Bhubaneswar civic body introduces trash rack barrier system to check drain clogging and accidents

Bhubaneswar: Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has introduced an innovative trash rack barrier system not only to check clogging of drains because of waste deposits but also accidents in case somebody fall into the overflowing drains.

It has installed specialised barriers on an experimental basis at 20 places on main drainage channels. While it will filter the trash throughout the year, during monsoon, the barrier will also help check accidents, acting as a barrier in case people fall in the drains. They will stop the victims from being washed away too far, helping in an early rescue operation.

“The trash rack barrier is a V-shape iron mesh of a certain height (differing from drain to drain) that has been put inside the drains close to the culverts. It is put across the width of the drain. When water flows through it, the iron net blocks the trash. Later, the deposited trash can be collected from those points, thus clearing the drains. Additionally, in coming monsoon, we will see how it helps check accidents,” said Priyabrata Behera, BMC executive engineer, drainage wing.

Choked drains, during an inspection earlier, were found to have polythene bags of different thicknesses, food packets, plastic bottles and coconut shells. “When the pre-monsoon drain desilting work is taken up, such waste will be extracted,” Behera said.

Moreover, the sanitary workforce has been instructed to take up waste cleaning in areas close to the drains. If that waste remains abandoned for long, when it rains they are washed away into the drains. The choking mostly happens in the case of secondary drains that run through wards, BMC officials said.

In another innovation that will be implemented in June, the BMC has planned to install floating barriers. “We will install floating barriers with light bottom portion to keep them stay floated. Once the water level of the drains goes up, the floating barrier will serve as a marker. People and personnel of the engineering wing can detect from a distance the depth of the water, seeing the floating barrier. The mechanism is such that the barrier will remain stuck at the place where it has been installed,” Behera said.

The BMC engineering wing has observed that the habitations located along the big natural drainage channels is one of the main reasons of household waste making its way into the drains.