Residents of areas around Bengaluru’s Varthur and Bellandur lakes have complained of foul smell and pollution as these water bodies have started frothing again, following the recent showers brought in by Cyclone Vardah. Civic authorities have yet to take any action, but a few students are seen trying to clean the lakes sometimes, a resident told ANI.

The toxic froth – produced as a result of allowing untreated sewage water to flow into the lakes – has spilled over onto the roads and into drains around the lakes in the last two days. It has also led to poor visibility on the roads, and motorists risk skidding while riding. The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewage Board had sent a tanker to sprinkle water and bring down the intensity of the froth, a volunteer told Deccan Chronicle.

Local group Whitefield Rising has written to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board and Karnataka Lake Conservation and Development Authority, reported The Times of India. “This matter needs more attention, especially since we are looking at a dry summer,” a member of Whitefield Rising told the newspaper. “Wasting a resource as precious as water and dealing with health and safety issues alongside is not good.”

Municipal authorities need to install a sewerage treatment plant at Varthur Lake. The water body is supposed to be desilted every year, but it was last desilted in 1970, according to The Times of India.