People walking through a flooded stretch in Hyderabad while a worker clears away a manhole.
| Photo Credit: NAGARA GOPAL
All manholes in the city will be covered with grills within one week, those on arterial roads will be painted red and other identified dangerous or water logging cases get a red flag as additional safety measures ahead of monsoon season.
According to officials, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has sewage network measuring 5,767 km; municipalities outside the city have 4,200 km. There are officially about 6.35 lakh open ended manholes including 63,221 deep ones. GHMC has approximately 42% of these types of manholes.
Covering of manholes with grills was taken up as a safety mission and most of the work has been completed in the city said Sudarshan Reddy C., Managing Director Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply & Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) during discussion on monsoon action plan on Monday. He further advised residents that incase they fall over damaged lid of manhole opened without any authority permission or kept open to call the board through 155313 number.
“The focus should be on drinking water supply and sewage management – that is not being supplied contaminated water and sufficient chlorine content in water. Complaints regarding sewage management must be addressed seriously within half an hour,” he told them people on Monday urging them to procure pollution identification machines.
He also mentioned that every day checklist includes continuous observation at 120 water logging points, clean-up removed silt from the field staff’s protective equipment sign boards for warning board etcetera.
Special teams
Managers at field level are mandated to inspect their areas closely to prepare daily situation report regarding each point where there is occurrence of water logging and manholes while highly specialized teams can do specific tasks too.
Central Safety Protocol Cell initially constituted in 2022 comprises six member team led by the chief vigilance officer who doubles as the chief safety protocol officer. Two home guards, a patrol vehicle and communication gadget are issued to this team to audit – monitor daily reports from the field and ensure compliance of safety measures in work areas.
During any crisis situations, Emergency Response Team provides relief while working closely with GHMC Disaster Management Team
The Safety Protocol Team, a special security team for the Water Board checks whether safety measures are followed at various workplaces of this board. All O&M sites receive inspections for adherence to safety rules. There is one team per division which takes part in putting up geo-tagging, safety signs among other works.
