Once a glorious lake of pristine pure water and a major picnic resort for the denizens of the city of Srinagar, the Dal Lake has been allowed to decay and degenerate just because of inaction and imbecility of the authorities supposed to take care of lakes and water bodies of Kashmir. Billions of rupees have been spent over some decades to de-weed the lake and restore it to its original purity and attraction. Lakes and Water Ways Development Authority (LAWWDA) was provided with enormous funds to do the job. What the Authority did or did not, is a different question. All that one can bring to mind is that a case of huge embezzlement and misappropriation by dozens of the functionaries of the Authority was unearthed and is under process. The LAWWDA is already notorious for those fraudulent activities.
But while examining a PIL case in which the petitioner has stated that pollution of the Dal is allowed simultaneously with de-weeding exercise, the Divisional Bench has expressed surprise that the free flow of untreated discharges, like sewage, urban and agriculture runoffs, waste water from residential and commercial buildings into the lake, as we are aware that urban & agriculture runoffs are rich in nitrogen and phosphorus acts as fertilizers for weed growing on the lake bed. Is allowing urban and agricultural runoffs to disgorge in the waters of Dal Lake intentional? Is it a trick to keep the LAWWDA functional and perpetrate general loot under the pretext that de-weeding cannot be controlled fully as the weed in Dal grows faster than what is being destroyed and uprooted.
The authorities should come out with a clear statement of why the two things going against each other are being allowed to happen at one and the same time. The widespread suspicion is that LAWWDA is playing a mischievous role in demanding more and more funds for cleaning and de-weeding the lake and at the same time allowing garbage and runoffs to go to the bottom of the lake and serve as fertilizers to rapid growth of weed. The High Court has taken the issue seriously and wants that the lake should be restored to its original purity.
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