HYDERABAD: The Musi River Front Development Corporation Limited (MRDCL) is planning to install fences along all the bridges on the Musi River to deter citizens from dumping waste in the river.
A drone survey done by MRDCL revealed hindrance points under the 17 bridges built on the river’s 40-km-long course. The bridges are built on points where the river course is narrow. Waste dumped from these bridge accumulates below the bridges and further narrows the river’s course. The dumped waste also gives rise to mosquito menace.
“We are proposing to have fencing along the bridges on Musi. A few bridges in the old city, where the garbage problem was more, are now covered by fences. However, the proposal to cover all the bridges in the city is in the pipeline,” said an official from MRDCL.
“There is garbage underneath every bridge that is built over Musi. Plastic waste and construction and demolishment (C&D) debris are serious obstacles to the flow of the river. The stagnation of water under the bridges has also resulted in the rise of mosquito menace,” said Rambabu, Chief Entomologist of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC).
The first point of obstruction due to plastic waste starts at Langer House-Attapur bridge. At this point, the river is choked to the point that water hyacinth, a weed that grows on stagnated water bodies and obstructs their flow, has covered a huge portion of the river.
“Every night, people from poultry farms in the area come at Attapur Bridge to dump the bird refuse into Musi. Besides, all day long, people keep dumping waste packed in plastic bags,” said Kartheek Kumar a resident of Janapriya Colony Attapur.
“GHMC’s garbage collectors do not come here to collect waste every day, we have no other option but to dump the remains in the water,” said a fruit market vendor from Puranapul bridge.