Open drains remain death traps in Delhi, NCR

New Delhi: Five days after the death of a 3-year-old due to an open drain in Ghaziabad, the authorities have learnt no lessons. Several such death traps in different parts of the National Capital Region still exist.

Days after 3-year-old Sunny died after falling into an open drain outside his school, the Ghaziabad municipal ordered a closure of all drains near schools. But it's easier said than done.

That wasn't the only drain in the area, on the road itself there are at least four to five and in the monsoon season when the area gets completely filled with water and no one would really know where they are going.

Officials say that it is difficult to even clean the drains due to staff shortage.

Streets in the Vasundhara area are full of sewage water. Officials say that it is difficult to even clean the drains due to staff shortage.

Of 1,000 open drains in Ghaziabad, only 326 have been cleaned.

In neighbouring Delhi, there are approximately 3,000 drains. While most are covered, the ones in unauthorised colonies remain neglected.

Illegal borewells, too, are death traps in NCR. Unfortunately it took the death of baby Mahi before officials in Gurgaon woke up to the problem.

But the question is whether the administration will be able to keep up the pressure considering the water shortage in the area.

Sources say that there could still be as many as 400 illegal borewells in Gurgaon. Sealing them will take a long time.

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