Lokayukta inspects Sankey Tank after residents flag falling water level

Lokayukta officers visited Sankey Tank on Tuesday and inspected the lake’s inlets following complaints from citizens’ groups over the condition of the water body and its inflow system.

Lokayukta Chief Engineer B.V. Ramesh and Superintendent of Police Matesh Jidi inspected the lake along with engineers from the Central City Corporation and BWSSB, as well as members of the ‘Voice of Sadashivanagar’.

Kadu Malleshwara Geleyara Balaga president and retired Assistant Commissioner of Police B.K. Shivaram raised concerns over the lake’s inflow system and declining water levels.

“No rainwater has been flowing into the lake through the inlets. Most of the inlets are unscientifically constructed. The water level in Sankey Tank has been depleting at an alarming rate, thereby affecting the groundwater table in and around Malleswaram and Sadashivanagar,” he said.

The inspection comes months after residents and civic groups held a “Save Sankey Tank” campaign in May, warning that unscientific development works were affecting the lake’s natural hydrology.

The groups had raised concerns over concretisation, sewage inflow, shrinking water spread and other ecologically damaging works. They had also argued that raising the height of the lake bund by nearly two feet had disrupted the natural inflow system, with the feeder channel falling below the lake’s water level.

The altered levels, residents said, had resulted in polluted lake water flowing back into the feeder channel instead of fresh water entering the lake, affecting groundwater recharge in Sadashivanagar, Malleswaram, and Rajmahal Vilas.