The national Capital is plagued by the problem of a bad drainage system which consistently leaves a stench in many areas and overflows with even a drop of rainfall. Exacerbating the problem, the civic authorities responsible to desilt and clean them to ensure that it don’t make the area inhabitable and hamper the lives of the common people, often shrug their responsibility.
One such drain flows from Lado Sarai and Chattarpur area and through most of the posh South Delhi areas. It is open infront of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) camp and the Saket metro station. Residents and people working in the area complain of persistent foul smell from the drain, even as they are forced to carry on with their lives amid the stench.
Many do not even remember if they ever saw civic agencies undertaking cleaning work of the drain, which lies right in the heart of the city. Some suggest it was years ago when they saw such an activity. An autodriver who parks his vehicle right near the drain said that it emits a foul smell, making it very hard to work. “You can get the smell yourself. We smell it daily but what can we do? We have to work here only because customers come here,” Lakhinder Singh said.
He resides in Sangam Vihar with his family, which is also not free from the foul smell. A resident of a nearby colony expressed his dissatisfaction with the government over not being able to carry out a cleaning drive on a regular basis. “As far as I remember I have only seen any cleaning of this drain three years ago. Since then, at least three monsoons have passed when waterlogging becomes a very big issue. This drain overflows during the monsoon and creates a very bad situation in the area, especially for people who have their homes here,” he said.
Another person, who puts up his food stall nearby, recalled how summer makes things even worse when it smells even worse. “A lot of people and tourists come to the Saket area and hence we put our stall here so we can earn some money but sometimes it smells so bad that customers do not want to stand here and eat. The government agencies should clean such big drains,” he said, adding that when foreigners come it tarnishes our image on a global level.
Residents in the Khanpur and Sainik Farms area who are experiencing discomfort in their normal lives on a daily basis due to the construction work of Delhi Metro share how the drain is making their lives even worse.
“When the smell from the drain reaches even our home, which is not located very close to it, you can assess how it must be,” a man residing in Sainik Farms said, adding that it also overflows in monsoon causing waterlogging in the streets and making it hard to travel through the stretch.
Even as there are multiple agencies in Delhi that manage the city’s big and small drains, the high court has called for a single agency to look after them. Moreover, the current design of the drainage system, which was put in place almost 50 years ago in 1976, needs to be overhauled since it can only easily drain 50mm of rain in a day with the city coming to its knees whenever it witnesses massive intense rains.
