Corp upset at the lack of self-discipline of public
Plastic and other forms of waste being removed from an underground sewer on Thadagam Road in the city on Thursday.It has been happening for decades and the Corporation officials have only been wringing their hands in despair. Abuse of underground sewers and storm water drains is a problem that the civic body has been battling for a long time, but with little success.A burst in the sewers, especially during rain, exposes the extent of abuse these are subjected to. Garbage, bottles, plastic waste and leftover food find their way into the drainage. These are detected when they cause serious blocks in the lines and the resultant bursts.Sewage bursts through manholes and demand immediate repairs. Conservancy workers of the Corporation then surface from the drainage with all kinds of waste under the sun.“I was shocked to find that even a fairly large banner had been dumped into the drainage on Thadagam Road,” Mayor R. Venkatachalam says. The banner was one of causes for the blocks that resulted in a drainage burst on this road on Wednesday.The Mayor is aghast at the manner in which dumping has been going on across the city. “This is a major cause for sewage overflow on roads during rain,” he admits. The Mayor says the civic body will provide grills below manhole as this can help in preventing the waste from getting into the lines.
While this can provide a solution to some extent, the Corporation is upset at the lack of self-discipline among the public, especially commercial establishments that dump waste into the lines.Corporation Commissioner P. Muthuveeran says that the civic body can only collect a service charge from people accused of dumping waste into the drains. This is a sort of compensation for the cost incurred in removing the blocks.“But, the Government may soon come out with a law against such dumping. A draft law is ready. Once the law is introduced, it will provide for stringent action,” he says.
The Mayor tries to drive home the point that the drainage lines are only to take waste water from the city to the sewage farms on the periphery. The civic body has a different mechanism for garbage disposal. Abuse of drainage lines will only lead to sewage stagnating on city roads.Of the 105 sq km city, only 23 sq km spread over three sewerage zones has underground drainage. The rest will get this amenity under a massive project to be implemented soon. A population of 5.63 lakh (according to 2001 census) in Zones I, II and III discharges over 36 million litres of sewage ever day through 162 km of underground drainage lines.When the abuse of drainage on a very limited portion of the city can do so much damage, the Corporation is wary of the severity of the problem it may face if such an abuse spreads to areas (Zone IV, V and VI) where more sewer lines are to be laid.
The worst problem the civic body had been facing was on Arts College Road along which a number of commercial establishments are located. Blocks in a more than one-km underground sewer line often led to sewage rushing out through the manhole and stagnating on the road.The Corporation has initiated efforts to replace this line and warned the establishments, including hospitals and hotels, against dumping waste into the line. The civic body had stated earlier that dumping of waste had worsened the condition of an already worn out line.The Corporation says it has even issued notices to shops in many parts of the city that had been found to indulge in such a practice. But, constant monitoring is an impossible task as inlets to the drainage are located on private premises. Most of the dumping takes place late in the night.
