24 May 2011 15:00
Asia/Calcutta
A meeting has been arranged with United Way Bengaluru who have been entrusted with maintenance activities for 11 lakes in Bengaluru. This meeting is to understand what their scope of work is? What they are going to be doing in these lakes? How can we advocate or collaborate in their efforts.
Upto 5 people can be accomodated please leave your comments here if you are interested. Its on Tuesday May 24 3PM @ their office ARR Comforts Kodihalli (old airport road)
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Lake rejuvenation
More details here http://www.uwbengaluru.org/Event/Lake-Rejuvenation-Campaign
interested
@ IDS - I am interested. Give me a call.
Lakes & community
It was good meeting with UWBe. They are a non profit responsible for maintenance of the following lakes.
i) Sarjapura Outer Ring Road
a) Iblur
b) Kaigondanahalli Lake
c) Shilavante Kere, Behind Palm Meadows
ii) K R Puram
a) Kaudenahalli Lake
b) Benaganahalli Lake
iii) Electronic City
a) Uttarahalli Lake
b) Dorekere Lake
iv) Peenya Industrial Area Tumkur Road
a) Dasarahalli Lake
v) Hebbala & Yelahanka
a) Doddabommasandra Lake
b) Attur Lake
c) Kogilu Lake
There is a preperation phase where BBMP takes control of the lake stops sewage, removes encroachments, puts up facilities that it may have planned & readies it for a steady state usage. It then hands over some of the lakes to UWBe who agrees to maintain them, other lakes continue to remain with either BDA/BBMP or TMC etc until someone comes to them for adoption. Maintenance involves paying for the gardner, security etc and also conducting community driven activities around the lake.
Praja & UWBe can work together to conduct activities around the lake & also facilities funding for such activities. So if you live around the above lakes & are interested in organizing community activities like walkthons, cyclothons, photography, kids events like painting etc then we can help make this happen including any funding that may be required.
You can start by leaving your suggestions as comments on what type of activities you would like to see at these lakes? Activities should not destroy the character of the lake but only seek to enance its usage for sustainable activities. One can also suggest feature additions to the lake in line with sustaining it & making it attractive for non destructive usage.
Lake development..
Its the most overused word..but 'Raja Kaluve' is key for sustenance of any lake..encroachments not just for the raja kaluve but even other kaluves should be removed and flow of water..yes water and not sewege..should be unhidered!
If we can do this, part of the sustenance issue with lakes will be addressed!
Udaipur is the city of lakes..guess it would be worthwhile to visit this city to learn how its done effectively!
Usage of lake water
I havent seen much active usage of bangalore lakes other than ulsoor lake. I have seen sankey tank used mainly as adornment & ganesha immersion, Nagwara for throwing popcorn & food items & running kerosene motor boats. I havent seen kayaking programs or other water sports. Here is an old article on rowing programs in Ulsoor lake, should be replicated in more lakes.
For example, Hebbal lake can take non motorized kayaks & canoes for birdwatching, if they can sort out the nasty ambigous open ended contracts they have gotten into.
Water sports in Bangalore
Made a few calls & found an expert in water sports in Bangalore. His take was that the administrators are not knowledgable enough on prepping lakes for water sports, in fact only ulsoor lake has rowing/kayaking/canoeing activities that too with extensive help from the army. Sponsorship support for such activities is required to get a wider audience to participate. Long term contracts are required for private parties to setup up rowing/kayaking/canoeing facilities. His take was there is too much reneging on contracts & adhoc changes in rules to allow for a sustainablity in the water sports business. It discourages people from investing big if there is no long term committment, if the contracts are too short the business ends up selling pani puri etc to make up for the loss.
Lots of immaturity in the system towards such activities & adventure sports in particular. We all know how lack of regulatory framework led to the bungee incident blame game. It is possible to build frameworks & guidelines for such sports & get it adopted by the administration. This will be a good step in helping administration gain maturity. There is a major lacuna here as there are no non-profits for sports doing such pro bono work that I know off & business are expcting this to be ready from the govt side somehow.
Big money flows only into cricket these days, other sports thrive on personal passions like Mukesh Ambani for basketball, VJM for motor racing, Mahindra for fooball etc. Need to find some godfathers & godcompanies for watersports. I know volvo sponsors sailing & ocean races The positive is that we can explore specific activities for short durations around these lakes like a kayaking week or some such thing if we can find sponsors. Does anybody know which of the above lakes under UWBe will be a good candidate? Anybody want to join this effort let me know? It is preferable you are a very community oriented person & interested in sports (especially water sports) yourself.
Lakes action plan - official
firstly, we need to clean up our act
The list above shows "DPR under preparation" for some 25 lakes. And, I understand quite a few of them have been entrusted to the Mumbai "con"-sultancy firm, figuring here. I expect it should be of concern to the people/ RWA's from the neighbourhood.
When the approach today to any project/ work is as an opportunity to make money by the powers that be, and their cronies, I expect it is going to take some doing before water sports emerges as a sport in the country.