IT IS one of South Asia’s biggest tourist attractions and was a dramatic setting for the 1983 James Bond film Octopussy. But the most famous lake in India is fast becoming a curse for the local residents, who profit from its beauty.
For the beleaguered people of Udaipur, the renowned Rajasthani city of lakes and grand palaces, 2005 was a year to forget. Tourists shunned the area after a drought parched its stunning artificial waterways.
But last October, after the heaviest monsoon rains in a decade, local people rejoiced in the streets when Pichola Lake, the home of the world-famous Lake Palace Hotel, once again brimmed with water.
Yet the joy of the people of Udaipur is proving to be short-lived. Environmentalists said yesterday that water leaking from the lake would not only leave it empty before the next monsoon, but was also poisoning the local water and threatening the health of thousands.
According to Anil Mehta, a spokesman for the Udaipur Lake Protection Society, more than ten million litres of water seep from Pichola Lake every day and enter the drinking water system and sewerage through cracks in ancient embankment walls.
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He said: “At this rate the lake would be completely dry by next year and, to make matters a great deal worse, the water is entering the city’s newly renovated sewerage system. With the lake water getting mixed with ground water, drinking water in many areas of the city has been contaminated. It is an extremely worrying situation.”
The seepage has become so acute that doctors fear an epidemic of water-borne diseases. Almost every household in the crowded Nayapura neighbourhood has reported cases of jaundice and typhoid. One infant has died from jaundice.
Experts said that the contamination was caused by the local administration, which undertook the construction of a sewerage network a few years ago. Believing that the lakes would not refill, the dry beds were dug up to install the network.
Tej Razdan, a member of the Lake Protection Society, said: “Locals are obviously suffering but, from a wider economic perspective, it would be disastrous for the city if even one tourist were to fall ill because of contaminated water.”
Udaipur has nearly a million visitors a year, bringing in more than £250 million. Doctors advise tourists to drink only reputable brands of bottled water.
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Shikhar Aggarwal, a local administration official, acknowledged that neglect and poor planning by contractors had most likely caused the problem. He said: “There is a serious crisis because of years of local mismanagement. We are trying to get the situation under control.
“Possibly hundreds of points on the sewerage network may have opened up. We are trying to close them. We will also punish the guilty officers involved in this.”
Located in southern Rajisthan, Udaipur is known throughout the world as the City of Lakes, or the Venice of the East. Pichola, Udai Sagar, Fateh Sagar and Badi Sagar are considered some of the most beautiful lakes in India.
The city was founded in the 16th century by Maharana Udai Singh. One of its monuments, the Jag Mandir, was supposedly the inspiration behind Emperor Shah Jahan’s building of the Taj Mahal.
TOURIST TRAP