Ghoramara locals struggle with persistent waterlogging, call out state authorities’ apathy

Guwahati, Nov. 17: Water logging caused by clogged and overflowing drains is a common phenomenon in the Ghoramara area of the city during the rainy season. However, the area is yet to attract the authority's attention.

The slow pace of work in developing the Ghoramara-Shivanagar Path and the drainage is a testament to the indifferent attitude of the government agencies towards the problem of the area.

The Ghoramara-Shivanagar Path is one of the important roads of the area, used regularly by a good number of people including students, which connects Ghoramara Chariali with Regional Ayurveda Research Institute, Guwahati and a number of other educational institutions.

During a visit to the area, this correspondent has also found that most of the drainage of the area is still full of water, despite there being no rainfall for the last many days.

Locals informed that the drainage of the area always remains full with sewage coming from local households, due to limited outlet of water. But work is yet to start to clear the clogged drainage.

"The works of the drainage and road development of Ghoramara-Shivanagar Path started around two months ago. However, due to some reasons best known to the contractor and the PWD (Roads) department, the construction work is underway at an unbelievably slow pace. If the work is not completed in time, the area will face the worst condition of water logging in days to come," said Ranjan Deka, secretary of Ghoramara Shivanagar Unnayan Samiti.

Deka informed that during the rainy season, the area gets affected by the water flowing from nearby Bikash Nagar, Lalmati, and Narbam areas due to a lack of proper drainage to channel the excess water towards the Basistha river.

Locals also claimed that throwing garbage in the drains by some people due to irregularity in garbage collection by the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) agents has complicated the water logging problem in the area.

"Knee-deep water after every heavy rainfall is a common scene in our locality. In this season too, we have endured lots of problems. So, it is high time to rectify the problem. At the same time, the Guwahati Municipal Corporation needs to ensure regular collection of garbage, or else the water logging problem will not be addressed anytime soon. Apart from this, uninterrupted availability of potable water is still a distant dream for us. The Guwahati Jal Board has laid pipelines in our locality many days ago, but the water supply is yet to begin," Deka added.

- By Manash Pratim Dutta