwater and groundwater recharge.

Caption: A glimpse at Civic Responsibility Salon 2017

Just a few weeks after the event, several NGOs and volunteer groups have come together to to align and amplify efforts towards lake conservation and greening. These groups will work with GHMC and Irrigation Department to identify 62 lakes in Serilingampally area as the initial target to restore and conserve.

With the first month of starting the above stated initiative, nicknames “Live the Lakes’, the community took bold steps to ensure their work has tremendous progress. Starting with three lakes: Kudikunta (beyond Chirec School, Kondapur), Gopi Cheruvu (beyond Doyens, Lingampally) and Regula Kunta (at Deeptisri Nagar, Miyapur), the volunteers identified the communities and associations in each of these areas and got them fully engaged. GHMC DC & JC were taken to the lake to discuss with the communities on treatment of sewage and securing the lake through fencing and binding strengthening efforts. In the days that followed, the community of Kudikunta lake successfully took up a lake cleanup drive and GHMC completed the fencing around the lake. The Doyens association and nearby slum community are jointly working on the water treatment and cleaning of Gopi Cheruvu. Media coverage to this event ensured that many other communities in the city take up work in their areas of the city. Now, companies like Greenko had come forward to support their initiave on green drive and tree translocation efforts

With the community engagement through small yet impactful events like these which play a key role in creating a sustainable future for the city, it is indeed a fortunate time for Hyderabad to be hopeful again.

The post How Community Events Drive Action – A Focus on Water Conservation appeared first on SAHE : Society for Advancement of Human Endeavour.

Let’s step up and celebrate an eco-friendly Ganesha chaturthi this year!

In the past few months, our team has been working tirelessly with the community, volunteers, and government officials to save the lakes of Hyderabad one lake at a time. If you have been following our Facebook page, you can see the progress we are making each day.

While we focussed our efforts on restoring lakes and the ecosystem around them, we also want to work on prevent further damage to the lakes. And that’s why the upcoming Ganesha festival is cause for rejoicing and worry too. Today, more and more communities are coming together to put up big and colourful Ganesha idols. Competitions for the most elaborate pandals are only increasing the magnitude of celebrations across the city.

Unfortunately, after ten days of extravagant celebration of welcoming, worshipping and bidding farewell to the beloved elephant-headed Ganesha, the lakes in the city resemble the shambles of a battle field. Thousands of idols of Lord Ganesha decay in a sludge of flowers, incense, fruits, coconuts, leaves, stones, clay, jute, bamboo, clothes and food, with a cloud of mosquitoes and flies swarming above it. For example, In 2016, the level of pollution levels in the iconic Hussain sagar Lake reached monstrous proportions. About 50,000 idols were immersed during Ganesh Chaturthi. Most of the idols were made of Plaster of Paris (PoP) and painted with metallic paints containing heavy metals. These metals seep up to three metres into the lakebed thereby poisoning aquatic life.

Last year, post immersion, the pH value in Hussain sagar lake shot to 9 (normal range is between 7.4 and 7.9), turbidity or cloudiness of water in the lake, shot to 72 (normal is between 17 to 48), total dissolved solids shot up to 1,126 (normal is 652), dissolved oxygen between 3 and 7.2 (normal range is between 8.5 to 5.2), and chemical oxygen demand (COD) went up to 289 (from 249). In effect, this lake is unfit for human use, and will cause severe health issues for animals and birds.

Here are some facts related to pollution caused by the statues of Ganesha:

• Plaster of Paris (PoP) idols take months, or maybe even years to dissolve
• Oxygen level in water comes down, killing fish and other aquatic life
• Most paints contain heavy metals like mercury and lead which seep into the water
• The acid content in water increases
• Idols made of (or containing) plastic, cement, etc., do not dissolve, they clog the lake beds
• Most accessories like plastic flowers, cloth, incense, camphor and miscellaneous items only pollute the water bodies more
• The bigger idols clog the natural flow of water resulting in mosquitoes and other pests breeding

While the above data is from Hyderabad’s biggest water body, the status of other water bodies is sometimes the same or worse.

Can we afford to continue doing this to our water bodies? What can we all do to celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi without harming environment so much?

Well, to start with, you can make the choice of buying an eco-friendly Ganesha that doesn’t contain these harmful substances. Better still, you can buy an idol that will have a positive in the future too. And that’s exactly what the Plant a Ganesha idol will allow you to do. Brought to you by Live the Lakes initiative of SAHE, this clay Ganesha comes with a small sapling.

All you need to do is:

That’s not all… You can enjoy more as a family by adding the sapling pockets behind the clay Ganesha or even attach a pot sliced in half to the Ganesha with fresh clay or M seal as a do-it-yourself project. We are sure this activity will be more fulfilling as a family!

Don’t just pray to Ganesha, Plant a Ganesha this year!!

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Just a few kilometres away, is Mastananagar, a lower middle class area. The situation is even grimmer here. “We get only 2 buckets of water, once in 4 or 5 days,” says Revathi, a domestic helper who lives here. This would not be the situation if residents became aware of how to recharge groundwater and make the most use of rainwater harvesting.

We had the pleasure of meeting one of the members of SAHE (Society for Advancement of Human Endeavour), Ms  Kalpana Ramesh at her lovely, eco-friendly home.

Kalpana has worked extensively on her own house to harness the bounty of the monsoon season. Beneath her lovely garden is hidden a 30000 litre rainwater sump that stores filtered rainwater collected from her rooftop. This water can last to almost a year and is pure enough to be used for drinking purposes. She was kind enough to explain how many of us can stop being dependent on tankers, municipal and bore well water simply by storing rain water during the monsoons.

Harvesting rainwater from rooftops is a fairly uncomplicated, inexpensive procedure. Most houses already have sumps for storing municipal, bore or tanker water. Rainwater is diverted from rooftops to these sumps during monsoons. A separate tank can also be maintained for this purpose. A 5000 litre sump can collect 50mm of rainfall from a 300 sq. meter roof area.

In case of already constructed house, the existing pipes can be used with an additional few for directing water into the sump. In new constructions, 4” to 5” diameter PVC down pipes can be used. This can be done in any kind of residential or office building.

The discharge point in the roof should be connected to the down water pipe. A grill, mesh or floor trap at the discharge point needs to be installed to prevent fallen leaves or any other small objects from entering the pipe.

In case of sloping roof, a cast-in-situ half round gutter across the slope, all along the edge needs to be installed to collect rain water. A half-turned galvanized iron sheet placed horizontally all along the edge of the roof can also be used to capture the water from the roof. A grill or mesh at the inlet of the down water pipe can be fitted to prevent fallen leaves from entering the pipe. A first rain separator is fixed before the filter. The filter is connected at the end of the down water pipe. Using horizontal pipes, the filtered water can be directed into the sump. In addition, an outflow pipe can be installed in the sump that will cause excess water to be diverted to recharge any existing bore or aquifer beneath.

The estimated cost of a new sump construction is Rs. 5 per litre. In an existing house with a sump tank the cost could be around 5000-10000 depending on the plumber costs.

This simple, inexpensive procedure can go a long way in ensuring that future summers will not be marred by fears of water shortage. You can surround yourself with greenery and indulge in refreshing cool showers without worrying about where the next tanker of water is coming from.

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