G. Gangaraju, a father of three, never would have imagined getting buried in an 18-foot-deep underground drainage channel. He was almost out of the manhole, but slipped to death into the slush gushing out of the just-opened concrete dummy block that kept the entire human waste generated in Ajith Singh Nagar from flowing further for weeks.
It seemed like death came out of the blue for the 37-year-old licensed plumber, doubling as UGD worker, in the place of a contract worker.
But death almost looks imminent for all those manual scavengers or sanitation workers who go down to the bottom of manholes nothing short of poisonous gas chambers to either remove the dummy joint on new UGD lines or clear silt and other blockages on a daily basis.
It took nearly five hours for authorities to retrieve the body of Gangaraju, while his co-workers who feared the same fate in the process of helping him didn’t even try. Because they still remember how their co-worker P. Venkateswara Rao, 50, died and K. Durga Rao got hospitalised after they tried to help out K. Rambabu who died due to asphyxiation in a 15-foot-deep manhole in a similar situation at Bhavanipuram on March 15 last year.
Citizens to be blamed?
This manual cleaning, a shade of scavenging, is still being practised despite a ban on handling human excreta in any manner, and the emergence of mechanical utilities mainly due to two reasons: citizens flushing hard materials through their washrooms and periodical silt formation in UGDs.
While the problem of silt has a solution in the form of machinery, the issue of disposing of hard material wastes such as sanitary napkins, plastics and others doesn’t have one.
“The plight of scavengers came down from having to get completely drowned in the human waste to just getting into it without drowning and doing what the machines couldn't do,” Ravi (name changed) a middle-aged contract worker for VMC explains the so-called change in a nutshell.
“During my days, we went to the bottom of the overflowing UGD to remove silt or objects that obstruct the flow. Kids (young scavengers) now need not do that, thanks to machines. They have to get down into the waste to handle the pipe,” Mr. Ravi told The Hindu, while UGD cleaning work in a locality was going on.
“All we need is proper protective gear while doing the job. Sanitary napkins and plastic are a major source of blockages in the drains, and such disposals should be curbed to put an end to this practice,” Mr. Ravi, who is earning Rs. 9,500 per month for the last 19 years, emphasised.
While Mr. Ravi was explaining their issues, his younger counterpart, Durga Rao, 21, wearing just a knicker stepped into a manhole, inserted the suction pipe, cleared the clog and later bathed on the roadside with the clean water available on the air-tech machine. He then joined another colleague in clearing the surface level blocks in another manhole.
Durga Rao is too new on the job to understand the hazards of it. “I have joined this job just three months ago. None of my parents or family members did this work earlier. I started cleaning silt in 15 to 20 feet deep open drains in Krishnalanka. Later, I took this up,” he says. When asked about the dangers of the job and the recent Wambay Colony incident, Mr. Durga Rao said: “Nothing like that happened to me so far,” and boarded the truck to clean another overflowing manhole in the locality.
There are about 200 workers like Durga Rao in the city and more in the outskirts where septic tanks still exist.
VMC’s efforts
On the other hand, engineering officials of VMC claim that they are insisting on using the safety gear required after last year's incident.
Municipal Commissioner J. Nivas said efforts are being put to ensure that entire works of UGDs is done mechanically. “Like no other civic body in the State, we have been using six air-tech machines, six vertical desilting machines and recently bought 13 horizontal desilting machines at a cost of more than ₹1 crore,” Mr. Nivas said.
On the other hand, the problem is with the disposal of all sorts of material into the UGDs by residents, he said. “We even find clothes in the UGDs. To put an end to this, we are insisting on setting up of inspection pits on the premises of houses from where the UGD connection is given,” he added.
The civic body has extended a financial help of ₹10 lakh to Gangaraju’s family along with ₹5 lakh support through Chandranna Bima scheme. Also, Gangaraju’s wife has been promised a contract job and house in any housing project.
