Plastic Bag Villan For Corporation
Coimbatore Corporation workers removing plastic waste and packing materials from an underground drainage line on Mettupalyam Road in the city on Wednesday. A drainage burst on Mettupalayam Road on Wednesday led to the stagnation of sewage near the Saibaba Temple. Road users struggled to negotiate this stretch in the morning and the Corporation’s conservancy workers removed the blocks that were caused by the now-too-familiar villains: plastic bags and bottles. But, the Coimbatore Corporation plight for the day was not over with this incident. Around evening, its engineers and workers were battling hard to locate a block in the underground sewer further down the same road, near the Central Theatre. Sounding rather beleaguered by the abuse of the city’s underground sewers, Mayor R. Venkatachalam said: “I have suggested that notices be issued to commercial establishments, asking them to refrain from dumping plastic bags and packing materials into the drainage”. Workers who got into the drainage near the Saibaba Temple surfaced with a huge amount of thermocol, used for packing goods.
These materials got stuck on some telephone lines passing through the drainage line. The Mayor said these lines too should be removed. “Sewage from five wards of the Corporation areas passes through this old line, whose capacity has been reduced by the rise in population and amount of sewage discharged. Big markets and multi-storeyed apartments too have come up,” the Mayor said. A bigger culvert too should be constructed in this area to enable smooth flow of waste water.
But, problems could be avoided if people desisted from dumping plastic items into the drainage. “Despite our attempts to educate the public on these problems, the abuse of the city’s sewer lines continues,” the Mayor lamented. This was a problem spread across the city and the menace of plastics had to be ended. “People should make an effort at handing over garbage to the conservancy workers of the Corporation, instead of abusing the drainage,” he said. As for mechanised removal of blocks in the sewerage, the Mayor said the Corporation would buy three more vehicles. The one it had was under repair.
