Sunitha Rao R | TNN Bangalore: The lead from Ganesha idols may finally come out of our taps. Debunking the BBMP theory that the city s lakes don t get polluted after Ganesha idols are immersed, Prof C Anantha, a Chemistry teacher at MES College, and his students have proved that Sankey Tank has lead content four times the permissib le level after the Ganesha festival. Anantha has been analyzing Sankey tank water before and after the idol immer sions for the past three years. The immersion pond (kalyani) near Sankey Tank has about 3.6 lakh litres of water. Even if civic agencies treat the water, they ca n only filter the floating, suspended impurities and kill bacteria, but the dissolved material rem ains in the water. Toxic components like lead will enter the water system somewh ere. BBMP s idea of cleaning impurities is vague, he told STOI. STUDY FINDINGS SHOW ... Anantha started his campaign for Eco-Ganeshas made of clay in 2008. In 2009, he collected water samples 10 days before the festival and ten days after in Sankey Tank and the difference was alarming. In 2009, there were 68 ppb (particles per billion) of lead ten days after the immersions that s four times more than permiss ible limits. In 2010, I looked into other parameters called Total Dissolved Soli ds (TDS) which includes heavy metals. It was 1,270 million gm/litre and the perm issible limit is 300 million gm/litre. Civic agencies have no clue about polluti on caused in the system when they allow idols coated with oil paints to be immer sed in water bodies, he said. Anantha is doing the study this year too. A week ago, he led MES College stu dents in a walkathon on Sankey road, urging people not to buy idols with oil pai nts and plaster of Paris but choose those made of clay. Idols made up of plaster of Paris are hollow and thus weightless. Once these are immersed in water, the plaster dissolves and makes water acidic. In an acidi c solution, lead can also dissolve and contaminates water. Undissolved plaster o f Paris becomes solid waste. The only solution is to stop using idols made up of oil paints and plaster of Paris. We need a massive campaign for eco-friendly id ols, he says. BWSSB HAS NO CLUE BWWSB on Saturday said it had no clue about treating water in immersion ponds, a s deputy mayor S Harish had said. We haven t received any official communication. I don t know if we can actually remove pollutants. How will BBMP send polluted wate r to our treatment plant? asked T Venkataraju, chief engineer, BWSSB. He said if immersion pond water is let out through drains, it won t reach the treatment plant near Hebbal. Though the Sankey Tank is close to Hebbal, the drain s in that area are connected to Vrishabhavathi valley on Mysore road and the wat er finally reaches the Cauvery. When it enters the river, the percentage of poll utants becomes negligible, he said. THE REAL PICTURE: Prof C Anantha, a chemistry teacher at MES College, and his te am of students have found that Sankey Tank has lead content four times the permi