Scuba divers put their lives on the line in rescue effort inside a constricted canal

They wound up the search for the missing sanitation worker in the Amayizhanjan canal after another fruitless day on Sunday evening

Vast expanses of water and ocean floors filled with natural wonders are second homes for most scuba divers. A narrow canal, clogged with years worth of thick masses of solidified waste, and a constricted channel of waste water under it, is something that even the most experienced of such divers would find it hard to negotiate. It is not something that is part of standard training manuals.

For over two days, a group of scuba divers from the Fire and Rescue Services department, have been spending much of their time inside such a canal, searching for a sanitation worker who went missing inside it. Although equipped with oxygen masks and other safety equipment, they were taking almost the same risk as Joy, the sanitation worker, to earn a living. The long rescue effort became a testimony to their perseverance too.

“The waste inside has solidified into a large mass which is several metres thick. We could not push it away or cut it open in the short time that we manage to stay inside. So, all that we can do is move through the waste under this bed of waste. We managed to cover almost the entire stretch of the canal under the rail lines by approaching it from both sides, but we have not been able to trace him,” says Sivan, one of the scuba diving team members.

The scuba divers started their work at 6 a.m. on Sunday, with a pair of divers venturing in, by taking turns. Each pair stays inside for a maximum of fifteen minutes, after which they return to the surface to catch some oxygen. With the water level falling, staying inside the canal is an added risk, as the bed of waste on top could gradually come down restricting the space available to swim. Once a pair is out, the fellow divers help wash down all the waste that had got caught in their diving attire.

“I have entered manholes and drains to rescue people, but this is the first time in my service that I am encountering a situation like this. In addition to the thick layer of waste on top of the water, there was waste accumulated on the sides. Even when we were inside, we could see fresh waste flowing in from the city, making the task further difficult,” says Jeevan, another diver.

The divers were of the opinion that washing down the waste might not be a practical idea as it has become too thick a mass to be moved by pumping in water. Even as the rescue efforts were slowly wound up after another fruitless day of search inside the constricted canal, the divers were already gearing up to return with renewed energy on Monday morning.