The Hindu 14.12.2010
Desilting of VMC collection well begins
| Workers deployed for the job by corporation find the going tough |
Corporation is now removing the sand manually
Officials are confident that there will not be any problem for the collection well
At work:The intake well of the Ramalingeswaranagar being desilted with iron buckets in Vijayawada on Monday.
VIJAYAWADA: The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation began desilting works at 10 mgd water treatment plant at Ramalingeswara Nagar here on Monday.
The corporation officials are utilising about 15 workers to bail out the sand that is accumulated in the collection well of the treatment plant. The workers had to wear oxygen masks to reach the bottom of the well. The workers could bail out only 10 to 15 baskets of sand from the well in the six-and-a-half-hours they worked.
In view of depth and darkness, the workers could work only for brief spells in the well. Two workers entered the well at interval of half an hour to remove the sand that has accumulated right up to three metres below the concrete ceiling, and the collection well has a depth of 17 metres. As the exact quantity of sand accumulated at the bottom is not known, the officials guesstimate that it would take at least 10 days to complete the task.
Delayed
The VMC had, earlier, planned to commence the works in first week of December itself. However, it could not execute it due to the sudden and heavy rain that hit the city.
The workers did not turn up, and the officials could not erect necessary equipment and make the necessary arrangements for the de-silting works.
The corporation is now removing the sand manually, though there were proposals to utilise modern machinery. The sand, it is opined, entered the well through a crack in the concrete ceiling.
The corporation received a letter from the expert committee that was constituted to look into problem of the collection well which sank by one-and-a-half feet on September 19.
The experts suggested bailing out the sand from the collection well.
There were doubts of whether the removal of the sand would lead to the further sinking of the collection well, but the experts have suggested that the sand could be bailed out. VMC officials say they are now confident that there would not be any problem for the collection well.
