Drainage issue of Abbassiya, where the resident majority is from Indian community, is now taking a new turn. The evergreen sewage streams and fountains which are found yearlong on all roads of Abbasiya resulting from the drainage overflow has now developed into ‘pools’ covering the whole road creating islands of high rise buildings. This highly populated residential area where a large number of health professionals also reside vouch that this proves to be precarious to lives.

While the pollution guarantees an outbreak of contagious diseases, congested roads during peak hours create the chaos. Pedestrians and the students heading towards the school try to avoid the sewage ‘pools and streams’ with the help of wooden logs, planks and even bricks, balancing themselves and often land up jumping in front of a car or a bus rushing to maintain their schedule. Apart from the discomfort of living with an unbearable foul smell, on road they are always at a danger of taking a ‘sewage bath’ from the water sprinkled by the rushing vehicles. The broken plank, carelessly parked vehicles, garbage collection units on road, mis-handling of the construction materials at the new building sites etc again set fire for a mess during the peak hours creating traffic block for hours.

The increasing number of high rise residential apartments in place of the old ones without taking any steps to improve the capacity of the existing drainage system adds to the issue. Interestingly such chaos has now become an annual event during the festival season and the school reopening. Media has been reporting the issue every year and our community leaders who rise to the situation and attends the matter could only make the official to come up with temporary solution like setting pumping machines at different spots. The plea for a permanent solution remains unanswered till date.