Draining out water from the streets was not the only challenge the Kolkata Municipal Corporation faced after the deluge of September 23.
An equally daunting mission was to remove the tonnes of plastic waste from the drainage lines and pumping stations.
Five truckloads of plastic waste, found floating on storm water, had to be removed from one particular drainage pumping station alone, the one at Thanthania in north Calcutta, a civic official said.
The situation was more or less similar at each of the KMC’s 82 drainage pumping stations.
“We had men deployed to remove the plastics caught in the sieves at the pumping stations. These (sieves) are protective layers that prevent plastics from reaching the pumps,” an official said.
The sieves, also called screens, had to be built because the civic body found heaps of plastic and other solid waste entering the stations along with rainwater.
When plastic enters a pump, it stops. “The pump has to be lifted, repaired and restarted. This takes hours and prolongs the waterlogging,” a KMC official said.
Plastic waste entered one of the pumps at Thanthania and brought it to a stop after Tuesday’s rain.
“If one pump stops working after a spell of heavy rain, it delays water drainage. At the Thanthania pumping station, the plastic waste picked from the screens formed a small hillock,” the official added.
More than 350 people were deployed just to remove plastic waste from across the city.
Many Calcuttans would see the KMC’s struggles with plastic waste this week as poetic justice.
One of the civic body’s responsibilities is to act against the use of “illegal” plastic products. Despite promises, it has failed to do so.
The KMC looks the other way while single-use plastics, which are banned, are in use across the city — as in many other parts of the state.
Groceries and pharmacies routinely hand single-use plastic bags to customers along with their purchases. Most of them stay on as waste in the natural environment.
All plastic bags less than 120 microns thick are banned.
A waste management expert said the mountain of plastic and other solid waste that enters the underground drains reflects a failure on the KMC’s part.
“It’s the civic body’s responsibility to collect solid waste from the city. How can the waste be floating on water if their collection is up to the mark?” the expert said.
A Sealdah resident noticed KMC workers lifting plastic and other solid waste out of manholes on MG Road, Surya Sen Street and Amherst Street on Wednesday morning.
“An endless amount of waste emerged from each of the manholes,” the man said. These included rubber shoes, plastic bags, sacks and bottles.
