COIMBATORE: The residents of Ramalingapuram near Udaiyampalayam in CCMC ward 50 have demanded the government to return the tax money they had paid in the last 30 years as the underground drainage network has not been sanctioned to the locality yet.
Due to the lack of sewage channels, residents have constructed soak pits to discharge sewage and wastewater. Several soak pits have become full and sewage is now flowing onto the road, which poses a health hazard.
There are 15 houses in two streets in Ramalingapuram. People complain that basic facilities including UGD, stormwater drains, and even roads have not been provided in the last three decades. The residents mainly demand UGD saying they are facing troubles in discharging waste water.
“Ramalingapuram has not had basic facilities like sewage channel for the last 30 years. Due to this, we have set up sewage tanks (soak pits) in front of every house to discharge sewage. However, since it is clay soil, the water absorption capacity of the soil is too low, due to which choke pits often fill up and the sewage flows onto the road. Hence we have to spend our own money up to Rs 4000 per month to clear the pits twice a month,” said M John Paul, who has been residing there for the last three years.
“Initially, I constructed the choke pit for six feet, but it overflowed within eight months. Hence I altered it with 12 feet. The individual houses manage the situation with a single soak pit. However, apartments or houses with multiple portions need to have additional choke pits and they must be cleared once in 15 days. Though there is a sewage channel within 100 metres of our area, neither the CCMC officials nor councillor G Gheetha of the DMK has taken action to address the issue,” said another resident requesting anonymity.
Gheetha said “We have tried several times to fix this problem. Engineers from CCMC and consultancies examined the area and declared there is no slope to drain the sewage. They also warned that setting up open sewer channels will result in stagnation. UGD is the only option.”
She added that there is not enough space to set up a common collection point to collect and discharge sewage. “I know that if this problem is not fixed, it will create a bad name for me. But the people there know we have been constantly trying to fix it. We will find a solution soon.”
When asked, the Commissioner of Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation M Sivaguru Prabakaran assured us to take action on the issue and collected the details about the location from TNIE.