To prevent Doddasanne Lake from dying, five school students from the city have taken up an initiative to revive the water body. The Grade 8 students of Vidyashilp Academy will inaugurate the revival project near the lake at 4pm on Thursday.
The initiative is part of ‘World Federation of United Nations (WFUNA), Mission Possible’ project which focuses on helping and supporting communities under 17 sustainable development goals (SDG). The lake was earlier being maintained by the Forest Department and Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).
The five-member team had chosen the theme ‘Life under water’ and planned to revive the 25-acre lake that was thriving decades ago. Currently, only 7-9 acres are barely filled with water. “While inspecting the lake, we had a chance to interact with a local and understood that the inflow of water is being stopped due to the surrounding development. While another local added that it had been more than 20-25 years since they had last seen the lake completely filled up,” Sahas Bhargav, a member of the team, told TNIE.
“Water from the catchment area (watershed area) is not reaching the lake over blockage by debris and unnecessary growth of vegetation,” he added. Sahas has been working on this project along with his teammates Dheer, Aarav Dhruv, Abhinav Gowda and Darshan.
The team, with the help of NGO – Saviors of Souls – will be improving the groundwater retention, and provide better irrigation facilities for a nearby village. By reviving this lake, the students will be fulfilling SDG 8- climate change, SDG 14- life under water, SDG 15 — life on land and SDG 17- partnership for goals.
"We plan to run a campaign called TLC - Tag Line Contest — which aims at raising funds and approach cooperates and other organisations to pitch in with CSR funds," said Aarathi Luciana J, Trustee founder of the NGO. The students will be presenting the project at the UN headquarters in New York from January 31 to February 10.
