Karnataka tops the country in monitoring lakes and waterbodies, but when it comes to offering fresh and relevant data of water quality, neighbouring Telangana beats the former, found a nation-wide analysis conducted by ActionAid Association.
Karnataka and Telangana monitor 172 and 160 lakes, respectively, jointly accounting for 59% of the total number of 562 lakes being monitored by various State Pollution Control Boards/ Pollution Control Committees in across 28 States, said the analysis.
Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Tripura, Rajasthan and West Bengal accounted for 161 of monitored lakes in the country, while Goa, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Haryana, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Puducherry, Meghalaya, Odisha, Nagaland, Mizoram and Chhattisgarh put together have 69 lakes under monitoring, as per ActionAid study.
State Pollution Control Boards and Pollution Control Committees are expected to monitor lakes and periodically update water quality data on their websites to help the custodians of the lakes, who are mostly the local public administrative bodies.
The best and the worst
Study found that Telangana was the only State that offered “most updated” lake water quality data in less than 30 days of testing the water samples from various lakes in the State and updated it on the websites of PCB.
Four States, including Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, were identified as “updated’‘ within 30 days of water sample testing while Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Uttarakhand and Sikkim were rated under “delayed updation’‘ between 60-90days. Kerala, Tripura, Puducherry, Bihar, Goa, Tamil Nadu, J&K, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Nagaland reported lake water quality data that was “not useful for lake conservation’‘ in a 6 months to 7-years period.
At the bottom
The country’s worst State Pollution Control Boards/ Pollution Control Committees were from the national capital Delhi and Gujarat that maintained only “junk”, unusable and 10-year-old data, according ActionAid Association data exclusively released to The Hindu. Meanwhile, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Maharashtra, Punjab, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Odisha and Chandigarh had “lack of data.” However, Pollution Control Boards in Lakshadweep, Ladakh, and Manipur didn’t even have websites.
“Lakes are dynamic and living bodies. It is critical for concerned authorities to offer fresh updates on the quality of lake water to understand the health of each and every water body, also life in it and around it. Our analysis revealed that in most cases, lakes are neglected or not even acknowledged as important elements of the ecosystems,’‘ said Raghavendra B. Pachhapur, Senior Lead Projects, ActionAid Association.
