Kakinada: To put an end to unhygienic conditions in villages, the government will take up underground drainage projects in all panchayats in East Godavari district.
Experimentally, Panchayat Raj engineers will choose one village in each mandal to construct underground drainages and later the concept will be introduced to the remaining villages.
The Panchayat Raj department proposed to develop 500km length of cement roads in the villages, with part funding from the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Generation Scheme.
“Half the funds will come from MGNREGS and the other half from Panchayat (14th finance commission) funds. If there are no funds for Panchayats, they can use MLA's constituency funds or seek corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds for the purpose,” said district collector H. Arunkumar.
He made it clear that there will be no construction of open drainages in the villages, and roads would be developed along with underground drainages.
He said that due to leaving the roads and drains abruptly in the middle, many unhygienic conditions prevailed in the villages and health problems arose as a result.
If construction of underground drainages is not possible in villages, the households there could go in for soak pits and release waste water into them.
Every panchayat divisional engineer should construct underground drainage systems in at least two villages under them. In the case of agency villages, they can use 90 per cent of NREGS funds and 10 per cent of panchayat funds.
Meanwhile, many villages, in particular in Konaseema area, are not suitable for underground drainage system due to the conditions set for such projects. Panchyat Raj engineers are focusing on agency and upland areas to construct underground drain-ages. However, there is no way of releasing waste water to canals.
Officials say the waste water can be released in open places which are not being used. Environmentalists say sewage treatment plants should be constructed, at the rate of at least one for six or seven villages, and then the waste water should be released.
Otherwise, it would become a major unhygienic problem for villagers and the government.Panchayat Raj superintendent engineer V. Venkateswara Rao said a survey will be conducted for underground drainages and the design for the concept.
