Children wade through a waterlogged street at Stewart Patna in Cuttack on Monday.

A blocked drain outlet has triggered the situation forcing residents to remain indoors for the past three days.

The locality, home to at least 200 families, is overflowing with sewage from the blocked drain.

"We are forced to take rickshaws and motorcycles to come out of our homes. If this is the condition now, how bad will the situation be during the rains?" asked resident Manas Ranjan Das.

Das said wastewater from 10 localities, including Deula Sahi, Kafla, Mohantypara and Sidheswar Sahi, flowed through a drain at Stewart Patna and discharged at a private plot in the area.

However, the owner of the plot blocked the outlet, causing the drainage channel to overflow at Stewart Patna.

Another local resident, Soumya Patnaik, said the civic body should take urgent measures to connect the outlet of the drain at Stewart Patna with the main drainage channel.

"It is the municipal corporation's fault. It did not any steps to connect the drain with the main storm water channel No.1, which originates from Srivihar Colony, barely 300m from our locality," he said.

The residents threatened to protest if the civic body failed to come up with a permanent solution to the problem before the rains.

Some of them met senior officials of the municipal corporation on Monday and submitted a memorandum seeking urgent measures.

"With monsoon around the corner, we are worried that the situation will worsen. The municipal corporation should also take measures to divert the wastewater to the drainage channel near Chandi Mandir Square to prevent accumulation of water at Stewart Patna," said the residents' association president Sridhar Samantray.

"We have already deployed a high-power motor pump to clear the accumulated water. We are trying to find a permanent solution and resolve the problem," said ward No. 9 councillor Bikash Behera.

Text by Vikash Sharma
Picture by Badrika Nath Das