For the past five or six years, residents of K.G. Layout, near Saibaba Colony, are having problems with the storm water drains. In the months that the city sees no rain, the sewage is stagnant in the drains.
In the months that the city experiences rain, the sewage over flows on to the roads and sometimes into houses as well. This has been going on for more than five years, ever since the Coimbatore Corporation constructed the drains, rues S. Arun, a resident.
The reason that the sewage stagnates in the drain is due to the design flaw in construction. The gradient is not right, he adds.
The result of the poor gradient in the drains is that the residents are forced to spend on removing the silt that accumulates in low lying spots, the residents complain. “I'm forced to clean the stretch of drain in front of my house,” laments R.T. Saravanamuthu, a resident of First Cross Street.
During monsoon season the situation turns worse when sewage overflows on to the road and then into houses. During the 2018 monsoon season, the sewage entered not just the compound but inside his house, says Mr. Arun.
In a few stretches, the drains are also damaged, says V. Velliangiri, another resident.
The residents say that the Corporation will do well to clean the drains in the immediate future and work to repair the gradient in the drains before the start of the South West Monsoon.
The Corporation’s delay in cleaning and repairing the drains is only exposing the residents to mosquito menace, which has increased as the sewage stagnates. Therefore, at least in the interest of improving public health, the Corporation should clean the drains, demands S. Venkataraman, another resident.
A Coimbatore Corporation officials says that the immediate solution that the civic body can provide is cleaning the drainage. Once the model code of conduct is lifted, the civic body will look at repairing the drain by giving the right gradient.
