The drainage systems in Northern parts of Karnataka are not being maintained properly.Residents of Vinayanagar colony of Sirwar taluk complains of clogged drains in their locality.
Hussain Basha, resident of Vijayanagar colony said, “After repeated request when the town panchayat don’t send anyone for the cleaning, we had to do it, I’ve cleaned the one near my house, however it just gets to the same pilling after few days, the locality has witnessed increase in dengue cases because of this mess.”
Storm water drains in Sirwar Taluk are overflowing because of garbage clogged in the drains. Bande Nawaz ,resident of the colony said , “ the cleaning process is not done properly. The town panchayat people clean one side of the drain and dump the garbage on the other end. Because of the dump nearby, there are so many insects breeding.”
Over the year residents of Sirwar and activist from Karnataka Riatha Sangha have staged protests for better infrastructure of Sirwar taluk.However Residents still complain of unbearable stench around the area. The matter worsens during monsoon as drain water overflows into the houses.
Anil, a resident of the colony said, “The stench is unbearable, we have kids and old people living with us. I have asked the authorities to clean it so many times; very often we would witness dead animals decomposing.”
With a population of 19,295, Sirwar is a village located in Manvi taluk of Raichur district, Karnataka. The village is administered by the Town panchayat. In 2017-2018 budget allocation, Sirwar town panchayat has allocated Rs3Cr for the maintenance of Storm water drains.
Om Prakash Manehendrakar, Chief Officer of Town Panchayat Sirwar, said, “We send our pourokarmikas to clean them mostly. When the members of the colonies inform us about their problem we do send the pourokarmikas. However because of less pourakarmikas we are not able to do the operation at its maximum potential.”
Anil Bhaskaran, chief engineer of Idea Architect, said, “Drains can be planned in multiple ways, however the engineering of these structure has to be done corrected which helps in avoiding any overflowing problem. Japan is a classic example, when you talk about closely packed settlement. The drains have to have natural slope of 1 in 150 and 1 in 200 for the water to flow.”
On 19th Sep 2016, Sirwar residents along with activist group held protest against dirty public spaces, unclean drains leading to the overflow of drain water. However even after 3years of the protest, residents are facing the same problems.
