Hyderabad’s clogged sewerage network needs revamp

HYDERABAD: The city’s sewerage network has gone for a six, in the recent rains. Result: Immense hardships for people and sleepless nights for civic authorities. While usually, civic bodies received between 600 and 800 complaints per day during the rainy season, the count has jumped to over 2,000 post the floods. Officials admit that it is a record of sorts for the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply & Sewerage Board’s Metro Customer Care (MCC).

A quick scan of the complaints shows that majority of them are coming in from the over 200 residential colonies across Old City – including Langer Houz, Bahadurpura, Moghulpura, Zampura, Falaknuma etc. The common grouses: overflowing of sewerage, missing covers of manholes and sewer water getting mixed with potable water.
“tHE situation is extremely bad as sewer water has inundated the Gulshan Iqbal Colony. After the Gurram Cherevu breached, water entered the colony and the sewerage lines got blocked with weed and other waste material,” Mohd Hazeez, a resident of the area told TOI. Another resident of the Lalith Bagh, Koteswar Rao said how jammed lines had made it difficult for families to use washroom. “The toilets in the houses are not fit for use. This is creating great inconvenience. The overflowing sewers are also a health hazard,” he said. In some colonies of Bahadurpura the people, in a bid to help the flood water recede faster, had opened the manhole covers. As a result, the trunk sewer that streamlines the waste water has been left completely blocked.
Water board officials confirmed that they were attending to several complaints relating to overflowing of manholes. “We have noticed hundreds of uncovered manholes in inundated areas. We have appealed to residents not to open manhole covers without our permission. Uncovered manholes pose great danger,” said T V Sridhar, officer-on-special duty, HMWS&SB adding that the board has also warned people to avoid consuming contaminated water as it can lead to ailments.
Meanwhile, sources in HMWS&SB’s MCC told TOI that they have deployed mini jetting machines and manpower to tackle the situation. “We have deployed 50 big jetting machines and 70 mini jetting machines. The teams are working extra four hours in view of the severity of sewerage network problems. That’s our priority,” said Sridhar.
While the water board is primarily working in the Old Coty area – and some other parts of Hyderabad – peripheral pockets are being attended to by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. “The GHMC is tackling the sewerage network crisis in the peripheral areas. A month ago, the state government transferred the operation and maintenance of the sewerage network from us to GHMC,” said a water board official.