Toxic gases inside sewage plant nearly kill 5 workers

After so many deaths in sewer pits in the recent past, it seems no lessons were learnt and civic agencies continue to exploit the poor manual scavenging workers.

Five men got nearly killed after they inhaled toxic gases while checking the sewage plant at the Taj Vivanta Hotel near Khan Market on Sunday morning. Three of them are critical.

DCP (New Delhi) Madhur Verma said, “We received information on Sunday that around 11.30 am, five persons got trapped in the sewage treatment plant of Taj Vivanta Hotel where poisonous methane or hydrocarbon gas got leaked. The victims have been identified as 51-year-old Nityanand, plumbing staff at the hotel, 40-year-old Ravindra, who works as a maintenance staff in sewer treatment plant (STP) of Eco Pollutech Engineers company which runs this plant and 26-year-old Vikram, contractual security guard of Taj Vivanta Hotel who went to rescue them.

These three injured persons are admitted in the ICU of the Moolchand Hospital and at present are critical. The other two victims are Kamdev Patra and Gaurav Sukheja.

Kamdev Patra (58) works as a contractual maintenance staff employee of Eco Pollutech Engineers. He was admitted in the ICU of the LNJP. He was later shifted to BLK Hospital while Gaurav Sukheja (34), the deputy chief engineer of Taj Vivanta, who also went to see the incident felt unconscious and was taken to RML Hospital.

He was admitted in the ICU and later shifted to the BLK hospital. Following this incident, we have registered an FIR under Section 308 of the IPC against officials of the Eco Pollutech engineers and hold Hotel Taj Vivanta responsible for this incident.”

According to its 2014 order, the Supreme Court prohibits manual scavenging. A Bill seeking to prohibit employment of individuals as manual scavengers by prescribing stringent punishment, including imprisonment up to five years, was passed by Parliament in September 2013. It has provisions for rehabilitation of manual scavengers and their family members as well.

Manual scavenging is a violation of this Act but it is rampant in almost all institutions.

On July 15, four labourers had died after they fell unconscious after inhaling toxic gas inside a tank in South Delhi’s Ghitorni area. The tank, which was originally meant for harvesting rain water, was filled with filth and sewage which hadn’t been cleaned for long, Delhi Police had then said.

However, not less than a month passed that three sanitation workers died while another remained critical when they went inside a sewer pipe to clean it in Southeast Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar area on August 6. “Three men - Joginder (32), Annu (28) and a 25-year-old man, yet to be identified - were declared brought dead at the AIIMS.”

On August 12, two brothers died of suffocation while cleaning a sewage tank of a shopping mall in Vishwas Nagar in East Delhi’s Anand Vihar on Saturday afternoon. A case has been registered against the mall management. A senior police officer had said that the father of the deceased, who was working with them inside the sewer, and a fireman, who went to rescue them, have been admitted to hospital after they too complained of suffocation and are currently under observation.

“50-year-old Yusuf and his sons Jahangir (24) and Izaz (22), went to clean a sewage plant at the Aggarwal Fun City Mall in Anand Vihar. The incident happened around 1 pm and by the time, the workers were rushed to a nearby hospital where Jahangir was declared brought dead while Izaz died later during treatment.

All these deaths could have been averted if the contractors had used laid down security precautions and provided gas masks to the sanitation workers before asking them to enter sewage lines, said a DJB official pleading anonymity.

The official also said that contractors hired sanitation workers on daily wage basis and do not provide them physical protection despite knowing it fully well that sewage lines contain highly poisonous gases that kill choke people to death within minutes.

On August 20, a 48-year-old labourer hired by a private contractor died while he went inside the sewer pit at the Government-run LNJP Hospital. The death indicates a complete disregard by contractors towards the lives of the sanitation workers.

This has been happening unabated despite Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia castigating Delhi Jal Board (DJB) contractors and officials for not using machines to clean the sewage. Death of the manual scavengers had led to an uproar in the Delhi Assembly where the Deputy CM had questioned about why manual scavenging still continues in the Capital.