Drain water, bio-medical wastes pollute Nagavali

Srikakulam: Nagavali river, passing through the middle of Srikakulam city, is being polluted with drain water and waste from hospitals. Sanitary wing officials of Srikakulam Municipal Corporation have failed to arrest it and the officials of other line departments are also not cooperating with the corporation to prevent flow of drain water and hospitals waste into river water.

A big drain located adjacent to new road bridge on Nagavali river near Day and Night junction brings sewage water into the river. Half of the city drain water is flowing through the drain and which is flowing into Nagavali.

At least 50 hospitals are located in and around the Day and Night junction and these hospitals are releasing wastes directly into the drain which is passing into Nagavali. As a result drain water and bio-medical waste and other waste material are polluting the river. People express their concern and hesitate to use river water for drinking purposes. .

To make the problem more complex, water purifying tanks, in which river water is stored, are also located near the drain. Except chlorination of water, no other facilities like filter beds are available to purify water. As a result, city residents are forced to consume polluted water every day.

‘We are cleaning the drain occasionally and asked the hospitals’ managements not to dump their bio-medical waste into drain’ Municipal Corporation Commissioner R Sriramulu Naidu said.`

`We are going to bring awareness among people and others to prevent merging of pollutants into the river,’’ Executive Engineer for pollution control board (PCB) T Sudarsanam said.