6 months on, sewage leak stinks of official apathy

Santosh Nagar: Even before the rains cause inundation in the city, some parts of the Old City continue to reel under the civic issues like sewerage leakage, which are flooding road and causing inconvenience at a marketplace.

The leakage at Madannapet X Roads is an instance, which has persisted for the past six months, reflecting laxity of civic authorities in resolving the problem. Residents have blamed this on the delay of upgrading the pipelines on the entire stretch.

There is a massive sewerage leakage near Madannpet X Road under Kurmaguda division in Santosh Nagar. Despite several representations by locals, the problem has not been solved for the last 6 months.

As the road is badly damaged because of the continuous overflow, it is causing hardships not only to locals but also to pedestrians and commuters taking this road. Along the drain, the wastage can also be seen strewn for the entire stretch. Now people have started avoiding this route because of the foul smell emanating from the place of leakage. Regular road users are seen taking this route, closing their nostrils.

"This drain is overflowing from the lane near Madannapet Eidgah road. For about half a kilometer, it flows on main road. We lodged many a complaint and the officials come up and only eliminate the problem for time being, and the very next day anyone can witness the same condition resurfacing. The officials have to fix it permanently, as we suffer a lot due to this," said Mohammed Amer, a shopkeeper.

"It is really disappointing that for past 6 months the sewerage leakage remained persistent and now the residents are getting habituated to this. There should be no further delay and authorities need to check for the root cause of the problem and clean it regularly or fix it permanently," said Shaik Raheemuddin, a resident. He also said that a private school is located on the stretch and the students and parents can be seen frustrated due to this issue. Owing to this problem, regular traffic jams are also witnessed on the road, he added.

According to a local leader, Abdul Rahman, "The officials are unable to zero in on root cause and fix it permanently. They are just engaging workers to clean the mess and leaving the problem unanswered." "To solve this problem, there should be a new sewerage pipeline. But the divisional assistant engineer has been delaying the sanction of new pipeline work in the area for last 4 months," he added.