Katora Houz, the 450-year-old royal swimming pool inside the Golconda
Fort, which had become an eyesore, is being cleaned up by the Greater
Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC). Tourists and visitors to the
fort were put off by the foul odour and the water hyacinth infestation
which had completely covered the centuries-old man-made lake.

On
Wednesday afternoon, workers drafted by a contractor were busy
collecting the water hyacinth using an electrical rake which pulls in
the weed to one side. “We have carried out a bathymetric study of the
four-acre lake. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) asked us not to
use heavy equipment and hence we are using this electrical rake. It
will take us about 10 to 12 days to clean up the vegetation inside this
lake which has a rock and limestone flooring,” said G. Padma of Padma
Clean Environs, which is carrying out the clean-up work.

Diverting sewerage

The
lake, which is networked with medieval-era underground clay pipelines
and used to have a functioning fountain in the middle, has been
transformed into a sewerage tank by the water board officials and local
residents. Remnants of the 609mm iron pipes dumping sewerage into the
lake can be still seen in multiple places within the lake. “We are
looking into the issue of sewerage being let out into the lake. We are
thinking of a solution to divert the sewerage of the surrounding areas
to the main line,” said a GHMC official. The lake clean-up is part of
the GHMC’s Urban Malaria Scheme.

The bathymetric mapping (the
water body’s structure is revealed using an ultrasonic device) revealed
the aquatic life of the lake as well as the structure of the lake. “For a
few yards from the gateway, it is a flat ground. The deeper portion of
the lake is knee-deep water. We are using this specially created
equipment which does not involve heavy machinery,” said Ms. Padma
pointing to a plough-like device rigged to a wire drawn from one shore
of the lake.

“We used to play in the lake. The water used to be
clean as only rain water used to collect here. The lake became bad about
two decades ago and its state has been deteriorating. Earlier, there
were agricultural fields behind the lake and the water was used for
watering the fields. Now it is a residential area. The population in the
fort area also has increased and that’s why the lake is in such a bad
state,” said S. Nizamuddin, a 71-year-old resident who lives beside the
lake.