Civic ‘slum’ber: Sewerage a major problem with improper maintenance by municipality

Sarita Kanaji of Sinheshwari Nagar says: “We have got sewerage lines, but every second week, they get blocked. We have to send an application to the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) at least thrice before they send someone to clear it. We also have to pay Rs 5-10 to the man who cleans it. But most of the time, we have to clean it ourselves.”

The slums of Hanuman Nagar and Narsinhji na Chapra at Gomtipur also face similar problems. .

According to Somaji Thanaji, of Narsinhji na Chapra, narrow sewerage lines have been laid by the AMC. Even after days of opposition, the government did not lay new drainage lines but merged the old drainage lines with the newly-constructed main cesspool provided under the programme.

Somaji further adds that the individual connections of the drains are connected to the main pipeline, which is seldom cleaned. The blockage of the main sewer leads to overflowing of individual sewers and even clogging in the toilets .

Slum pockets like Shri Om Nagar of Vanjara Vas have made pits in front of their homes to collect the wastewater. When it reaches the brim, they dispose it in front of their shanties. The wastewater collected thus leads to stench and filth outside the homes. Residents of Tulsibhagat ni chali at Pravinnagar had appealed to the AMC for drainage pipelines, but it has been over a year and there is still no help in sight.

“We paid to get a no-objection certificate (NOC). We even paid for the drainage connection, but nothing has materialised in the last one year. Every month, we go to the Usmanpura office to request the officials to lay the pipelines, but all that they tell us is that the pipeline is coming up in a week,” says Sayra Khatik of Tulsibhagat in chali in Vanjara Vas of Pravinnagar.

The slum-dwellers are also entitled to benefits of solid waste management. The city generates more than 1400 tonnes of garbage everyday. The city is divided into five zones and 11 distribution centres to manage solid waste. There are about 9,000 sweepers in these five zones. The waste is collected and disposed of in the southwest fringe of Ahmedabad.

The Hanuman Nagar slum has been found to have poor waste management. This slum pocket consisting of 294 hutments has a sizeable population. Although waste collection is supposed to be done everyday, the visit of garbage collectors are few and far inbetween. The slums of Narsinhji na Chapra in Gomtipur also face the same predicament.

“The garbage collector doesn’t come everyday and argues with us if we ask him to come regularly. Many times, we have collected the waste ourselves and have walked far to dispose it. The government had also assured us of dustbins, but it has been a yearlong wait already,” says Savita Thanaji, a resident of Narsinhji na Chapra.

Even when the slum residents have expressed their willingness to pay for services, the speed of work has been reportedly slow. The substandard infrastructure of the slums falls apart during monsoons causing inconvenience to the residents.

The storm water drainage project has also not been satisfactory with the slums under SNP. There are about 42 discharge points out of which only 27 are functional. A considerable percentage of slums reportedly face severe problems during monsoon.