Monsoon hits South Bengal

Monsoon has kept its date and arrived in South Bengal including Kolkata. But city’s civic guardians are struggling to keep some of city’s drainage pumping stations free of rubbish and plastic materials. The reason? An auto-screening system purchased at a premium has remained defunct for years.

Though the KMC drainage department officials have expressed hope that there would be less of waterlogging in the city on the grounds that the work of desilting Kolkata’s underground sewerage network has yielded good results, they have reasons to feel worried for a few drainage pumping stations whose functioning has been hampered to a great extent due to deposition of rubbish and plastics inside the core area.

In order to get rid of rubbish, solid waste and plastic materials which make their entry from the underground sewerage to the drainage pumping stations, the KMC authorities in 2007 had decided to install an auto screening system which was supposed to spread like a web at the entry points of the pumping stations and thus prevent these materials from entering into the core area of the drainage pumping stations to enhance the efficiency of these stations. However, the plans did not take off as installation of the auto screen did not function. The situation got worse in Ultadanga, Ballygunge and Mominpore drainage pumping stations as the auto screening system installed got defunct. Following intervention from former mayor Bikash Bhattacharya, a technical committee was formed to look into the matter. The committee submitted its report which categorically stated that the system was not foolproof for the need of the three drainage pumping stations.