The rains last night has led to the overflow of sewage on to the roads in Sector 3, leading to the flooding of homes. One victim of this is software engineer Arunkumar R who resides on 18th Main, 24th Cross. “We woke up at 4am and found the sewage overflowing on the road,” he told Residents Watch. “My neighbours are also facing the same problem of sewage entering their homes.”
Arunkumar is working from home today as he is planning to get a plumber to fix this issue of sewage entering his hall and bathroom this morning. “The house stinks and when this happened one week ago, the BWSSB cleared the sanitary lines, but it’s blocked again,” he said.
He is taking a tip from his neighbour on 21st Cross who faced the same issue the last time around. “Last week, he installed a one-way valve through a plumber when knee-high water had entered his house, and there was no flooding in his house this time,” he said.
A resident for the last ten years, it’s the first time that Arunkumar has faced this problem. This clearly shows that the increasing commercialisation, illegal building constructions and enhanced population density has choked the sanitary lines that cannot handle such a huge volume.
The sewage is still overflowing on to the roads. “The lid is still open because of the water pressure as it must be blocked somewhere in the upper region,” said Arunkumar.
We have received complaints of drainage overflowing on to the roads in other parts of Sector 3 as well. “The area from 22nd Main to 26th Main is in a big mess,” said Dharmender. Added Srikanth: “There is a drain leakage on 25th cross, near 17th C main entrance.” Resident Raghu reports that the drain is overflowing from 221/A and running down on the 22nd A Cross, and gathering at the road junction below. “The whole road is stinking n big health hazard,” he said.
A BWSSB official in charge of this area said that the rains are to be blamed for this. “The sanitary line could not withstand the pressure and the manhole lid automatically opened,” he said. “We will clear the blockage immediately.”