The municipal corporation has been overloaded by complaints of drainage blockages in housing societies and problems with the waste water network. Members of the civic body’s standing committees met a special meeting last week to discuss this. Citizens’ concerns about drainage account for roughly 59% of all complaints lodged.
However, while the city grapples with the crisis, it’s worth noting that work on the city’s first full-fledged drainage network began on January 10, 1936, and was launched by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in order to rid the city of water-borne ailments.
The ground-breaking ceremony took place behind Kapasia Bazaar in the Kalupur neighbourhood.
Two photographs were published in leading newspapers at the time, one of the ceremony and the other showing the first drainage network being installed by city workers. Ranchhodlal Chhotalal, the first Indian president of the city government, installed the first drainage line on a “experimental” basis in Khadia in 1885-86. However, due to social difficulties, locals have not made a new demand for drainage or water supply in nearly 40 years.
“The project was a mammoth task. Amdavadis used 180 litres of water per capita during the time. Within the Walled City limits, about 1,200 acres had to be covered, with 300 acres on the city’s east side requiring a network. Sardar had declared categorically that a drainage network was required if the city was to be free of water-borne diseases, and that the project should be completed as soon as possible “Rizwan Kadri, a city historian, agrees.