The Government of Madhya Pradesh implemented an integrated lake conservation programme during 1995-2004 with the financial assistance of JBIC (Japan Bank of International Cooperation).
An agreement between the JBIC and the Government of India (Ministry of Finance, Government of India being the signatory) was executed for implementation of the "Lake Bhopal Conservation and Management Project" (also known as Bhoj Wetland Project), to be executed over a period of 5 years, beginning in April 1995.
The basic objective of the project was to improve the water quality as well as to increase the storage capacity of the lakes. The project activities involved both preventive and curative measures like increasing the storage capacity of the lake through de-silting, control of weed through de-weeding, prevention of pollution in the lake through diversion and treatment of sewage, catchment area protection through creation of buffer zone etc.
The implementation of these activities resulted in increasing the water holding capacity of Upper Lake by 4%. Post project water quality monitoring confirms improvement in water quality of the lake when compared with the data of the pre-project implementation stage.
During implementation of conservation measures various types of administrative, social and legal issues have been encountered. The case study discusses how these issues have been addressed while implementing the conservation measures.