Stop the Construction of an STP Inside Saul Kere
Save Saul Kere: Protect Bengaluru's Natural Flood Buffer
Stop the Construction of an STP Inside Saul Kere
Saul Kere is not vacant land. It is a critical flood-mitigation system for Bengaluru.
We, the citizens, residents, environmentalists, scientists, birdwatchers and concerned citizens of Bengaluru, strongly oppose the construction of a large Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) within the lake and wetland area of Saul Kere (Sowl Kere).
We support sewage treatment.
We do not support putting major sewage infrastructure inside a natural lake and flood-storage system.
Saul Kere performs a vital function that is becoming increasingly important as Bengaluru's rainfall becomes more intense and the city's natural drainage systems are progressively built over.
Saul Kere sits at the bottom of a huge watershed.
The lake receives water from a watershed of approximately 24 square kilometres, through a cascade of 13 interconnected lakes and water bodies.
That means Saul Kere is not an isolated pond.
Rain falling across a large urban catchment ultimately makes its way through this lake system towards Saul Kere.
During Bengaluru's rainy season, particularly during periods of intense rainfall, Saul Kere therefore acts as a critical downstream storage and flood-mitigation zone.
Its ability to receive, hold and slowly release stormwater is directly connected to the safety of people and property downstream.
We cannot afford to reduce the flood-buffer capacity of Saul Kere.
Bengaluru's rainy season lasts for roughly six months. During this period, intense rainfall events can overwhelm stormwater drains, roads and culverts.
When natural lakes and wetlands have been encroached upon or their storage capacity reduced, excess water has fewer places to go.
The consequences are not merely environmental.
Flooding can mean:
Homes and apartments being inundated
Roads becoming impassable
Vehicles being damaged or swept away
Businesses suffering losses
Sewage and stormwater mixing
Contaminated floodwater entering homes and public spaces
Increased risk to public health
Electrical and infrastructure hazards
Risk to human life
A lake that acts as a flood buffer is public safety infrastructure - even though nature built it.
Saul Kere has a unique drainage constraint
Saul Kere's role becomes even more important because of the limited capacity of its downstream drainage.
Historically, Saul Kere had two outlets.
One of those outlets was effectively lost approximately 24 years ago, leaving Saul Kere dependent on a single functioning outlet.
This is an extraordinarily important fact when considering any proposal that occupies lake land or potentially reduces the lake's effective flood-storage and drainage capacity.
If a lake receiving runoff from approximately 24 sq km has only one effective outlet, its available storage during extreme rainfall becomes a matter of public safety.
The solution cannot be to progressively occupy the lake's flood-storage area with permanent infrastructure.
Instead, the city's priority should be to protect and restore the lake's ability to perform its natural drainage and flood-mitigation function.
An STP is permanent. Floods are seasonal. The consequences can last decades.
The proposal to construct an STP inside Saul Kere needs to be evaluated not simply as a sewage-treatment project, but as a major intervention into a natural drainage system.
A treatment plant requires:
Permanent buildings and infrastructure
Access roads
Electrical infrastructure
Pipelines
Pumping systems
Maintenance areas
Personnel and operational facilities
Every acre of lake or wetland occupied by permanent infrastructure is an acre that may no longer be available for natural flood storage.
That loss may not be obvious on an ordinary day.
It becomes obvious during an extreme rainfall event.
The fact that the lake looks empty or has low water levels for part of the year does not mean that the land is unused.
That space is the lake's flood-storage capacity.
"But the STP will help clean the water, won't it?"
Sewage treatment is essential.
But sewage treatment and lake conservation are two different objectives.
The city should treat sewage before it enters the natural environment, while simultaneously protecting the natural systems that manage stormwater.
Putting an STP inside a lake creates a fundamental conflict:
We are using land that nature needs for flood storage to build infrastructure designed to manage sewage.
There is no reason why Bengaluru should have to choose between sanitation and flood safety.
We need both.
What happens if the lake is used primarily as a wastewater receiving body?
Even treated wastewater is not the same as rainwater entering a natural wetland.
Treated sewage can contain nutrients and other residual contaminants. Long-term wastewater inputs can alter:
Water chemistry
Nutrient levels
Dissolved oxygen
Algal growth
Aquatic vegetation
Fish populations
Invertebrates
Wetland ecology
This matters because Saul Kere is not simply a water storage tank.
It is a living wetland ecosystem.
"If the water is treated, what's the problem?"
"Treated" does not mean "natural."
Even well-operated STPs discharge water containing nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. Scientific studies from Bengaluru and elsewhere show that nutrient-rich treated wastewater can cause algal blooms, changes in aquatic ecosystems, and long-term ecological impacts.
A lake filled with treated wastewater may appear full of water but can function very differently from a natural wetland ecosystem.
Saul Kere is also grassland
One of the most misunderstood aspects of urban lakes is that the lake is not only the area covered by water.
The shallow margins, seasonal wetlands, mudflats and grasslands are part of the lake ecosystem.
They provide habitat for:
Waterbirds
Migratory birds
Fish
Amphibians
Reptiles
Insects
Wetland plants
When people see a dry or grassy portion of a lake and say, "Why not build here?", they are looking at the lake's ecosystem as if it were vacant real estate.
It isn't.
The grassland and seasonal wetland are part of Saul Kere's natural flood-management system and its biodiversity.
Flooding is also a sanitation and public-health issue
When urban flooding occurs, stormwater does not necessarily remain clean.
Bengaluru's drainage network contains sewage leaks, illegal connections, overflowing drains and other sources of contamination.
