During Ganesh festival, devotees immerse Ganesh idols (mostly made of Plaster of Paris) polluting lakes. This also threatens the marine life, due to which many lives underwater suffer and die. In order to prevent this, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has decided to take some action, by increasing the oxygen level.
Taking this initiative further, BMC has appointed an agency named Probac which will carry out bio-remediation process wherein water at the lake will be treated and water fountains and aerators will be installed as well.
Bio-remediation is a treatment process that uses naturally occurring microorganisms (yeast, fungi or bacteria) to break down hazardous substances into less toxic or non-toxic ones.
It will not harm the fishes and other aquatic lives as the treatment would process the water and cleaner without leaving a foul smell. For now, the project will be implemented at Bandra, Sion, Lotus, Charai and Shantaram lakes. The outcome will be observed, and once it shows signs of success, it will then be extended to other lakes.
As per the senior civic official, an important measure of water quality is dissolved oxygen as it is a direct indicator of a water body’s ability to support life. However, due to poor water quality, fishes and other aquatic life such as carp, eels, etc. are affected
Last year in December, a lot of fishes were reported dead at Sion lake because the dissolved oxygen levels dropped to below the required levels. As per the Central Pollution Control Board, the permissible limit of DO level for the propagation of wildlife and fisheries is 4 mg/l or more.
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