After heavy rain lashed most parts of the Nilgiris on Monday evening, the infrastructure problems inherent in Udhagamandalam town were laid bare as clogged sewers and overflowing drains led to water entering houses of people living in low-lying areas.
Residents of Lower Bazaar, Upper Bazaar, Greenfields, R.K. Puram, Hospital Road, and Khandal complained of sewage mixed with rain water entering their homes. Sanitary workers who were called in to unclog the sewage lines said that waste dumped improperly into the sewers by residents, and food waste by hotels had contributed to the problem.
Many residents called municipality officials and threatened protests if workers were not sent to drain the water from their streets. Udhagamandalam Municipality Commission (in-charge), V. Prabhakaran, visited most of the places affected and promised to mobilise sanitary workers to clean the sewage lines and prevent any garbage piling up in the future.
Hotels and restaurants have also been asked by the municipality to not dump any of their waste directly into the sewers, failing which they have been threatened with fines by the municipality.
According to data available, over 35 mm of rainfall was recorded in Udhagamandalam in two hours on Monday. The heavy rain damaged roads.
Water logged roads, including Charring Cross, affected traffic. Municipality officials said that work on repairing the roads will start in the coming days.
