The Hindu 08.02.2011
City lacks comprehensive plan for storm-water drains: report
The draft city development plan for Mangalore City Corporation prepared
by a Government-appointed agency in its report has pointed out that
construction of roadside drains has not been given the required priority
in the city.
Only 41 per cent of the road network was covered under
tertiary drains, the report submitted to the corporation recently said.
Centre for Symbiosis Technology, Environment and Management (STEM),
Bangalore, had prepared the draft report for the corporation. It said
that there was no comprehensive plan for improving storm-water drains in
the city.
There was encroachment along natural drains, it said
without any specific reference. The report said that in the old areas of
the city, the drains provided were of low capacity and were overloaded.
It said that operation and maintenance of drains were
not up to the mark. It pointed out that there was no
industrial/hazardous waste management facility in the region. There was
indiscriminate burning of waste and illegal disposal of waste in to the
sea which would cause serious public health and lead to environment
issues in future.
The draft said that waste collection, loading and
unloading operations were being done manually. The sanitary workers were
not provided with any protective equipment posing health hazards. It
said that residents were not interested in segregating solid waste at
source and only 40 per cent of the households were covered under
door-to-door solid waste collection system in the city.
The report said that 13 per cent of the city was not
covered with the sewer network due to topographical constraints and
sewage was being discharged into natural course. The existing sewage
treatment plants were not running efficiently, due to which the sewage
was not treated completely, it said.
