Poor sanitation at Koyya Street in Visakhapatnam

Visakhapatnam: Generally, people ask for better sanitation facilities in their locality and the civic authorities stay reluctant to their demands. Contrary to this, the residents of Koyya Street in China Waltair have been dumping the waste in a drain while the GVMC cleaned it recently.

The GVMC had cleared the garbage just a week back after the residents had clogged the drain with improper disposal of trash during the festival season. 

Again, the drain is now full of waste materials including liquor bottles, plastic bags, sanitary napkins, papers and card boards. 

The civic body had co-nstructed a safety wall on both sides of the dr-ain which prevents the dirty water from entering the colony during the rainy season. Under the 14th finance commission, it had also all-otted Rs 34 lakh budget to build a culvert bridge over the drain. The work has commenced in August 2017, and is almost near to completion.

“The construction work of the culvert has been completed in three months. However, the concrete structure needs compaction. So, we have not given the finishing touches with cement plastering and clearing the construction material from the spot,” said A.V.V. Jaganmohan Rao, contractor for the GVMC work.

After a gap of three months, the contractor has restarted work on Sunday. Meanwhile, the public has made several complaints for the delay in the construction work of the culvert bridge. “If we don’t give time for compaction of the structure, the bridge may get damaged within a few years,” he said.

“The colony residents have faced problem in the past few months with the incomplete culvert bridge. This lies in between the 17th and 18th ward. People had to take a long route to avoid this bridge. Auto-rickshaws used to cha-rge extra money,” said S.C.H. Appa Rao, a resident who was a retired shipyard employee.

He further said that around 4,000-5,000 households live in this colony. As there were no municipal corporation elections for the past 5-6 years, there has been a lack of leadership to guide the people in right direction. The sense of responsibility towards maintaining good hygiene must be inducted among the public, he added.