Whenever there is a drainage leak due to rains or other reasons, it's not just an inconvenience to the general public, but also a dangerous job for the sewage cleaners who are tasked to clean the man holes. Besides manual scavenging is also a social evil which has hampered the development of backward classes in our society for countless years. Whenever man holes are clogged or sewage water overflows on to the streets, the workers face a whole lot of danger while fixing them. One such incident claimed the lives of four workers last year while cleaning a jammed man hole in Madhapur. The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) used to have jetting machines to pump out the drainage water in the past, but their functionality was limited as the vehicles were unable to operate inside narrow lanes due to their large size.
After the last year's incident struck, the engineers at HMWS&SB set out to design jetting machines that were not only equipped with powerful motors to clear the jammed pipes, but also can enter Hyderabad's narrowest lanes without any trouble. Associating with Pune-based firm Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI) and State Bank of India, the trucks became a reality which will now eradicate the use of manual scavenging while also speeding up the process of clearing clogged drainages with the Indian monsoon set to arrive in few weeks.
On the eve of World Environmental Day on June 5, 2017, Minister of Municipal Administration & Urban Development of Telangana K.T Rama Rao garu flagged off the jetting machines as Hyderabad became the first Indian state to introduce these machines to completely remove manual scavenging. The HMWS&SB is now equipped with 70 of these jetting machines to handle multiple sewage issues in the city. The sewage workers will also be provided with “Anti-Bacetrial Suits” which will protect them from the various infections while doing the hazardous job. This is definitely an initiative worth praising as it is a progressive step taken by an Indian state government as manual scavenging has become a social evil in our country.
