Cleaning of rivers, nullahs just an eye wash?
| Date :26-May-2022 |
By Kaushik Bhattacharya
Cleaning of the rivers and nullahs in the city is an annual affair for Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) before the monsoon. But the ground reality tells a different story every year.
The civic body is claiming that they have cleaned the major portion of rivers and nullahs but the dumped garbage, plastic waste, thermocol etc. can be seen flaoting in the nullahs revealing the reality of the work.
The city generates around 425-430 MLD of wastewater, which is mostly carried by the Nag river and Pili river. While checking the status, ‘The Hitavada’ found that the team of Nagpur Municipal Corporation is cleaning the Nag river, but ignoring many choking points mainly under the bridges like Tilak Nagar bridge, Bhole Petrol Pump Square bridge and Mor Bhavan bridge. These spots are choked with plastic bags, garbage and thermocol boxes dumped by citizens and shopkeepers. These bridges are the main reason behind water logging during monsoon specially at Shankar Nagar, Mor Bhavan, Panchasheel Square and WHC Road.
“It is difficult to use poclain machine near the bridges for cleaning. Use these machines will damage the bridge. Therefore, the Municipal Commissioner has directed Solid Waste Management Department to clean manually near these bridge points,” Manoj Talewar, Superintendent Engineer, Public Works Department told The Hitavada.
At an estimated cost of Rs 2,434 crore, of which NMC is to raise 15 per cent funding and rest to come from the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA), three small sewage treatment plants (STPs) are planned on the Nag river to treat the sewage water before releasing it in the water body. The project also plans to divert over 100 small streams that empty into Nag river to the main STP and laying of 1,362 km of sewage lines as part of the comprehensive network.
The excavation machines remove silt from the river bed and dump it both sides of the river bank. But the bridge points are still choked with garbage and all such spots should be cleaned before monsoon.
The sewage water at many places throughout the stretch directly entering into the
Nag river. During monsoon, heavy rains causes water logging at Shankar Nagar square, Tilak Nagar on West High Court Road and many other places in the city. Four-five years ago the Panchasheel Square to Variety
Square area experienced the flood like situation and the district administration ran boats on city road during that period. Like Nag river, the Shakti Nullah of Mohan Nagar is another spot that require immediate cleaning. The choked nullah cause flood like situation during monsoon every year but still the situation remain the same.
Shirking away the responsibility to Central Railway, Gajendra Mahalle, Deputy Commissioner, Solid Waste Management Department said, “The Shakti nullah enters into the DRM Office premises of Central Railway where it has full of wires that choking the flow of the water. We insisted Central Railway to clean the nullah in their premises for the smooth flow of the water.”
Mahalle said, “We conduct cleaning of the nullah every alternate days. But in some places it is impossible to clean the nullah due to encroachment.” It is the high time and the civic body has to finish the river and nullah cleaning work quickly to avoid flood like situation in low lying areas of the city during monsoon.