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MMERSION EFFECT

Toxic lead from idols lingers in lakes


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

ssible level after the Ganesha festival

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