A tortuous flow of filth & sewage

Hyderabad: Musi river gets severely contaminated during its long course of 43kms across Hyderabad. There are almost seventeen bridges Musi has to pass through in the city. Each of them is a barrier to the moving river as it is used to sweep away the garbage of the city contaminating the water every day. 

While the bridge over the river acts as a hurdle to the flowing water as the plastic bags and garbage traps the water making it stagnant, resulting in the tightening of the flow.

The first bridge Musi encounters is the Tipu-Sultan Bridge at Sun City where the sewage lines of the nearby gated community are connected to the flow, and the waste on the other side traps the water, the river is further followed by the Langer Houz- Attapur Bridge which is the point where both the tributaries of the river from Himayat and Osman Sagar meet together. 

Pruthvi Raj a mechanical engineer who lives nearby said “It is a place where most of the puja and domestic waste is being dumped as it is a sangam of two rivers. Everyday vehicles stop by to dispose their waste into the river from over the bridge and the number doubles during festivals. 

It is sad that people dump both puja and domestic waste at the same place. Owing to this, water can’t move freely from under the bridge due to which the water hyacinth grows, which worsens the situation. Stagnant water is also an invitation to breeding mosquitoes as well”.  He added that there are no dustbins nearby where people can throw the waste to prevent further damage.

Sanjay a daily jogger at Langer Houz Bridge said “earlier there used to be a dustbin at the corner, now it is a private property so people throw garbage into the river. He also added if they bind fences along the bridges and place a dustbin nearby it will prevent the people from throwing garbage.

The river further travels to Attapur- Bridge; which is also a point of  garbage disposal, Gopal who works at the Musi bridge construction site says we are renovating the Attapur Bridge by replacing the tiles but there is no-one who could avoid or prevent the people from dumping garbage. 

By Mayank Tiwari