Hyderabad is losing its battle against garbage. The city is stinking and sinking in trash as the garbage keeps piling every higher. A change of strategy to clean up the trash is not helping as the size of the roadside and street corner mounds keeps growing every day. The intense heat of summer is not helping matters as the rotting organic matter is making passers-by squirm and pinch their masked nose.
For Ravi and his team of sanitary workers with the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation the day begins at the crack of dawn when they take their lumbering 10-tonne tipper through Nalanda Colony to pick up trash. “Earlier, we had garbage bins that would overflow. Now people are dumping the trash in the open areas and we lift it up. We are making four to five trips a day to clean up this area,” says Ravi who supervises his team of four sanitary workers.
The removal of garbage bins has turned vast areas into dumping grounds. A short drive through the city between Rambagh and Charminar via Kalapather shows a dozen dump sites.
And it is not limited one area or part of the city. Sri Ram Nagar Colony First Lancer, Alijah Kotla, Sitaram Bagh, Vijayanagar Colony, P&T Colony, Mehdiptnam, Attapur and Shahalibanda; name any area and there are garbage dumps. No open space is being spared. The land adjacent to Murali Manohar Temple, the Dargah near Falaknuma Road, graveyard near Petla Burj, school near Kishanbagh, Owaisi Vegetable Market and other open spaces have become dump yards.
“@KTRTRS Hi Sir hope you are doing well. I stay in old city of Hyderabad and I see that garbage containers have been removed and because of that we are seeing influx of mosquitoes in all areas. Is it intentionally done for some new project. Please consider the impact,” tweeted Praveen Thakur to raise the issue.
Another citizen tweeted: “GHMC trying to convert #Hyderabad bin free city or Garbage City?” While tagging municipal administration minister, GHMC officials and the mayor.
The removal of garbage bins has made the turned the transport of trash into a more inhumane operation as the sanitary workers have to manually handle the waste.
