Thiruvananthapuram: Silt near drains turns nasty

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Thiruvananthapuram Corporation has been appointing workers to clean up the drain and facilitate smooth movement of storm water as the monsoon advances but the effort seems to be going down the drain as the silt and filth extracted from the drain are kept beside it, without being transported to dumpsites. The silt finds its way back to the same drain once it rained again.

The sight of the silt being kept near the drains is common in Kamaleswaram, Kuriyathy and Kannamoola wards, among others. The corporation, has, however, taken notice of this. “Respective health inspectors are to find plots which are private or public to dump the silt,” mayor V.K. Prasanth told DC. “Sometimes the silt is kept beside the drain for it to dry off. We have given strict instruction to avoid this.” He said money from the Rs1-lakh fund that has been kept aside for each of the 100 wards can be used for such cleaning activities.

Vehicles can be hired privately if corporation vehicles are not available. As per corporation workers, dozens of wards located beside the NH bypass used to treat the sides of road as landfill. However, with latest highway widening, there is a severe dearth of space to dump the waste. “Plastic waste is too common in all of these drains. So people prefer red earth over the soil unlike earlier,” a worker said.   As per Raveendran Nair of Kamaleswaram, gratings are missing in even well-tiled drains leading to clogging due to plastic waste instead of soil.