Waste Management At Naini Lake

By Staff

Tuesday, December 9, 2008, 11:03

The people of Nainital have switched to scientifically designed waste management to restore the lost grandeur of the Naini Lake. Nainital, a hill resort at 2,000 meters above the sea level in Kumaon hills, is named after Naini Lake, which enhances beauty of the township.

With increasing inflow of tourists and urban waste making its way into it, Naini lake's water quality has been deteriorating alarmingly, despite the efforts of the authorities to clean the lake, resulting in its shrinking. The lake is the sole source of drinking water for the town and increasing contamination has threatened the availability of potable water to the town.

The discharge of sewage into the lake has also adversely affected the water ecology. In a bid to conserve the water body, the residents have now switched on to scientifically designed garbage disposal system. Under the project named 'Mission Butterfly', the sweepers collect waste from each and every household and then directly transfer it to the compost pits where it is converted to manure.

"The main reason of this project is conservation of the Naini Lake. This lake of Nainital is connected to 62 drains out of which 23 drains directly fall into the lake and whole lake is polluted because of this. Through this ('Mission Butterfly') we contacted the residents, hotels and schools and we have managed to control the waste that was falling in the lake," said S.M. Shah, project engineer, Nainital Lake Conservation Project.

Apart from the residents, schools have extended full cooperation to the authorities, to save its precocious eco-system. Apart from helping the authorities in converting the waste to manure, the schools are educating their students about waste management.

"Our cooperation in this is basically because being residents of Nainital, we feel ourselves responsible for the conservation of the lake. We extend our full support to this mission. In our school we teach our students that they should not litter garbage and should dispose it in the dustbin so that it can be managed easily and converted into compost," said Kiran Jairamaya, Principal, Al. Saints College, Nainital.

The people are upbeat about the mission as they feel that the project would help their town perk up its lost splendour. "Because of this the waste has been managed and the garbage has been reduced from the Naini Lake. Anybody can afford to pay 25 rupees per month to the sweeper who comes to collect the garbage. Many have participated in this mission and I am sure that the others would also participate," said Daya Bisht.

Nainital is known as the "Switzerland of India" because of its picturesque lakes. It has 60 lakes, out of which about 40 lakes have disappeared because of deforestation, pollution and a general lack of awareness. If Nainital has still remained a tourist's paradise, the credit largely goes to its centrally located Naini Lake but now its existence is also under threat.