Restoration of Urban Lakes Through Aeration (A case study of Bhopal lakes)

Bhopal is popularly known as the city of lakes because of innumerable water resources. The Upper and Lower lakes are the urban lakes together known as Bhoj Wetland. The Upper lake is an elongated water body, constructed by Raja Bhoj in 11^th century whereas Lower lake was constructed by Nawab Chhote Khan in 1794 A.D. Upper Lake is mainly used for the potable water supply while the Lower Lake water is used for secondary purposes. A comprehensive project called the Bhoj Wetland Project had been implemented for conservation and management of these twin Lakes. So many conservation measures done under this project, one the most important measure was installation of aeration units in these twin Lakes. The installation of aeration units improves water quality by increasing dissolved oxygen concentration consequently reduction of biochemical oxygen demand and chemical oxygen demand. At the same time bacterial population also decreased.