Mango civic body starts cleaning drains to save Subarnarekha river

JAMSHEDPUR: The Mango Notified Area Committee (MNAC) has started cleaning the drains on a war-footing. MNAC special officer (SO) Suresh Yadav on Sunday said the exercise would remove the municipal waste from the drains and curb pollution of Subarnarekha river.
The official said the drains, which flow in to the Subarnarekha, contain municipal garbage. Hence, the urban local body has begun the drive to stop the filth from getting disposed off to the river.
“We are preparing a work plan to put a mechanism in place to lift the garbage from the drains.The drain water will be treated before being released in to Subarnarekha,” he added.
The MNAC, which has a population of 2.50 lakh, has over 40 big and moderate drains under its command area. The smaller drains that are connected to these 40 drains are not cleaned on a regular basis. Hence, the waste gets released into the river. Sometimes, the big drains gets chocked due to excess accumulation of trash, causing overflow of the drain on to the streets. “Henceforth, all the drains in the command area will be cleaned on a regular basis,” the SO said.
The drains of over a dozen residential colonies like Ramnagar, Shyamnagar, Baikunthnagar, Shantinagar, and Moon City were cleaned on Saturday while the rest would be cleaned from Monday.
With 10 teams of workers being deployed for the job, the authorities are targeting to finish it within a week. “The swachh survey officials will oversee the cleaning,” the SO said. Notably, MLA Saryu Rai on February 20 had raised the issue of Subarnarekha river getting polluted due to the increasing release of industrial and civic waste into it. The depleting level of the river compounded by the dumping of the waste is causing water stagnation. The contaminated water when supplied to the households could make a person fall ill on consuming, he stressed. The door-to-door collection of garbage has been launched in 25 residential areas to ensure the domestic trash is collected at one point and it’s not discarded into the nearby drains or elsewhere, Yadav stated.