Report on Revival of Badkhal Lake finalised, National Workshop held at Manav Rachna to address water conservation and pollution

On Dec 20, 2015

Sanjay Chaturvedi

Faridabad: Till a decade back the industrial town of Faridabad was known by the most commonly known tourist spot of ‘Badkhal Lake’. The complex in totally was a five star complex run and maintained by Haryana Tourism. However, after the water start receding in the lake, people started losing interest in the place and the place is now a deserted one. In the last more than 15 years the state governments not only ignored the condition of the complex but also ignored the diminishing levels of the government earning from the complex. The lake was used to be the ‘must visit’ place not only by the Indian tourists but the international tourists too. This led to a considerable contribution to the government revenue as well as employment to the local residents.

A serious thought on the revival of the lake was given by Deputy Commissioner Faridabad Dr. Amit Kumar Agrawal, BJP MLA from Badkhal Constituency Smt. Seema Trikha and Dr. Prashant Bhalla, Chairman Manav Rachna Educational Institutions. A series of meetings with different agencies and extensive brain storming the project of identification of the causes of drying of the lake, way to fill it again with water and to protect further seepage of water, was started. On Saturday 19^th December 2015, the report of the study was presented to the Additional Deputy Commissioner Faridabad Dr. Aditya Dahiya. Dahiya was the chief guest at the National Workshop held at Manav Rachna International University in Faridabad.

The National Workshop was jointly organised by The Indian National Committee of International Association of Hydrogeologists (INC – IAH) and Manav Rachna International University and the topic of the same was “Water Conservation and Pollution”.

The workshop dealt with studies related to water pollution and ways for water conservation in all aspects to develop goals and programs that will assure progress in this field. 43 quality research papers were presented by eminent scientists and academicians from IIT Kharagpur, Kolkata and IIT Chennai, among others.

Among the eminent dignitaries present on the occasion were Dr. K B Biswas, Chairman-Central Ground Water Board; Dr. D K Chadha, President GHS & Former-Chairman, CGWB; Dr. DipankarSaha, Sec. INC-IAH; Dr. Prashant Bhalla, President, Manav Rachna Educational Institutions; Ar. Jit Sharma, Chief Town Planner, Sahara Prime City; Dr. M MKathuria, Trustee, MREI; Dr. M K Soni, ED & Dean, FET; Ar. Jatinder Saigal, Dean-FPA, MRIU; and Dr. SaritaSachdeva, HoD, Biotechnology, MRIU among other senior academicians from institutions across the country.

This workshop will go down in the history of the city of Faridabad with the release of two important documents:

On Ground water Issues and Challenges of Haryana
Report – a Pre-feasibility study on Revival of Badkhal Lake at Faridabad.

While presenting the pre-feasibility report to the ADC Dr, Aditya Dahiya, Dr. D K Chadha informed five ways to fill the water in the lake. However, he said that only two of these five are under the category of ‘feasible’ in the current scenario. Both of these included treatment of sewer water and carrying the same to the lake. Dr. Chadha in his report also mentioned the quantity of water needed in the first year to fill up the lake and the requirement of water in the consecutive three years.

It is estimated that 1.83 MCM of treated wastewater is required to fill the lake upto 6m depth covering an area of 30.43ha. The use of treated water will have the advantage of preventing the lake from getting silted. After filling up the lake to the desired depth, the excessive treated water in the subsequent year can be used for secondary purposes to mitigate the total requirement.

“The above options for water resources to revive the lake also meets the requirements of the smart city which provides for the recycling of the wastewater and water conservation practices”, informed Dr. Prashant Bhalla, President, MREI. He added: “Genesis of a smart city is to provide the highest quality of human life. And all these endeavors towards preserving water are just a step in this direction”.

Dr. Aditya Dahiya said that the administration is already very seriously working on the matter of filling water in Badkhal. He said that the Deputy Commissioner Dr. Amit Kumar Agrawal has talked to the Chief Minister Shri Manohar Lal Khattar too in this regard. He said that the Chief Minister himself is taking interest in the project and has asked the administration to take immediate steps in this direction.

At the conclusion of the workshop, a road map for Haryana to conserve its water resources with recommendations for efficient utilization of water in cities and towns across Haryana was also presented. This model can be replicated across the country.With this in mind, the ‘Haryana Water Council or Forum’ has been constituted. This forum will be a state level multi-stakeholder platform, in response to an increasing concern about water issues amongst the communities. The mission of this forum would be to promote awareness, build commitment and trigger action on critical water issues at all levels, including the highest decision-making level, to facilitate the efficient conservation, protection, development, planning, management and use of water in all its dimensions on an environmentally sustainable basis for the benefit of all life on earth. This is essential to bridge water divides among various sectors and the present and future generations.