Clogged drains: Encroachments hamper BMC’s cleaning efforts

Bhopal: Despite claims by the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) of having cleaned 80% of the city’s drains ahead of the monsoon, a recent zone-wise assessment reveals that most encroachments on the 789 drains remain. Encroachments have rendered many drains inaccessible to cleaning machines, risking severe flooding when the monsoon hits.
The city is grappling with an estimated 20,000 encroachments within 9-metres of a drain that have remained untouched for years.
BMC launched its annual drain cleaning campaign on May 2, aiming to complete the effort by June 15. Although the corporation has deployed some 20 small and big Poklane machines, cleaning progress has been severely hampered by extensive encroachments. “At many places, Poklane cannot enter the drains due to encroachment; at many places, it is difficult for the drain gang to enter the drains,” according to sources.
Encroachments have significantly complicated the cleaning process. Most of the drains are covered with slabs, making it practically impossible for the Pokeline machines to operate. Given these challenges, the BMC has only managed to unclog about 20% of the drains effectively, far short of their optimistic claims.
The rental costs for these machines are substantial. BMC has managed to engage about 20 small and big Poklane and some JCB machines, renting more than half of these. The rent for one machine is about Rs 3000 per hour. If the machine runs for eight hours, then Rs 24,000 are spent in cleaning the drain.. If an average of 10 rented machines run for eight hours every day, the expenditure is Rs 2.4 lakh daily.
Encroachments are not new to Bhopal’s drains. In 2014, a survey revealed that around 20,000 dwellings within a 9-meter radius of the drains were either adjacent to or built directly above the retaining walls of the drains. This situation exacerbated in July 2016, when a severe flood prompted an aggressive but ultimately ineffective campaign to remove these encroachments.
“Houses built on the retaining wall of the drain,” states the report, underlining that the challenges persist despite multiple attempts over the years. Encroachments have not only complicated cleaning efforts but also pose significant risks of flooding.
With the monsoon just around the corner, the inefficacy of these drain cleaning measures becomes glaring. The city’s drainage system is in a precarious state, facing the same grim prospects as in the flood-prone years, notably July 2016. Despite the apparent urgency, the BMC has, so far, been unable to shift the status quo.