HMWS&SB ignoring sewage overflows

In 2 days, water body has received over 2,500 complaints from citizens and it has not attended them

During the ongoing Covid19 crisis, while the doctors, nurses, healthcare workers and police have been working tirelessly, officials and workers of the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) have hardly been making themselves proud.

Like its urban brethren agency, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), whose greatest brainwave was to stop volunteers and NGOs distributing free food for poor people and migrant workers, insisting everything must go through them citing social distancing norms, never mind its own Annapurna canteens have hardly been performing at role model levels, the HMWS&SB has hardly been attending to sewer overflow complaints in residential areas.

Within two days, water board has received over 2,500 complaints from citizens and it has not attended to even 20 per cent of them. Sharing his grievance, Mr Krishna Marriganti, a resident of HMT Nagar in Nacharam, said, “The water board has been not attending to sewer overflow complaints though we have been complaining on a daily basis since 20 days.”

Mr Rizwan Bin Ahmed, another citizen, said, “We are residing at Wadi-eMahmoodr in Rajendranagar pillar no 230. We have been facing severe overflow problems since three weeks. Though the issue was brought to notice of higher authorities, none have attended it till date.”

The HMWS&SB, which has been desilting choked manholes to use the lockdown window, has directly deposited faecal matter on roadsides with impunity at 2,856 locations in last one week. These location include Narayanguda, Secunderabad, Uppal, Charminar, Marredpally, Rajendrenagar and others, not too far from places where corona suspected patients were being monitored and quarantined.

When queried, a senior HMWS&SB official told Deccan Chronicle that contractors have made it clear that could not cart lump removed from sewer-lines. He said that it would create further issues if the sludge is removed and deposited on wayside.

He said sewer overflow is better than depositing lumps on wayside. The HMWSSB official said that they do not have any alternate mechanism to shift silt from manholes, since it has to dry for at least 15 days before carting it to different locations.

THE HMWS&SB, which has been desilting choked manholes to use the lockdown window, has directly deposited faecal matter on roadsides with impunity at 2,856 locations in last one week.