Coimbatore Drainage Problem
Already saddled with the task of preventing flooding during monsoon, the Coimbatore Corporation is upset over the dumping of waste in drainage that is causing bursts in the lines. Mayor R. Venkatachalam said on Tuesday that the Corporation is pained at the way hotels abuse the underground drainage by dumping leftover food, dough and other forms of waste.“The powder used to clean vessels form a thick paste when it mixes with water and gets into the drainage. It then becomes insoluble, solidifies and then blocks flow of waste water in the drainage,” the Mayor explained. “Invariably, this is the major cause for the blocks in the drainage. The blocks do not occur when the flow is in a straight pipeline. It happens when the lines take a sharp turn at a junction,” he said. One of the problem zones was on Mettupalayam Road, outside the compound of the Forest College (Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding). The block occurred at the Cowley Brown Road-Mettupalayam Road junction.
According to official sources in the Corporation, a sewerage burst led to the stagnation of sewage on Cross-Cut Road and a bylane. The sources said the abuse of the drainage by a hotel on the bylane had caused the block. The hotel was warned against dumping waste into the drainage. The main road and the bylane stank of sewage when a large section of Coimbatore was shopping for dresses for Deepavali on Cross-Cut Road, they said.
The Mayor pointed out that these instances kept happening across the city because hotels and small eateries found the drainage the best option for disposing of solid waste. “We may have to take action if they continue to resort to misusing the drainage,” he said. Whenever a block was detected, workers pulled out from the drainage a huge amount of garbage that largely consisted of disposable plastic cups, straws, plastic covers and bags. “For now, I have asked the officials to advise the hotels and eateries not to abuse the drainage. We have to first explain to them the harm they cause.”
The Mayor said he had asked the officials in the Corporation, especially in the health wing, to carry out inspections at hotels and small eateries to find out whether both the underground drainage and the storm water drains were being used as garbage dumps. The abuse of drainage did not help the situation at all during monsoon. It only added to the woes of the public and the Corporation when the civic body had to ensure water did not stagnate on roads, the Mayor said. Mr. Venkatachalam felt that hotels that did good business could establish small treatment plants that treat waste water and prevent items that caused blocks from entering the drainage.
