The rising menace of open drains….Cordelia Jenkins
Multiplicity of governance bodies, illegal borewells and theft of manholes have worsened the situation on the ground
Multiplicity of governance bodies, illegal borewells and theft of manholes have worsened the situation on the ground
New Delhi: Pedestrians in New York City may be accustomed to glancing down and seeing the Made In India stamps on their citys manhole covers, but Delhiites are more worried about not seeing their drains covered at all. The last few months have seen a spate of accidents, some deadly, involving children and adults falling into open drains or abandoned illegal borewells in and around the capital.
Earlier this month, a four-year-old schoolboy, Sunny, fell into an open drain in sector 16 of Ghaziabad. His body was found later in the day. In that case, the school management was blamed by the police for causing death by negligence. But the problem, it seems, goes far beyond the question of whether the boy was being properly monitored by his teachers. A week earlier , a six-year-old had died in similar circumstances, falling into a sewage drain in Manesar. And two weeks before that, on 21 June, another four-year-old child, Mahi, died after she fell into an abandoned illegal borewell pit near her home in Khoh, near Manesar, Gurgaon. Her body was recovered three days later after an 82-hour rescue operation.
Delhi does not keep specific data related to deaths involving civic infrastructure, but the ministry of home affairs records that, India-wide, the number of people killed by falling into pits and manholes has increased from 1,743 in 2010 to 1,847 in 2011a rise of 6%. It is likely that the real number is much higher given that many such instances arent reported at all. The numerous anecdotes speak for themselves.
Hazardous holes
Its an issue of negligence, said Ashok Bhattacharjee, director of the Unified Traffic and Transportation Infrastructure (Planning and Engineering) Centre (UTTIPEC). There is no system of checking or monitoring of uncovered drains. The people who are constructing them should also be responsible for managing them later.
UTTIPEC, an organization operating under the Delhi Development Authority with members from all the key transport and planning departments, has produced both street and pedestrian guidelines in the past couple of years to try to make Delhis pavements safer. The problem, says Bhattacharjee, has been the mentality that the roads are primarily for vehicles, putting pedestrians in second place.
Pavements have always been neglected, he said. They need to be retrofitted using our guidelines. Once you start talking about street design there are so many things involved. Its not just open drains but street lighting and womens safety also.
The lack of adequate street lighting in many areas of Delhi seems to exacerbate the dangers of walking on the roads. On 26 June, Sardool Singh, a 72-year-old man from Rajouri Garden in west Delhi, was killed after he fell into a three-feet-deep drain near his home. According to news reports, Singh didnt notice the open pit in the middle of the footpath as the light was fading.
And the dangers posed by open drains in Delhi are not just physical. Aidan Cronin, a specialist at UNICEFs water, sanitation and health department, says that open drains in the city are also a serious health hazard, especially during the monsoon, when high water levels make drowning more likely and spread diseases more quickly. Open drains are dangerous as they can act as a breeding ground for mosquitoes, but also they are a safe haven for rats and all sorts of vermin so they can be a real public health danger, Cronin said via email.
In a city that has suffered from a severe water shortage in the last few months, illegal borewells (dug without government permission by residents who often have no other access to water) are another serious hazard, judging by the number of accidents that have occurred in or near them in recent months.
And the problem is not limited to the capital. On 9 July, another four-year-old was rescued after falling into a borewell in a Maharashtra village near Aurangabad. In Bhubaneswar, in 2008, 32-year-old doctor Surya Narayan Gochhayat fell to his death down a 15-ft-deep drain onto iron construction rods.
Governance failures
In some states, efforts have been made to reduce the dangers of open drains and borewells. In 2003, responding to yet another child death, the Tamil Nadu government passed the Ground Water (Development and Management) Act, making it mandatory to get permission from the state government before sinking a borewell and for local authorities to monitor the work and to ensure that abandoned or unfinished borewells were immediately covered.
It also reduced the diameter of such wells, concluding that there was no need to dig a pit more than six inches wide to access water. That makes it difficult for anyone, even a child, to fall into a borewell.
Praveen Kumar, the Gurgaon administrator of Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), didnt seem impressed by this fact. In the case of Mahi, I measured that borewell myself. It was just 8 inches in diameter. The reason for her choking to death very quickly was the narrowness of the hole, he said.
In the National Capital Region, civic groups and local residential bodies have protested the alarming frequency with which accidents continue to happen. Bhawani Tripathy, president of Mission Gurgaon Development, a civic organization formed by residents of Gurgaon to promote governance and development issues, said the city government needs to be more sensitive towards life in general.
Human life should not be considered cheap. Gurgaon is an unsafe city, its often the practice to leave drains uncovered. Holes are dug up and are usually unfenced and uncovered and can be potential accidents not only for humans but for animals too, Tripathy said.
Part of the problem, according to Tripathy, is that Gurgaon is run by several different governance bodies. The HUDA, the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) and Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) all have a hand in the citys infrastructure.
Gurgaon is an unplanned city and many of the civic work is done in an arbitrary way and demonstrates unskilled workmanship, Tripathy said. HUDA was in charge of everything until three years ago, but now the municipal corporation does some of the work. Sewage and water is municipal responsibility now.
Keeping the responsibility with one body would simplify matters, Tripathy said. We want local governance to be strengthened hereHUDA is managed from Chandigarh, whereas the municipal corporation is a local body and is directly responsible to the people. A single planning and development authority would definitely help.
Kumar, the Gurgaon administrator of HUDA, denied that the multiplicity of organizations was making each inefficient. MCG has its own areas to look after and HUDA its own, he added.
At the end of June, Kumar told reporters that he would begin a drive to cover any remaining open manholes in and around Gurgaon within a week. In a subsequent interview, he said it would remain a challenge. We have made substantial progress, but we have two problems: there is the problem of theft of these manholes, people are not stealing for the reward money but because of povertythey can sell these manhole covers for Rs. 250 in the market. We put in place 130 new covers and many of them were stolen. Its not possible to lock them down because of their design.
Some of HUDAs incentives have reportedly run into difficulties. On 7 July, The Times of India reported that the district administration announced a reward of Rs. 500 to anyone who informed them about an uncovered borewell, pit or manhole. It hadnt worked at all as people were simply removing the cover, reporting the borewell or drain, and collecting the reward.