Conservation and Protection of Fresh Water Lakes

Conservation and Protection of Fresh Water Lakes

The urgent need to protect Freshwater lakes and wetlands has taken a long time. As usual, the animals and birds that frequent these lakes are the first to notice the changes. One of the telltale signs of a wetland in distress is the disappearance of these birds and animals. And as usual, humans are the last to notice.

Wetlands are the lungs of the world. Disappearance of wetlands are the primary reason for the declining quality of breathable air. Moreover the coming years will see acute shortage of good quality drinking water.

“Competition over limited water resources is one of the main concerns for the coming decades,” researchers wrote.

Often referred to as the water wars thesis, it suggests that growing water scarcity will drive violent conflict as access to water dries up for certain communities. Analysts worry that people, opportunistic politicians and powerful corporations will battle for dwindling water supplies, inflaming tensions.

However all is not lost and mankind is awakening to these dark realities and there are many organization around the world that are on the forefront of the battle against the damage, littering and overuse and misuseof precious water sources.

The case of the second largest freshwater lake of Kerala, Vellayani is one example of the action that has shown creditable success – in more ways than one. Vellayani Lake which once was 1800 acres in spread has dwindledto less than 400 acres. What little is left is covered by weeds, littered with garbage, lake bottom silted and water quality at an abysmal low.

A restoration project of this proportion takes huge resources and manpower. However the Revive Vellayani Project that is currently ongoing is a classic example of willpower winning over odds.

The lake is now being de-weeded, the periphery beautified and desilting a very real possibility in the near future. One other point of note is the success in breaking the wall of apathy among local people. It is often the lack of a feeling of ownership among those living around these water bodies that end up in them being destroyed – not necessarily by the local dwellers -but by opportunistic people, who usurp the lake land by creating landfills and dumping waste in them. The precious resource of water is overused and often for wrong purposes. And when those in power turn a blind eye to this, the script is complete.

Once the lake is cleaned of the weeds, it will be sustained by the local people. The desilting of the lake is another very important step. To keep the interest of the people and authorities, various lake centered activities are being planned. Eco Tourism, lakeside walkway, bird island are some of the planned programs. The lake as such has undergone great change over the last few months with parts of the lake now completely devoid of invasive weeds.

Today, it is the need of the near future that projects of this nature are promoted. Governments and law keepers can paly vital parts in this. There is also an urgent need to educate local people on the need to protect the water bodies. There is also the need to make nature and environment protection a key part of the school curriculum and should be ingrained in every young mind. Revive Vellayani could be a point of study.

Restoration is a tough task, but an imperative one. Rich resources like lake water and fresh breathable air are probably more valuable than oil or another such commercial resource.. It is time we acted…….