Goa to explore use of robot to clear sewerage chambers

PANAJI: The state will soon begin trials to use the robot Bandicoot to clear clogged sewerage chambers, PWD minister Nilesh Cabral said on Saturday. This will help put an end to manual scavenging in Goa to clear choking chambers, he said. The minister also appealed to people to stop discarding unwanted items in toilets.
He said while the robot can help clear sewerage chambers, there is still no mechanism to eliminate use of human workers to unclog choked sewerage pipes.
“Just employing the robot for the work is not enough. Pipes of up to 20m get clogged with such unwanted matter. It will take us some time to find another mechanism for this. I would like to appeal to people to be aware that it is not God who helps in dissolving the unwanted items discarded by people in toilets. It is a human being who has to manually remove it. It is difficult to find out who has discarded such items in the sewage. It is for people to be more responsible,” Cabral said.
The Bandicoot robot, which allows for complete elimination of human entry while cleaning manholes, was acquired by the PWD through the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) in Dona Paula. The machine was inaugurated last month by Cabral in Margao.
“Some days ago, the NIO provided a non-manual scavenging machine to us. We are going to put it to use now. We are trying to bring in some mechanism by which at least the chamber can be cleaned up by a robot,” Cabral said. “We have seen that when using toilets, people discard different items in the toilet, which are not be discarded in this manner. Ultimately, it is a human being who has to be employed to remove this, otherwise sewage chambers get choked. People need to be sensitised.”
While the process of manhole cleaning requires human entry for effective cleaning, manholes are often death traps due to harmful gases present inside them.