Perilous pitfalls in Vijayawada: open drains turn death traps Premium

This year, two 6-year-olds drowned in channels in Vijayawada’s alleys, sparking the city’s wrath

As the sky opened in the forenoon on May 5, Teku Abhiram, 6, asked his mother, Teku Nookaratnam, 23, to heat up some water for his bath. In the wait, he stepped out to play with two of his cousins. The trio made paper boats and put them out in a narrow drain abutting Abhiram’s house. Around 40 houses, all one-roomed, in this alley near NAC Kalyana Mandapam in Gurunanak Nagar in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, are built in a straight line, with the drain running on one side. The alley, home to people from economically weaker sections, measures not more than 60 inches. Here, men do odd jobs, while most of the women work as domestic staff in houses of Gurunanak Nagar, one of the city’s posh colonies.  

The children, following the paper boat trail in the drain, reached the entrance of the alley, less than 200 metres away, where the narrow drain flows into a bigger, outfall drain. Abhiram reportedly bent down to find his paper boat, slipped, and fell into the drain. That day, as is the case every time it rains, water was gushing into the outfall drain. 

“My children came running to me saying that Abhiram had fallen into the drain. We did not immediately realise the gravity of the incident, but his mother, ran there. We reached the spot in less than three minutes, but Abhiram had disappeared by then. We couldn’t find him anywhere. A sanitary worker nearby told us she saw him raising his hand but before she could pull him out, he was washed away,” recollects Devi, Abhiram’s aunt, who was with her sister-in-law Nookaratnam at the time of the incident. 

Abhiram was found a few hundred metres away after a two-hour search by police and the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation officials and other neighbours. “His body was entangled in wires and other waste that came with the water. He was breathing then, but we lost him before we could reach the hospital,” Nookaratnam, who is now four months pregnant, says. 

This year, two children, Abhiram and Sheik Suleman Ashraf, both 6 years old, died after falling into open drains. While the city moved on in a few days after Abhiram’s death, Ashraf’s death in October in the old Rajarajeswaripeta area in the city brought back attention to the danger that open drains pose to children. 

While Abhiram’s parents received ₹1 lakh compensation from the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation, Ashraf’s parents refused to take it. “We do not want any compensation. Will it bring back our son? We want the municipal authorities to ensure that no parent loses their child in such a manner again,” Sharmila, Ashraf’s mother, had said while addressing the media in October. 

A month after, she is too grief-stricken to speak about her son. “We only hope that no parent has to go through this,” she reiterated, refusing to meet in person. Ashraf too fell in the open drain while playing outside. His body was retrieved the next day.