New Delhi: Municipal corporation or state officials could face two years in jail or Rs 2 lakh fine for the familiar sight of bare torsos plumbing the depths of sewer tanks to clean the muck with their hands. The Centre proposes to ban ‘hazardous manual cleaning of sewers and septic tanks’ with stiff penal provisions. It plans to make it mandatory for employers to provide cleaning devices and protective gear to the staff tasked with cleaning of sewers and septic tanks.

New Delhi: While the Central government is working on strengthening the existing Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrine Prohibition Act,1993, seeking to ensure rehabilitation of those engaged in such dehumanizing labour, activists say that thousands of manhole workers continue to work in inhuman conditions. MCD, DJB and other civic bodies have failed to provide adequate safety gear and medical facilities and often pass the buck on to their contractors.

India’s burgeoning cities and interventionist policies have aggravated the threat from natural disasters, the World Bank and United Nations said on Thursday.
They emphasised the importance of preventive measures to minimize loss of life and property from natural hazards and the need to raise awareness so that governments are pressed to take the issue seriously.

New Delhi: Consumers who do not have a Delhi Jal Board (DJB) connection, but discharge their sewage into its system, will now have to pay sewage charges.
The body took this decision at its board meeting on Thursday.

It has also extended its rebate scheme on payment of arrears to March 31, 2011.

In a bid to conserve water, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is gearing up to recycle sewage water and reuse it for non-potable purposes.

Panel clears way for luxury hotels at IGI

The five-part Rain Check series carried by Pune Newsline a fortnight ago had sought to find out if the city is ready for monsoon. Monday

An underground pipeline on Sardar Patel Marg will carry an unusual substance: 60,000 litres of treated sewage water from a five-star hotel to a city forest.

Seeping sewage into the basement of their residential complex has prompted about 100 families of Sharda and Vivekananda, two blocks of Gadadhar Apartments, at Adarshnagar in Sonari to knock on the doors of BJP leader Sarayu Roy.

Delhi produces 3,800 million litres of sewage every day