Residents face problems due to overflowing of drains at Mansing Patana in Cuttack. Pictures by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, June 2: Anupama Sahu (37) had to face lot of difficulties in going to the temple on the occasion of Savitrivrat today. A resident of Mansing Patana, Sahu had to wade through sewer water, which is flowing on the road for the past one week.

“This has been the situation for the last few days and all the residents are facing problems due to acute waterlogging here,” said Sahu.

Local residents said it was almost impossible for them to step out of their homes. They said that even children had to remain confined indoors though their vacations were on.

However, local councillor Sumitra Sahoo said things were likely to improve in a couple of weeks as the work for the construction of an “open drain” had begun.

“In view of the genuine problems of residents, the work for the construction of an open drain has been initiated from yesterday. Things are likely to improve in a couple of days,” said Sahoo.

The councillor said work was being carried on a war footing and a 20-25ft open drain would be constructed to release wastewater generated from the locality.

Besides this, there was a proposal to construct a two-way channel by demolishing the blocked hume pipe that was creating problems in the passage of wastewater from Mansing Patana and other localities in the area.

Local residents have, however, expressed satisfaction with the steps initiated by the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC), which has finally geared up to solve the drainage-related issues.

“We hope that things will return to normal as work to construct the drain has begun. Moreover, a step needs to be initiated to flush out excess water from the locality using motor pumps till the entire construction work is completed,” said Debabrata Seti, 28, another local resident.

On the other hand, CMC officials said that motor pumps were already installed to release wastewater from the locality.

However, residents faced problems due to water logging as the machine stopped functioning from yesterday evening. “The situation will return to normal by this evening,” the official said.

Though residents had been complaining about the sewerage situation in the locality for the past one week, no steps had been taken to address their grievances.

The Telegraph had earlier highlighted the plight of local residents, state of drains and subsequent waterlogging in Mansing Patana.