A young couple from Indore, Priyanshu Kumath (IIT Bombay Alumnus) and Shaleen Jain (IIM Raipur Alumnus) getting married on 25-26 December 2021 want to Restore & Beautify Pipliyahana Lake in Indore on the occasion of their marriage by doing a Fundraiser and raising 15 Lakhs over 2 phases.

Priyanshu & Shaleen believe that rather than spending extravagantly on non-important things in marriage, couples should give something back to the society. They intent to start a chain reaction where people on occasion of their marriage do something for the society such as planting trees, helping old age people, helping orphanages, etc.

Priyanshu through his firm Clean-Water (www.clean-water.co.in) (registered as Sustainable Water Technologies Pvt. Ltd.) has been setting up Sewage Treatment Plants and also restoring lakes and rivers across the country. He was awarded as “Water Hero” by Government of India, Jal Shakti, Water Resources Ministry for a lake restoration project in Indore inside Police Training College, Musakhedi, off Ring Road, Indore.

Pipliyahana Lake (15acres) is located right off Ring Road at Pipliyahana Square (aka World Cup Square). Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) has recently setup a Sewage Treatment Plant near the lake which treats the Sewage water coming in from nearby colonies and discharges the treated effluent in the lake.

The water coming in from the STP is under the norms as specified by the Pollution Control Board but traces of Nutrients such as Nitrogen & Phosphorous in the form of Nitrates, Nitrites, Ammoniacal Nitrogen, Phosphates, Phosphites, etc are still present in the water which is causing Algal Blooms at the lake which had recently covered the entire surface of the lake.

The lake used to dry off partially or completely till Summer months earlier but recently Indore Municipal Corporation has setup a Sewage Treatment Plant near the lake which discharges treated effluent in the lake, due to which it is expected to have water now throughout the year.The couple intends to solve the problem by setting up Floating Islands and aerators at the lake. Floating Islands would uptake all the nutrients in the water thus leaving no food for the algae which would starve and eventually recede from the lake. Floating Islands besides improving water quality and reducing algal blooms; would also help in Beautification of the Lake and would also provide habitat to all life forms thus helping in restoration of ecology and biodiversity in and around the lake.
For this endeavour, the couple intends to raise funds through Online and Offline medium and also execute the Project themselves in a timeline of less than 6 months. Furthermore, the couple intends to take care of the Operation & Maintenance of the work done for a period of 1 year, after which they expect the Government to take care of the O&M. If the Government permits they also intend to generate revenue through this project so that the O&M costs in the future can be covered by this revenue.

If algae continues to cover the surface of the lake, it will inhibit transfer of Oxygen to the water which happens at the surface. Reduced oxygen will further deplete water quality, cause fishes and other life forms to die and be catastrophic.

The lake might also become breeding ground for dengue mosquitoes.

Furthermore, the groundwater of the surrounding areas might also start to get polluted.

Suggested Solution & Technical Details
As a solution to algal blooms, the couple intends to setup Floating Islands (aka Floating Wetlands) at Pipliyahana Lake. Floating Islands have been implemented across the globe as a solution to eutrophic water-bodies and removal of excess Nutrients.List of Activities & interventions
If the couple is able to reach the target of 15 Lakhs and raise these funds, they intend to do the following activities:
Setting up Floating Islands
Setting up Aerators at the Lake
Cleaning the algae (one time)
Tree Plantation
Water Testing & Quality Monitoring
Generate ideas of revenue generation through lake and execute them to cover O&M costs.

The timeline for this project is December 2021-June 2022.

Funds for this restoration would be through multiple channels such as:
Family & Friends coming to the wedding
Other people of Indore
Funds through Political leaders
CSR funds
Online Fundraiser

The couple is tying up with a 24 year old NGO called Vibhavari (www.vihbavari.org) which has delivered impact in sectors such as Water, Sanitation, Livelihood, Agriculture, etc. The funds raised would be credited in the NGO’s account and disbursed to vendors from there.