BENGALURU: Unchecked dumping of wet and dry waste as well as sewage, slaughterhouse and hotel waste for the past five years has led to Hebbal valley’s storm water drain (SWD) getting completely choked and according to residents, the officials have been unable to do anything about it. At Bhadrappa layout, the pollution has reached alarming levels, leading to an increase in water-borne diseases and asthma for the people who live around the drain, residents say. 

“Household garbage and industrial waste is dumped into the drain due to the lack of a high boundary wall. We have to shut our windows after 6 pm. Children have bronchitis and residents suffer from dengue and malaria,” said resident BV Kumar.

When CE reported the issue last December, officials had said the matter would be resolved by the end of the month. But Jayaprakash, assistant engineer, SWD department of BBMP (Byatarayanapura constituency), said, “We started work in December last year due to pressure from the High Court. However, the project approvals were yet to come in, which came in a week ago. It will take until February-end for the drain to be desilted.”

Residents are apprehensive of the boundary wall of the drain being short. “It is two feet tall in some places, while other sections have no wall at all. This makes it easy for people to dump waste,” said a resident. Last week, a few residents caught a truck dumping night soil into the Rajakaluve and alerted BBMP health officials. 

The local body said funds for building a wall along the length of the drain will have to come from the local ward office as existing funds from Nagarothana scheme were only for desilting. Ranganath, assistant executive engineer, said, “The SWD department that cleans the drains are responsible for building retaining walls, not us. We do not have any grant money set aside for this.”