Sewage water floods old age home’s compound in Burari

Sister Roshni at the Shanti Bhavan old age home in Burari has too many tasks at hand. She single-handedly manages 30 sick women in the old age home and also pumps out sewage water from the compound every morning. Rajat Arora reports.

Sister Roshni at the Shanti Bhavan old age home in Burari has too many tasks at hand. She single-handedly manages 30 sick women in the old age home and also pumps out sewage water from the compound every morning.

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These 30 sick women wake up every morning to the stinking smell of overflowing sewage water. “The drainage running through the main road is not connected to the main drain. So, the sewage water gets accumulated in our compound,” said Roshni.

The problem has compounded further due to continuous rain in the past few days. “The road outside is flooded with water. It’s impossible to step out during monsoon. Last week, an old woman fell ill and we couldn’t take her to the hospital,” Roshni added.

The by-pass road connecting Burari to GT Karnal road lies in shambles. “Though the drain was to be connected with the main drainage in Swaroop Nagar but that hasn’t been done. One needs a boat to cross this 4km stretch during monsoon,” said, GEO Cherian, local resident.

The overflowing sewage water poses health hazards for the residents of the area, including those of Shanti Bhavan. “It has become a breeding area for mosquitoes. We have made several complaints to the authorities, but no one has bothered to fix it,” said Ranbir Chauhan, another resident.

When asked, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) gave two contradictory statements. While a senior MCD official said Burari was an unauthorised colony and is “still to be handed over to the agency”, the area councillor said the construction of the drainage system was undertaken by the project department of the MCD, which left it incomplete.