Hauz Khas Lake

Hauz Khas is one of my favourite little havens in Delhi and I have written about it on a number of occasions. It combines living history with progress and development and it seems to do it well.The beautiful archaeological remains there, not least the Madrassa, are receiving a bit of an uplift from the Archaeological Survey of India.

The last time I visited however the Lake was in such a sorry state. This beautiful tank, lovingly restored by Firoz Shah has ended up not being the cooling, calming and colourful side of Hauz Khas but this stinking mass of sewage outflow which is, I grant you, colourful but for all the wrong reasons.It receives sewage from Vasant Khunj but whereas this should have been treated and aerated it remains untreated and stagnant and has killed off all life while being a massive breeding ground for mosquitos. This is how colourful it is and I wish I could have a means of conveying the stench that emanated from it when I was there. Mercifully I am not that technologically savvy,so you will have to take my word for it - it was not pleasant.

We watched in horror as men bucketed out the filth and then poured it onto the sides. Not exactly a productive exercise you might think- but news today has suggested that where the government has failed to take action, individual citizens are now rising to the challenge- similar to the women whose initiative I praised in my last posting.

The residents of Safdarjung Enclave are holding public meetings and are taking up the cause with the appropriate government department which leaves me hopeful that a civic voice is being raised at last and hopefully will soon be heard as it should in one of the world's largest democracies.