Restored and Rejuvenated, the Nandi Lake Now Brims with Water

United Way Bengaluru (UWBe) organised Baagina Puja at the Nandi Lake which is filled to its brim after three decades. It is indeed a proud moment for UBL and United Way Bengaluru that started working towards the conservation of the lake and enhancement of the eco-system around it in 2018. “Rejuvenation work at Nandi lake and restoration of Kalyani and Gunduthopu” at Nandi village, Chikkaballapura district in Karnataka was implemented to address the degradation of eco-system and water bodies in the area. The Nandi Lake was in a dilapidated condition with construction debris, garbage, and weeds.

Prashanth Prakash Chairman, United Way Bengaluru at the Rejuvenated Nandi Lake

The event conducted at the lake today was attended by Prashanth Prakash, Chairman, United Way Bengaluru along with David Kumar, Lokesh Gujjarappa, K Radhakrishna Pradeep and Srinivas K.V. The UBL team present at the event included Ankita and Prafulla.

Rejuvenated Nandi Lake

“UWBe works towards causes that has long term impact and this project was taken up as a part of United Way Bengaluru’s commitment towards reviving water bodies and turning them into community-nurtured spaces through our flagship campaign called ‘Wake The Lake‘. Today the rejuvenated Nandi Lake potentially holds 400979 KL of water and positively impacts the environment and quality of life of 10,000 community members (directly and indirectly) living around it. We are grateful to our CSR partner UBL and the Nandi panchayat who have shared the responsibility of the project with us,” said Prashanth Prakash, Chairman, United Way Bengaluru.

The project is aligned to UBL's corporate social responsibility towards local area development by meaningfully contributing to environmental conservation and by bringing about sustainable social development for communities. A UBL spokesperson said, “At UBL, our key goal is to help communities around us and create shared value in that process. Water conservation is our major CSR focus area where we collaborate with implementation partners such as UWB, who help realise our vision to brew a better world. We are also thankful to the local administration and the Nandi village Panchayat for their continued support. We stay committed towards curating programs with our partners for sustainable development of our communities.”

In 2018, the project set out to restore the lake to achieve multiple benefits for the local communities and enhance the surrounding biodiversity. Desilting a ‘Kalyani‘ or a rainwater harvesting structure, developing ‘Gundu Thopu‘ or Community Forest, creation of 50 farm ponds, installation of 250 rainwater harvesting units at the household levels and in three schools, inlet cleaning and installation of pipe culvert were some of the other activities undertaken. About 3,500 sapling have been planted which will increase the biodiversity of the area. Across all the interventions, about 4,24,471 KL of water can be potentially conserved every year.

United Way Bengaluru believes in ‘mobilising the caring power of the communities‘ and this project would not have been possible without the guidance and support of UBL, and cooperation of panchayats and community members.

About United Way Bengaluru (UWBe)

UWBe, part of United Way Worldwide is an NGO, focused on social issues that seek immediate as well as long term meaningful attention. The chapter catalyses unified efforts from corporates, civic bodies and citizen associations to bring about visible change. The organisation works in four key areas - Environment, Education, Healthcare and Livelihood. Currently, UWBe is implementing four flagship campaigns that serve important purposes: ‘Wake the Lake’ works to protect Bengaluru’s lakes, ‘One Billion Drops’ aims at conserving rainwater through percolation pits, ‘Born Learning’ helps provide nutrition and education to very young children and ‘Rural Rising’ aims to develop and empower the rural communities. Besides, COVID relief work is another key area where the organisation is helping healthcare institutions, healthcare professionals and other organisations working towards COVID relief.

For more information, please visit www.uwbengaluru.org.