Lahartara Lake, Maduwadih, Varanasi used to be a magnificent wetland spread over 40 acres of land, back in year 1398, when Sant Kabeer was found in the Waterbody. But today it is merely a 12.75-acres waterbody left after massive urbanisation in the region. The Waterbody receives almost 10 MLD of untreated sewage and it was believed to have a sludge deposit of almost 6~7 feet below Water (as per the UPPCB estimate). There was a massive foul smell in the vicinity, waterbody was dead with no public interaction with the lake, huge mosquito colonies emanated billions of mosquitoes and the entire Waterbody was covered with weeds (primarily Hyacinths). Every year the physical cleaning of the weeds, was a periodic process, since reoccurrence was perennial. The Waterbody used to get completely dried in summer creating a playground for the children. This was considered to be the most polluted Waterbody in the city (as per the opinion of ULBs). The Waterbody is under purview of Archaeological Survey of Uttar Pradesh.
The “in-situ” remediation of the said wetland, started on 19th November, 2021 after taking permissions from all relevant authorities through the “Cownomics® Technology” from Vaidic Srijan LLP, which works on the principles of “Resurrection of the native ecology” of the wetlands and Waterbodies. The technology works on the approach that “the contamination or pollution, should be “consumed & digested” within the ecosystem, instead of “segregation & collection” of the waste, which is the usual approach”.
With the said treatment, the DO level was improved substantially, the TDS, TSS and COD were reduced and by the end of thri month the footfall of the people was re-established, changing the community behaviour towards the lake. By fifth month, people were not just swimming and boating in the lake, but also started catching 8~10 kgs of fishes every day from the same lake. All aquatic, avian life, bees & butterflies were back in the vicinity, people started enjoy the Waterbody as a boon, instead of their pre-treatment perception of a bane.
The project was monitored, observed and admonished by UPPCB (entire testing of the Water quality happened in their lab), cGanga (Dr. Vinod Tare, personally visited the Lake in December, 2021), IIT-BHU (environmental engineering department, observed the day-to-day activities and collected water samples for their study to observe the improvement & deterioration on a dialy basis). The project featured in the 50 finest global case studies by SWWW magazine.
