“This cannot be removed by sweeping with a broom,” say Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation’s sanitation workers as they await the big machines to clean the trash lining the road.
On the northern bank of River Musi before the Purana Pul, garbage covers the bent trees, sidewalks, electric supply lines, temples built inside the river and washing stands of the washermen. The garbage ranges from furniture, electrical wires, used tyres, plastic waste, clothes and building waste. Where there is no garbage, there is sludge and muck.
Environmental damage
Away from the human tragedy wrecked by the rain over the past 10 days is the environmental destruction which has not yet been calculated. “We stay up there. The waste has been dumped on the road which is lower than the colony’s level,” says Latha, a resident of Sanjeev Nagar, who washes clothes in the river.
“It is inevitable there will be an outbreak of diseases if the waste is not moved quickly and processed. The biological waste can get into the water system and lead to diseases,” says K. Sujata Rao, former Union Health Secretary when informed about the waste that has been dumped by the river.
Multiple sewage channels in the city dump unprocessed waste into the river. According to the Telangana State Pollution Control Board, there are 23 sewage treatment plants on the Musi. The pollution control body pegged the cost of construction and maintenance of additional sewage treatment plants required to process the water flowing in the river over a 10-year period at ₹15,884 crore. Currently, only 43% of water flowing into the river undergoes some form of waste treatment.
“Whatever garbage that has been dumped in the river and in its catchment area must have been washed ashore. The river is dry most of the time and the waste must have accumulated there. If it is processed at designated sites, there should be no problem,” says V. Srinivas Chary of Centre of Excellence in Urban Development at Administrative Staff College of India.
Till Tuesday evening, the civic body said it has removed 8,293 tonnes of monsoon waste in the city.
