People have used waterways as a mode of transport for hundreds of years. Aquatic ecosystems are being severely altered or destroyed at a rate greater than that at any other time in human history and faster than they are being restored. Pollutants from industries, agricultural lands, wastewater (superheated) from power stations, draining of sewage into aquatic ecosystems have led to eutrophication, which in turn has greatly affected the aquatic habitat.

The term “restoration’ means the re-establishment of pre-disturbance of aquatic functions and related physical, chemical and biological characteristics. Restoration aims to return an ecosystem to a formal natural condition. The relationship or interaction between the biotic community and abiotic environment needs to be restored. All the ecosystems of the earth are inter-related and they need to function as a single large self-sustaining biological system so that the functional stability is restored. 

I have seen the Hebbal lake, from my younger days that was once filled with water hyacinth. Now through the Norwegian technology, a part of it is restored.

I foresee the possibility of “Bioengineering” as a technological method in aquatic ecosystem restoration (as seen in other parts of the world) apart from other proposed methods or recommendations.

Address: Std IX, Presidency School
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