Overflowing Drains Plague Residents of ‘Canara Homes’

Overflowing Drains Plague Residents of ‘Canara Homes’

Mangaluru: There are good builders whom you can trust, and who will provide you all the amenities and facilities they promised before you bought the apartment, and will also take care of the maintenance thereafter. Then there are other kind of builders, who show that they are sincere, who promise you all the amenities/facilities, but once you move in you’ll be surprised to see that most of the things that they promised are left incomplete, and don’t even bother about maintaining the property nor fix any problems.. Like the apartment brochure will say about full-fledged gym, but once you move, what you’ll find will be couple of thread-mill machines and couple of exercise machines. Also they will promise you a nice swimming-pool with a built-in Jacuzzi, but once you occupy the flat the swimming pool will be as big as a “Fish Pond”.

The builder will not let you modify any contents of terms and conditions of either Sale Agreement or Construction Agreement (or Agreement to build). Builder will also not entertain any questions, clarifications, doubts etc to be answered or raised. Builder will promise you all the latest amenities and facilities. You will be left with no option but to buy it or look for a different flat. Since you would have already tried and tired of finalizing/searching a flat, you will not fight with the builder – you will agree to everything. But once you move into the flat after completion, you’ll be surprised to see many things incomplete and not up to the promise and standards as printed in the brochures, and although you pay your monthly maintenance fee, no proper maintaining of the apartment is done.

And one such apartment, where the residents are irked with the overflow drainage is Canara Homes, located at Yeyyadi-Konchady road- where the problem of stinking water flowing from the drainage is creating lots of inconveniences and health hazards to the apartment owners. And even after constant complaints and reminder to the builder, their efforts are all gone in vain. ” Forget about monsoon, even on a normal day, the drains here are not even capable of bearing the daily water discharge from households. If this problem cannot be solved, how can we expect to have a flood-free ‘Smart-City’. We have been facing this problem for the last so many years, and nothing has been done to rectify the issue” said one resident, who wanted to remain anonymous at the moment.

“For a smart city, the MCC should implement some strict drainage rules to the building owners, making to have a proper drainage system. It seems that the government and the administration are not serious about these issues. They allow the drainage water from the apartments to flow on to the roads, thereby giving a scope for health hazards. We have seen this problem in several places in the City, and our apartment is no exception. Due to the overflow of the water, the sewage is stagnating on the walkway and also on the road, which is probably because of poor construction of sewage chambers and frequent blockage in the pipeline. The stagnated sewage serves as a breeding ground for the mosquitoes. As mosquito menace has increased to alarming proportions, most of us keep our windows and doors closed,” said Avil Miranda, a resident of Canara Homes (Apartment), who had approached Mangalorean.com with his grievances.

“During Monsoon, sewage, mixed with rainwater, overflows from almost all the drainage channels and flows on to the road. It’s sad to see even children from the school opposite to our apartment play in this dirty water, for they are not aware that water is coming from the household waste water drainage. Repeated complaints to Mangaluru City corporation, even to the former Mayor Mahabala Marla, and also to MLA to direct the builder to clear the overflowing sewage have fallen on deaf ears. No action has been taken till date, either from the MCC officials nor the builder.” added Miranda.

A beauty parlour owner having her shop in the lower portion of the apartment said, ” Sometimes the stagnant water overflowing from the drainage is stinking so bad, we get complaints from our customers. Many a times we and also our customers have to walk on the sewage water that flows right next to our shop due to discontinuous drainage lines in the apartment premises. Neither the builder nor MCC are not taking this issue seriously and we are at the receiving end. If our builder does not take care of proper maintenance, and not willing to solve this drainage issue, then they should also not remind us about the monthly maintenance charges”.

Alvin Miranda furthers said, ” For many years I have been staying in one of the apartment on rental basis, but five years back I bought it. There have been other issues with the facilities, but our main concern is the health hazard and inconveniences caused by the overflowing drainage. Even though there are quite a few drainage pit located inside the apartment premises, but due to heavy load of discharged household waste water, and also due to dilapidated condition of the drainage, we are constantly seeing overflow of stagnant water. The problem of water logging has become a perennial problem here and the situation worsens every now and then.”

In conclusion, the builder and also the MCC which is not enforcing strict rules are to blamed for water-logging as these two bodies are not focusing on ensuring proper water drainage. Seems like these decades old existing drainage system are inadequate to cope with heavy household waste water, since there are nearly 36 apartments in two-blocks of Canara Homes. The builder should take concrete measures to clear garbage from choked canals. At present the stagnant water overflowing from apartment drainage has been flowing by the side of the road for a long stretch, thereby producing bad smell, giving scope for mosquito breeding and above all, health hazards to the motorists and pedestrians passing by. MCC should immediately take action to fix this problem faced by these apartment residents, and also take action against the builder for negligence.