COIMBATORE: Yet another sanitary worker died of suffocation after inhaling poisonous gases in the process of cleaning a septic tank near Gandhipuram on Thursday morning. Despite manual scavenging being illegal, sanitary workers are still called up for the job by many. The man, who hired the worker in this case, blamed lack of timely medical help for the worker’s death.
B Mahendran (35) of CMC Colony in Kamarajapuram, received a call around 10.30 am on Thursday, asking him to clean a septic tank at a house on 9th street in Gandhipuram. The call came from the owner of the house Somasundaram. With the help of a few other sanitary workers in the area, Mahendran unclogged three chambers of the tank. However, it was the fourth chamber that turned out to be fatal for Mahendran.
Somasundaram told Express that Mahendran stopped responding to his queries after getting into the chamber.
“When I went nearby to call him, I found him to be unconscious,” he said. He managed to pull out Mahendran and tried to get help. While his call to the hospital nearby went unanswered, he managed to reach a 108 ambulance service personnel. However, he arrived at the spot and declared Mahendran dead.
Somasundaram claimed that Mahendran still had a faint pulse, when he pulled him out of the tank; however, as help did not arrive on time, he died. Somsundaram denied the claims that Mahendran died of inhaling poisonous gases.