Vijayawada stinks due to blocked drains

Vijayawada: Vijayawada city is stinking with blocked drains. The city with nearly 1.5 million population is only partly covered with underground drainage system.
Many colonies, including some of them in the heart of the city are still having open drainage system.

Around 60 per cent of the city is yet to get the underground drains. The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) has completely failed to see the smooth flow of sewerage in the open drains.

Most of the open drains are filled with garbage and plastic waste.
Mogalrajapuram, Pinnamaneni Polyclinic Road, Christurajapuram, parts of Eluru Road, Patamata, Nirmala Convent Road, Panta Kaluva Road,  Auto Nagar, Sikhamani Center and Prajasakti Nagar areas are worst hit with blocked drains.

The 37th division corporator, Gade Adilaxmi said cleaning of drains is not taking place in the city. Even for a small amount of rain the drains are overflowing at many places in the city, she said and added that in One Town area, the situation is much worse.

YSRC floor leader in the council B.N. Punyaseela said if it rains like in Chennai and Hyderabad, here the entire city will get submerged. Vijayawada central MLA Bonda Uma Maheswar Rao also expressed displeasure over siltation of drains.

Mr Rao said the major problem he noticed during the ongoing Jana Chaitanya Yatra was blocked drains. He said the VMC authorities should deploy more sanitation workers to improve the condition of the drains.

Denizens are not only suffering with the stink that is coming out from the drains but also from the mosquito menace. The blocked drains have become the breeding grounds for mosquitoes and the menace is rampant in the city because of the poor sanitation.