All that is white is not pure and pristine...
White is the
colour of the pristine snow…
But in Bangalore
you never really know ..
Here white is the colour of the Toxic waste
Untreated sewage discharged into the lake.
This pristine
white foam that greets the residents of lake view apartments during their
morning walk hides a darker truth--it is the toxic waste . The foam frothing from the outlets of the streams that join the Vartur
lake in Whitefield, Bangalore is a result of the
water in the lake having high content of ammonia and phosphate and very low
dissolved oxygen. Sewage from many parts of the city is released into the lake,
leaving it extremely polluted.
The man from Bangalore Municipal Corporation is seen spraying something possibly to quell the foam so that it does not froth and pour over into the bridge. There is only so much he could do .
With Builders encroaching land near the lake
to build' lake-view' apartments for their 'up market' customers in lands with
dubious records of title ownership ( lands adjoining 300 metres from the lake are
not supposed to be fit for construction). Clearly some cash or kind must have moved hands
sometime somewhere before these upmarket apartments came up on this lake shore. there.
The Municipality
has no obligation to provide for sewage pipes or reat the sewage as these are encroachers . Upmarket
encroachers. It is thus that the sewage
from about 100,000 and more households of high rise buildings is let into the small stream that flows into the now
diminishing Vartur lake. When it is monsoon time the lake overflows with not only rain water but with untreated sewage. High levels of E-coli bacteria found in untreated
sewage percolates the groundwater table and causes waterborne diseases.
Hence we treat our tap water with
massive amounts of chlorine and purify them via purifiers.
We cannot take chances with what we drink, so we buy our drinking water from branded water
manufacturers.
Around our vicinity are leading hospitals with 24/7 emergency care who provide excellent medical care to their patients.
Our employers provide us with generous health insurance benefits to mitigate the risk of high costs incurred due to
hospitalization.
The hospitals, The water tankers, those who
brand our drinking water, the real estate developers and the presumably happy residents of the up-market lake view high
rise apartments...
Economically speaking everyone wins... it is a win win situation.
It is always Economy over ecology.
It is besides the point that the residents never
open their windows because there is no fresh air.
The unbearable stench of the frothing lake
forces them to keep their french windows shut.
Was it Winston Churchill who said behind 'every great development lies a dark crime committed way down in history' or some
such thing …
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