(From top) A clogged drain beside Nagarmal Modi Seva Sadan, a private hospital in Ranchi,another spills sewage at Nala Road in Hindpiri and garbage choking a third drain near Marwari College in the capital. Pictures by Hardeep Singh

In the state capital, rain rhymes with drain. Thanks to Ranchi Municipal Corporation’s civic apathy, the imminent monsoon has raised the sceptre of clogged drains bursting at the seams with dirty water and filth, signalling pedestrian trauma, traffic jams and an increased mosquito population at best and civic collapse and water-borne diseases at worst. Though 500 labourers are apparently working to unclog Ranchi’s drainage system — with 100 recruited especially before monsoon — it is too little, too late, finds Santosh K. Kiro

Drain off

Arterial drains for rainwater outflow: Loharakocha, Purulia Road, Basartoli, Lalpur, Harmu, Ratu Road, Sahajanand Chowk

RMC claims

Clean-up operations of drains at Loharkocha, Lalpur, Purulia Road, Basartoli; job of dredging drains at Harmu, Ratu Road and Sahajanand Chowk to be over in one week

Smaller drains at Azad Nagar, Kantatoli, Bahu Bazar, parts of Hindpiri, Lalpur and Loharakocha cleaned

Roving eye

The Telegraph went across the city on the drain trail and this is what its lens found:

The drain of Hatma bustee, with 250 households, near Sido Kanhu Park at Kanke, is choked so badly that one can’t see it. Contractual staffers of the civic body do keep the concrete approach road to the slum clean, but the drain is another matter. Things are worse at bigger slums

Posh Bariatu is flanked by Indraprasth Colony, where the drain has gone underground and residents have no idea when it was last dredged. Hindpiri gives no illusions of having a drain

Mild showers give rise to a small pool at the Ranchi Lake area, thanks to a clogged drain

Civic apathy is rife around hospitals and educational cradles. Cases in point: medical waste and filth chokes the area around Nagarmal Modi Seva Sadan, a private hospital, as waste bins overflow and the drain flanking the building looks like a lane dedicated to the disposal of rubbish; filth abounds, thanks to choked drains at a stone’s throw from Marwari College; Gurunanak School at PP Compound area stinks as RMC allows waste bins to overflow for days on end

Home truths

Most drains are waiting to be unclogged of years of soil, solid waste, plastic and others

Old drains need to be replaced by a central sewerage and drainage system under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission

With drains clogged, the city runs the danger of rainwater flooding the streets or forming stagnant pools to breed mosquitoes and cause outbreaks of malaria, dysentery and other water-borne ailments, especially in densely-populated slums & low-lying areas

Water-logging appears imminent at Loharakocha, Azad Nagar, Kantatoli, Hindpiri, Bahu Bazar, among others

Rain forecast

“A cyclonic circulation over Jharkhand is bringing pre-monsoon showers over the region since the past few days and will continue for another 24 hours. Monsoon is likely to arrive in Jharkhand in the next week,”

G.K. Mohanty, director, Met office, Ranchi

Authorityspeak

“We engage 400 labourers everyday for the city’s cleanliness. For monsoon, we recruited 100 extra helping hands. We cleaned up smaller drains recently. Now, we will finish cleaning up bigger drains so that rainwater can flow out to Subernarekha river,”

Rajan Singh, health officer of Ranchi Municipal Corporation

The Telegraph verdict

The capital’s sewerage is unprepared for monsoon, which thanks to RMC inefficiency, will arrive too soon