VISAKHAPATNAM: Even as the monsoon has set in, several part of the city, especially those in the low-lying area, are facing overflowing of drains as the civic body is yet to complete the desilting works. Around 40 per cent of the drains in Visakhapatnam are yet to be desilted.
First the pre-monsoon showers since the last couple of days have led to clogging of major drains and canals at various places. The recent rains brought the poor preparedness of the civic body to sort out the clogging issues.
At many places, drain water spilled on to the roads, leading to chaos. One Town, Isukathota, HB Colony, Seethampeta, Akkayyapalem, Pedagantyada, Gajuwaka and a few more areas has several drains choked with garbage. It is the motorists who bear the brunt of the overflowing drains. At many places in One Town, the drains were large and the drain water inundated roads, irking shopkeepers and pedestrians.
“This is a low-lying area initially. Though sanitary workers continue to clear garbage, dumping plastic in drains creates issues and many shopkeepers do that. The civic body should act on it at the earliest,” said M Jayadev, a private employee from One Town.
Around 10,000 metric tonnes of waste is being generated in the city and most of it is plastic which is dumped into drains. The engineering wing of the GVMC has to take up desiltation of major drains and geddas before monsoon. According to a GVMC senior official, the city has around 85-km stretch of drains and they have covered about 40 to 50 per cent of desiltation process thus far.
The officer said that with the rains in the last one week, the desiltation works were disrupted. As the monsoon has set in, it would be even more difficult. Contacted, GVMC commissioner M Hari Narayanan, said more than 75 per cent of desiltation works have been completed and the rest are underway.
Control rooms set up
The district collector has instructed his team to be on its toes and make sure there was no property loss or health problems owing to rain this monsoon season. He asked the mandal-level officers to be available at their headquarters and focus on low-lying areas in their regions. He also asked them to open control rooms at all tehsildars offices. The overall situation in the district would be reviewed through command control room. Toll free numbers 1077/ 180042500002/ 9849913705/ 2735606/ 2735665 have been activated and public can contact during any kind of emergency, he said.