“LET’S SAY, the lake has not been to the ICU as yet,” says Dinabandhu Sahoo, seated in a custom-made blue boat on Loktak Lake, over 50 km from Imphal. “But why wait for that to happen? It’s better to take a precautionary step.”
Sahoo is the director of the Institute of Bioresources and Sustainable Development (IBSD) in Manipur. Funded by the Department of Biotechnology, the ‘Floating Laboratory’ he is seated in is part of a larger network to monitor the health of water bodies in the Northeast. It’s also a first in a major initiative that could be replicated across the region to monitor the rising pollution in its water bodies and put in place preventive measures.
“Untreated sewage and chemical waste from the nearby paddy fields has led to the increase of biomass in the lake: from normal to excessive levels,” Sahoo says.
The floating lab on Loktak Lake is like a satellite boat that travel across to 15 different spots, picking up water samples to test for a series of parameters. It is a low-budget, low-cost initiative for now.
Read more of this very informative report by Sowmiya Ashok published in The Indian Express...
