Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has failed to deliver on its promise to clean the iconic Ambazari Lake within three weeks as the waterbody is still full of Eichhornia weeds (water hyacinth) after the span elapsed on Wednesday. ‘The Hitavada’ did a reality check on Thursday, and found that the waterbody is still covered with Eichhornia weeds near the dam.

 

The promise made by Mayor Neeta Thakre has been broken, once again testing the patience of Nagpur’s citizens. In a press conference held at the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) Headquarters in Civil Lines on June 3, Mayor Thakre confidently assured that 90-95 per cent of the comprehensive revival of Ambazari Lake -- one of the city’s most iconic and popular water bodies, would be completed within three weeks. However, the civic administration has failed to deliver on its promise, making a deadline extension inevitable. Ambazari Lake was once a bustling hub where thousands of local residents gathered daily to swim and recreate. Today, entering the water is slightly difficult due to a thick, suffocating blanket of water hyacinth that has aggressively colonised the waterbody’s surface. To tackle the ecological crisis, the NMC deployed an extensive fleet of heavy machinery, including tippers, poclains, and a specialised weed harvesting machine imported from Delhi, backed by weeks of co-ordinated labour. Despite municipal claims that clean-up crews are extracting nearly 200 tonnes of hyacinth daily, frustrated citizens are questioning why visible progress remains so invisible.

 

Providing a detailed assessment of the ground reality, Yogesh Pachpor, Corporator of Prabhag 13 (A) shed light on the structural achievements and the technical bottlenecks causing the current delay. He stated, “Nearly 70-80 per cent of the work is complete in the lake. We have successfully stopped the inflow of the water hyacinths by the gabion bridge and as the Wadi STP will start functioning in August, the tension will eventually reduce. The progress is slow due to the water hyacinths floating in the deep water where only one recently purchased machine can enter. To resolve the issue, NMC is planning to buy another similar machine from WCL. This will fasten the work.” The failure to meet the three-week deadline has drawn strong criticism from residents and morning-walkers who feel the entire summer has been squandered, while the removal work remains perpetually under process. This prolonged delay has triggered polarised public opinions; some taxpayers label the sluggish management bizarre, while others accuse it of a blatant waste of public resources and money.

 

When ‘The Hitavada’ visited the spot on Thursday afternoon, a weed harvester machine and two poclains were operating in deep water areas. Analysing the condition of the lake, it looks the water level of the lake has nose-dived this year. Whereas most of the water hyacinth was accumulated near the dam, the situation is expected to turn precarious as the monsoon has arrived, ready to test city’s vulnerable infrastructure. While the NMC has launched various pre-monsoon preparedness drives such as filling potholes and cleaning nullahs, the city is already struggling. Recent light showers across the city have already led to multiple incidents of tree collapse, particularly, involving older, bent, or partially uprooted trees that residents had previously flagged as hazards. If the remaining 20 to 30 percent of the deep-water hyacinth is not cleared immediately, the incoming monsoon rains could flush the weed further, completely undoing the exorbitantly high cost of cleanup efforts.