How serious is the water-logging issue for the residents?
During the monsoon season, two to three feet deep water gets accumulated in the streets, forcing the residents to hire rickshaws even to travel small distance. Senior citizens and children are the ones who suffer the most. When sewer water flows back into the houses, the whole society stinks. Imagine the situation of human waste floating inside your house. This also puts us at risk of contracting diseases from insects.
Being an RWA office-holder, what action have you taken to resolve the issue?
See, the RWA has no authority to tackle such an issue, else we would have done it long ago. We can only flag it before the authorities which we have done so many times. Even the media highlighted it, but nothing came of it.
Have you approached higher authorities?
Yes. We even went to the CM’s residence, but they did not give us any time or opportunity to bring up our grievance. Area councillors and legislators do listen to us and they also take action, but such solutions are either temporary or ineffective. Senior government officials, on their part, only give us false hope rather than concrete solutions.
How can the problem be solved?
First and foremost, the drain must be desilted well before the monsoon season so the water backflow doesn’t happen. Water pipelines in our area were laid thirty years ago. Since that time, the population of our area has increased ten times, so it is obvious that they need to be augmented.