Drainage overflow makes life hard for residents

Banjara Hills: Residents of Sriniketan Colony of Road Number 3, Banjara Hills are facing a severe problem with the drainage overflow every day with the inappropriate dumping of drainage waste by the hotels in the Q-Mart building into the main pipes leading to the drainage flow on to roads.

The colony residents alleged that for last two years the problem is remained unsolved by the HMWSSB (Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board) officials. They lamented that their relatives, friends, and well-wishers have not shown interest to visit their homes due to the unbearable smell of the wastage in the colony.

With the regular overflow of drainage, the micro vendors on the street have already left the area with no chance of getting customers with the bad smell. Even as the plenty of complaints to the Sewerage Board by the colony residents, the problem is not yet completely resolved as the officials are only keen on cleaning the surroundings regularly instead of giving a permanent solution.

Last year, a one-year-old-baby-boy, grandson of Chandra Mohan, resident of Sriniketan Colony died due to dengue, is an example of how these colony members are facing severe issues. With the temperatures are recording as low as every day, the residents fear prevailing of many such diseases.

Chandra Mohan said, “I am living here for decades and I never witnessed this kind of problem. The problem was started when the new hotels were established in Q-Mart as they don’t have a proper drainage system for dumping wastage.

With pumping their wastage by using motors directly into the main drainage lines, it was leading to the overflow every day due to the high pressure,” Chandra Mohan said that he wrote many letters to the HMWSSB officials, but they were failed to give a complete solution and added that whenever the colony people filed a complaint, they are concentrating on cleaning the area for a temporary purpose and not issuing notices to the hotels. He speculates that the high range political pressure may behind the issue which is preventing the officials to take necessary action.

Chandra Mohan said, “The possible solution is that they need to delink their drainage connection to another side, or the officials need to replace the pipes with bigger ones to control the pressure. The officials must siege these hotels if they don’t respond to the notices.”

Khadar, a driver who lives in the Maitri Residency must clean his house every day as the Q-Mart’s wastage is leaking directly into his home. He said, “My home is filling with the drainage water of the Q-Mart building every day. It’s unbearable for us to stay here any longer under these circumstances.”

When contacted, Vishnuvardhan Rao, Manager, Water Works, Banjara Hills said, “We have already given notices to the hotel managements to solve the issue as soon as possible. These hotels drainage system was set up under 6-meters to the ground levels which is difficult to connect to the main drainage lines. Frequently, we are cleaning the area with tankers.

Last week, we cleaned more than 10 manholes with two vehicles. To give a permanent solution, the hotel people need to dump their wastage into the tanks to throw it on nalas or faraway dumping yards. We warned them to follow the permanent solution suggested by us or else will siege them shortly. We will solve the issue within a week.”

-V Sateesh Reddy