Residents might be aware that the current project of laying new sewer pipe lines by Noida Authority is going in sector 40. This work is almost complete in Blocks F and C. The residents of these blocks had to face tremendous problems and inconvenience due to breakage of water pipes and snapping of communication cables during the digging process with heavy JCB excavators. It was very difficult for the residents to take out their vehicles and were left with no alternative except to park them at far off places.
What caused Noida Authority to undertake this exercise was the severe blockage of existing sewer lines which had become almost dead and unserviceable. The main reason for this was due to the slackness of health department employees who had never taken up regular cleaning of these sewers resulting in severe blockages of pipes. I have been living in B block since 2011 but I have never seen Noida health department employees cleaning the sewer in front of my house even once in these past years, whereas, these sewers are required to be cleaned regularly at least once in six months to take out the sludge and to prevent these lines from blockage. Whenever there is a problem of blockage of lines, the department employees come with a bamboo slice (Khapachhi) and try to push it in the pipes a number of times to open it. This process seems to be a temporary one making some stuff move and the effluent start flowing. But certainly there is a need for a permanent solution which lies only in taking out the garbage from the pipes to make them free flowing.
This problem is not only in our sector but it is there in many other sectors also. Such laying has already been taken up in Sectors 19 and 26. Recently CEO Noida Authority had expressed his anguish over staff not doing the cleaning of drains and sewers in the city which itself is a blot on the Noida Authority staff. He had to take out a circular warning Noida Authority staff to ensure cleaning the drains and sewers all over Noida within three days failing which they may have to face termination. The drains in our sector are full with stagnant water but I have not seen any employee cleaning drains and sewers in our sector even after such strict warning. The drain in front of B 26 is still full with stagnant water making it a breeding ground for mosquitoes at a time when dengue is at its peak. Every year before commencement of the rainy season, Noida Authority orders cleaning of drains and sewers but the prevailing conditions prove that cleaning is done on papers only.
Now after laying of new sewer lines these have to be cleaned on a regular basis. If the carelessness and slack attitude of the Noida employees continues, these new sewers will also reach the same stage of severe blockage. Noida authority again will have to resort to the same exercise after ten years. After bearing such a heavy expenditure on laying of new sewers, Noida Authority will have to resurface the dug up roads in the sector which itself will involve heavy cost and wasting of taxpayers’ money. The change of sewers should have been done only at those places where there were breakages instead of laying new pipes all over in the sector. At all other places cleaning should have been done with machines to make the sewers flow freely. It also becomes the duty of RWAs of the sectors to pursue Noida Authority to get the drains and sewers cleaned on a regular basis so as to prevent such severe blockages. At the same time it also becomes the duty of residents not to flush sanitary napkins and papers which are the root cause of blockages in the pipes. Hope some good sense will prevail on the residents
