BANGALORE: Every year hundreds of crores of rupees are claimed to have been spent by the BWSSB on clearing drains and laying new pipelines among others. This may be reassuring on paper, but the facts are of this ‘reality’ is borne solely by the unassuming city dweller.Like every year, the BWSSB has been caught ‘napping’, as they are now scrambling to finish all remaining de-silting works, even though the ‘monsoon comes every year’.Though many claims have been made that all de-silting works would be completed within the onset of the monsoon season, early monsoons have put them in a fix.“We are de-silting and clearing the manholes and the Under Ground Drains (UDG) everyday” said BWSSB Executive Engineer Satish. Speaking to City Express, he shared that they identified a particular area every day to carry out operations. “We have three de-silting machines at the moment. As of now we have cleared approximately 150 manholes in and around Shivajinagar, Vasanthnagar and other surrounding areas,” he shared.He also said that they cleared the manholes in Bharathinagar on Wednesday. Passing the buck on responsibilty, he said that if the BBMP ensured that the storm water drains were cleared and unblocked, the problem of flooding would probably be under control.According to the BBMP, more than 747 kilometres of primary and secondary drains will be de-silted before the onset of the monsoon.This mammoth task would also include building retaining walls, removal of encroachments and fencing of Storm Water Drains.They have also pitched in their support to come out in the aid of the people, but constraints in the water board is an aspect that the Palike cannot control. Though the BBMP has thrown their weight behind the de-silting works, city corporators have expressed that insubordination and the lethargic attitude of the BWSSB was reflecting poorly on them.Engineer in Chief of BWSSB, Venkatraju was taken to task by the council during Tuesday’s monthly BBMP meeting as well. Corporators had stated that they were being blamed by their voters in their respective wards. “How long does the BWSSB need to finish minor works that were already agreed upon”, DJ Halli corporator Sampath Raj fumed at the engineer.The official shared that that there was over 4,000 kms of pipelines to be replaced and the contracts for the same had been awarded.He added that the Water Board was only capable of laying 100-150 kms of pipelines per year and that the works would be completed within 36 months. Enraged that the city would not complete the UGD for the next three years, corporators took the official to task for poor performance.But officials being taken to task has not solved the problems of the pedestrian who has to walk in three feet of sewage water, or incidents of the same entering dwellings and damaging property and threatening an outbreak of water borne diseases.
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