When floodwater mixes with sewage, the resulting water can carry pathogens and contaminants into:
Homes
Apartment complexes
Roads
Schools
Public spaces
Groundwater
Food and commercial areas
Reducing the natural capacity of a downstream lake to absorb and temporarily store stormwater can therefore have consequences far beyond the lake itself.
Protecting Saul Kere's flood-storage capacity is also an investment in public health and sanitation.
What about the birds and fish?
They matter - but this campaign is not only about birds.
Saul Kere supports a significant diversity of birdlife precisely because it retains a mixture of habitats: open water, shallow water, marsh, grassland and wetland margins.
Changing the lake's hydrology and water chemistry can affect the entire food chain.
Fish communities depend on water quality, oxygen levels, aquatic vegetation, and natural ecological cycles.
Nutrient-rich wastewater can alter fish populations, reduce biodiversity, encourage invasive species, and increase the risk of algal growth and oxygen depletion.
When fish populations change, bird populations change too because many waterbirds depend on specific fish and aquatic organisms as food.
Changes in water quality can affect plankton and aquatic plants.
That affects insects and invertebrates.
That affects fish and amphibians.
And that affects birds.
The ecosystem is interconnected.
"But isn't a lake full of water a good thing?"
Not necessarily.
A healthy wetland is not supposed to look the same throughout the year.
Seasonal changes in water level create different habitats.
Shallow water, exposed mud, wet grassland and marshes can be enormously valuable.
A permanently water-filled basin may actually provide less habitat diversity than a naturally fluctuating wetland.
And, critically, the ability of Saul Kere to hold stormwater during extreme rainfall depends on having space available when that water arrives.
"Why can't the government simply build the STP inside the lake?"
Because lake land is not surplus land.
It is functional infrastructure provided by nature.
The city already has enormous challenges managing flooding during the monsoon. Bengaluru should not be reducing the capacity of one of its important downstream flood buffers to accommodate permanent infrastructure unless there is overwhelming evidence that there is no safer alternative.
Before sacrificing lake land, the government should demonstrate publicly:
Why an STP must be located inside Saul Kere.
Why alternative sites outside the lake are not feasible.
How much lake/flood-storage capacity will be lost.
How the project will affect the lake's 24 sq km watershed.
How the project accounts for the 13-lake upstream cascade.
How flood levels will change during extreme rainfall.
How the single remaining outlet can safely handle peak inflows.
What happens if the STP or pumping infrastructure fails during a major flood.
What safeguards will protect the lake's groundwater, soil, fish and wildlife.
What independent environmental and hydrological assessments have been undertaken.
The burden of proof should be on those proposing to occupy a critical flood-storage area - not on citizens asking that it be protected.
We are not against sewage treatment
Let us be absolutely clear:
We want Bengaluru to treat its sewage.
We want clean lakes.
We want safe sanitation.
We want modern infrastructure.
But sewage treatment infrastructure should not come at the expense of Bengaluru's natural flood-management infrastructure.
The answer cannot be:
"Build the STP in the lake because there is space there."
That "space" is doing a job.
It is storing floodwater.
We demand that Saul Kere be protected
We call upon the Government of Karnataka, BWSSB, the Karnataka Tank Conservation and Development Authority and the relevant Bengaluru civic authorities to:
1. Stop construction of the proposed STP inside Saul Kere.
No permanent sewage infrastructure should be constructed within the lake's flood-storage and wetland area until an independent assessment establishes that there will be no unacceptable impact on flood risk, lake ecology or public safety.
2. Protect the entire lake ecosystem — not merely the area covered by water.
The lake must include its seasonal wetlands, grasslands, marshes, shallow areas and flood-storage zones.
3. Conduct an independent hydrological study.
This study must examine Saul Kere as part of its approximately 24 sq km watershed and 13-lake cascade, rather than treating it as an isolated water body.
4. Assess the consequences of having only one effective outlet.
The historical loss of Saul Kere's second outlet approximately 24 years ago must be properly documented and incorporated into flood-risk modelling.
5. Publish the flood modelling.
Citizens deserve to know what happens to Saul Kere during extreme rainfall events and whether the proposed infrastructure reduces available flood-storage capacity.
6. Find alternatives for sewage infrastructure.
Sewage treatment is necessary. But it should be located where it does not compromise a critical natural flood-mitigation system.
7. Restore and protect Saul Kere's natural drainage function.
Where feasible, the city's priority should be to improve the lake's ability to receive and safely release stormwater — not reduce it.
8. Make Saul Kere's future a public decision.
Residents, hydrologists, wetland ecologists, urban planners, bird experts and other independent specialists must have a meaningful opportunity to examine the proposal before irreversible construction takes place.
Saul Kere is bigger than the lake you see
The next time you look at Saul Kere, don't see an empty patch of land waiting for development.
See the 24 sq km watershed behind it.
See the 13 lakes upstream sending water through the cascade.
See the rain falling across Bengaluru during the monsoon.
See that water eventually arriving at Saul Kere.
See the single remaining outlet.
And then ask:
Where will all that water go if we reduce the space available for Saul Kere to hold it?
The answer affects not only birds and fish.
It affects homes, roads, businesses, sanitation, public health and human lives.
Once lake land is built upon, it is extremely difficult to get it back.
Once flood risk increases, the people living downstream pay the price.
We have an opportunity to protect Saul Kere before that happens.
Stop the STP inside Saul Kere.
Protect the lake.
Protect its watershed.
Protect Bengaluru's natural flood buffer.
Protect people, property and public health.
Please sign this petition and share it with everyone who lives, works or travels in the Saul Kere catchment and downstream areas.
Saul Kere is not vacant land.
Saul Kere is flood protection.
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