Come summer. The three canals passing through the city will speak volumes of apathy of Vijayawada Municipal Corporation. Bandar, Eluru, and Ryve’s canal, that serve drinking needs also down the stream, stand testimony to rampant pollution.
With the closure of irrigation canals, people are experiencing the hard reality -- the VMC turning a blind eye to sullage and drainage being let into those canals. The corporation in last April promised people of solving the problem once the two Sewerage Treatment Plants (STPs) were completed. The sullage would also be diverted into the STPs for treatment, the VMC promised. The works on STPs, however, did not commence for various reasons, including permissions from the railways.
At many places, the VMC itself lets out the sullage into the canals. For instance, take Eastern canal of Prakasam Barrage, the corporation lets out not less than 20 MLD of sullage and sewer being generated from One Town into it.
The sullage joins it in front of the VMC main office.
As many as 32 open drain outlets are there into Bandar Canal, 12 outlets into Eluru Canal and eight outlets into Ryves Canal in the city.
The canals are looking like mere drains.
With a lot of solid waste also coming into them, these canals have been turning into breeding ground for mosquitoes, with sewage getting stagnated. Mosquito menace has become an annual feature. For the last many years, the canals have been bearing the pollution caused by the corporation, and people residing alongside endlessly complaining about it.
