Teams from the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur and Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited (BHEL), Hyderabad and Delhi collected water samples from seven ponds in Raipur city on Monday.
The samples of another five ponds will be taken on Tuesday.
Pramod Kumar Bhaskar, manager Lake Rejuvenation Project, Raipur Smart City Limited when contacted said as per initiatives taken by Raipur Municipal Corporation Commissioner, CEO and MD of Raipur Smart City Limited Shiv Anant Tayal to rejuvenate the capital city’s ponds, a MoU was signed with the NEERI and the BHEL.
The BHEL is providing technology support while NEERI is providing scientific and technical knowledge for the project. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) also recently gave directives to rejuvenate ponds. Under this project, Pramod said that the Telibandha pond has been rejuvenated using green technology without de-watering and de-silting. After treating sewerage water it’s released into the Telibandha pond.
He added that on Monday, mobile units collected samples from seven ponds. The samples will be tested in laboratory of NEERI, Nagpur. The results will be available within a week. After that NEERI scientists will recommend the steps required for revival of the ponds.
In Raja Talab pond, Pramod said, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) is around 0.39mg/l, which ideally should be 6mg/l and so it can be called as a dead pond.