An army of volunteers launched a clean-up drive at the Lakes on Sunday. (Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya)

It was double delight for the Dhakuria Lakes on a day that began with a two-hour clean-up drive and ended with the summer’s first showers.

At 6am on Sunday, 40-plus “well-wishers” of the Lakes fished out shovels, spades and pitchforks to rid a portion of the waters of plastic bags and garbage dumped by passers-by from the Dhakuria Lake Bridge.

Ten hours later, the weather gods rained down on the parched Lakes — where the water level, as reported by Metro on May 1, had dropped by almost six feet because of the hot and dry spell. The raindrops on the Lakes may have not raised the water level by much but they sure lifted the mood by miles.

The clean-up army that descended on the Lakes a little after dawn was out to dirty their hands and knees for their favourite water body. “Earlier, two boats could easily pass under the bridge but now we find it impossible to row even a single boat across because of the water weeds and debris. When we learned of this voluntary move to clean the waters, we were more than happy to lend a helping hand,” said 17-year-old Surarupa Bhattacharya, a student of Modern High School.

Gloved hands little and large toiled to flush the muck out of the water. Some rolled up their pants and stood waist-deep in water, some picked up bits of plastic and others jammed them into jute sacks. Arpan Mukherjee, 23, turned up in shorts, sleeveless vest and sneakers. “I have to make it to office in Salt Lake by 9am but because I train rowers here, I must do my bit to keep the Lakes clean.”

Thirty large sacks of garbage — water weeds to puja idols, tyres to manholes — were fished out of the Lakes. The catch of the day? A one-rupee coin!

“We did whatever was in our hands and the rain gods did the rest,” said green activist Mudar Patherya, adding that the clean-up would now happen every Sunday morning.

“It’s a mammoth task to clean the Lakes but we have made a start,” said Dileep Mehta, from the governing body of the Bengal Rowing Club (BRC).

A start is also what the rain gods made on Sunday. “We’re hoping for longer spells of rain, and the mood is upbeat,” said R.M Lakhotia, the chairman of the rowing committee at BRC. “The youngsters are all excited because our Students’ Rowing Championship begins on May 17 and they are hoping for more water in the Lakes before it kicks off.”