Pune: Sewage water seeps inside Kothrud societies as ‘smart city’ tag sinks

Five housing societies in the upper middle-class area of Kothrud have been dealing with blocked drains and sewage water seeping into homes for the last two days. The other four societies are Nisargsundar Housing Society, Sita Annapurna, Shivtara Housing Society and Omkar Housing society. Even as work to fix the problem goes on, most of the housing societies have switched off their electricity connections after rising sewage water levels threatened to inundate their main supply box. The unbearable stench of the sewage has added to their woes.

Mahesh Kunte, another resident of Runwal Sankalp, said the problem started early on Friday morning and escalated rapidly. “Our security guard told us about the drainage chambers overflowing, but initially we did not take it seriously. By the time we came out of our flats, the parking space was filled with sewage water and all the parked vehicles, both two-wheelers and four wheelers, were deep inside the stinking water,” he said.

Realising the gravity of the situation, the residents disconnected the main electricity connection and since then, have been living in darkness. The society also has no supply of clean drinking water.

“The water we had stored early on Friday morning has sustained us till now. The sewage water has entered our underground water tank,” he said.

Residents have been watching the frantic work undertaken by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to locate the blocked drainage lines. “They seem to be digging randomly… we have heard that they don’t even have proper maps of drainage pipes in the area,” said one of the residents.

While the PMC has employed multiple tankers to pump out the sewage water, the inflow of more sewage water is rapidly filling up the emptied space.

“If they are not able to solve the issue soon, we will be forced to lock our homes and take shelter with our relatives,” said Kulkarni.

In the neighbouring Sita Annapurna Housing Society, waterlogging has made residents prisoners in their own homes. Criticising the PMC, residents of the society said it was not right to talk about making Pune a ‘smart city’ when authorities couldn’t even handle the sewage problem.

Suresh Mathwad, a senior citizen, had to use a precarious steel ladder to climb down from his first floor flat. “Corporation officials say they do not have maps of the drainage network in the area… it’s a fine start to a smart city,” he said.

Another resident said the PMC needed to first get its act together and ensure basic amenities for residents of the city, before talking about ‘smart city’ plans.

Though PMC officials have been working round-the-clock to fix the leak, they have made little headway so far. Sunil Kesari, deputy commissioner of zone 1, said the blockage in the drain was yet to be located.

Queried about the ‘missing maps’, Kesari said the area has seen extensive civic work, so many of the new drainage maps have not been appended to the existing network maps. “We will clean the underground water tanks where sewage water has seeped in,” he said.

However, he could not give a time-frame for a resolution of the issue.