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India Covid crisis: Robots deployed to clear choked lines in Hyderabad

Hyderabad - The robots are sent into the sewer lines and remove silt and solid waste from the lines.

‘Sewer crocs’ are being deployed in Hyderabad to clear choked manholes and sewerage lines, as a growing number of civic workers have tested positive for Covid-19. The robots are sent into the sewer lines and remove silt and solid waste from the lines.

According to an official of the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewage Board, the robotic cutting system disintegrates and flushes out blockages in sewer lines. “It is designed to make use of a water jet from a machine to spin the turbine at high speed and cut the roots and blockages and sediments,” an official was quoted in the media on Saturday.

An additional benefit is that the vehicle-mounted robots can be taken through narrow lanes and in congested parts of the city. Telangana state has virtually eliminated manual scavenging in all cities. And increasingly, gadgets such as ‘Sewer crocs’ are being deployed to help clean up the underground network.

Though manual scavenging is officially banned in India, many cities see civic bodies deploying workers into the sewers and drainage systems to clean up blockages. In 2013, the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act was introduced and last year, the Indian government planned to mechanise sewer cleaning across the country.

Engaging personnel to clean sewers and septic tanks is a punishable offence, but in many cities personnel are deployed into them, especially during the rainy season, to clear up the choked sewers.