Apartments without STP to be fined, but BWSSB can get away with polluting lakes?

The issue of sewage flooding on roads and also entering lakes has forced the Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewage Board to serve notices to apartment complexes housing more than 20 units to install a sewage treatment plant.

The issue of pollution also forced the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board to take action against apartment complexes as Bellanduru Lake and Varthur Lake reportedly, heavily contaminated due to the release of sewage and effluents.

However, the current issue is that, will the Pollution Board show some guts against the government agency like BWSSB, which has polluted the Yelhanka Puttenahalli Lake, Bengaluru's only bird sanctuary, by diverting their sewage.

When the issue of Bengaluru's sewage problem multiplies, BWSSB has found an easy way to tackle it. Hence they started diverting the sewage into lakes. Worse, despite Chief Minister's order to convert Yelhanka Puttenahalli Lake into Bengaluru's first bird conservation reserve, the BWSSB is letting the sewage make the birds fly away.

The residents of Yelhanka say, despite the complaint to BWSSB and the Pollution Board, no action has been taken, and the only bird conservation reserve is let to suffer.

In 2015, Siddaramaiah government announced the decision to convert the Puttenahallli Lake into bird conservation reserve to attract tourist from the international airport. But the project is in limbo as BWSSB has been pouring sewage into the lake from its drainage system. According to residents, the sewage from 37 acres in Puttenahalli is also entering another big lake, measuring 300 acres.

Despite several attempts to reach Lakshman, Pollution Board Chairman, he was not available for comments.

• Puttenahalli lake
• BWSSB
• Pollution
• Yelahanka
• bird conservation reserve
• Pollution Board
• Sewage