Our AFI goes places

We are delighted to tell you that our low cost, low maintenance Artificial Floating Island (AFI) has been introduced at Madiwala Lake! Karnataka Lake Conservation and Development Authority (KLCDA) plans to introduce these in Agara lake as well. 

Last month, on 12th July, Ms. Seema Garg, the new CEO of KLCDA  had visited Puttenahalli Lake and shown great interest in our floating wetland platforms. She informed the officers in charge of setting up the Bio-diversity Park at Madiwala Lake about our innovation and they in turn visited our lake on 21st August 2017.

We took Mr. Chidananda, Dy Range Forest Officer and Dr. Padmavathi, Project Coordinator, around the lake and briefed them in detail not just about the AFI, pipe frame aquatic plant holder, buffer strip  AFIs, native plants but also about the buffer strip in the main body, grill for the silt traps, artificial perches in the lake bed and more. We agreed to help them whenever they get the material to make a platform. Just two days later, they invited us over to teach their gardeners! 

On 23rd August, we went with our gardener, Jayanna, to Madiwala Lake and showed them how to make a prototype, inserted canna bulbs and finally floated it in the water. I don't know who was more thrilled - KLCDA officers, their gardeners or our PNLIT team!  

AFI making class at Madiwala Lake, 23rd Aug 2017

Jayanna fixing mesh to the frame

Inserting Canna bulbs

Floating the AFI in the water

We had first taught Himanshu Arteev from Biome in December 2016 and given him two platforms to exhibit at Kaikondrahalli Lake. Subsequently Biome introduced it at Jakkur lake.

By absorbing the nutrients, the plants in these floating wetlands purify the water.  Obviously the improvement is slow and gradual. Also, the system may not work if the lake is full of sewage. It can only complement not replace the constructed wetland. We nevertheless hope that our AFI does as well in other lakes as it does in ours!

With best regards,

Best

Usha

Artificial Floating Islands in our lake

Those of you who visited Puttenahalli Lake within the past few months may have noticed small platforms floating in the water. These are Artificial Floating Islands (AFIs) which we "launched", starting in June this year. The Vetiver and Canna planted in them are growing beautifully. PNLIT trustee Nupur, her husband Pranshu Jain together with our gardener, Jayanna, are the builders of five AFIs. With volunteers from Deloitte making two last Friday we now have seven AFIs. 

AFIs, Sep 2016

A Coot's nest in one of the AFIs

Deloitte volunteers with the AFIs they made, 25-Nov-2016

Briefly about the AFI - this is a variant of the wetland, an innovative way to improve water quality and keep the lake clean. In this system of Hydroponic Phytoremediation, plants in floating platforms absorb pollutants in the water to grow. AFIs are widely used abroad but not yet popular in India. 

Simultaneously with the AFIs, we began monthly testing of the water. We are delighted to see steady improvement in the each of the eight parameters we measure - pH, Turbidity, DO, BOD, Total Solids, Total Dissolved Solids, Nitrates and Phosphates. Some parameters still need improvement, but the trends are very encouraging. It may be too early to attribute this improvement to just the AFIs since they are few in number. We have been also curtailing the growth of aquatic weeds thereby exposing more water to the sun.  

Our sincere thanks to BMS College of Engineering for testing the water samples every month, their invaluable contribution to PNLIT. To Srinivas SK for analysing the test results.  CSR support from Deloitte Shared Services India Pvt Ltd. enabled us to remove the thick spread of invasive weed from the water, to hire people to keep the water clear of new sprouts as well as to fund the AFIs. 

Usha