My Neighbourhood

I step out onto the street. There are no pavements. Actually, the road hardly exists now.

The BWSSB has dug up our road for the 5th time trying to the get the sewerage right this time.

And prior to that, they were trying to get the water supply right.

And prior to that? Oh well, they were laying the sewerage, only that the contractor wouldn’t listen when a few of us (architects residing in the area) told him that he was laying it much higher than what he should have done.

Prior to that? They laid the sewer lines for the first time. Got us to close our well-functioning septic tanks to connect our building sewerage to the spanking new sewer line. Great work, you would think, just that they had no sewage treatment plant in the area. So, they connected it to the storm water drain by the side of our building.

And prior to that, they had laid the water lines for the first time.

Now, let’s talk about the electricity!

A few months ago, they installed a new transformer. The contractor did not cover the hole in the road that he had created to draw the cable. He just put some debris of the concrete that had come up when he dug the road. Despite that scab on the road, we were still quite happy.  

We wanted a new transformer - after years of petitioning everyone from the local AEE of the electricity company all the way up to the MLA. Why, you would ask, did we want a new transformer. That’s because our earlier transformer was placed in the adjoining defence land which was fairly densely wooded. During strong winds, the trees would knock some hanging wires out. If the breakdown occurred after sunset, the electrical linesmen from the company would refuse to go in to the area fearing snakes.

But why was it placed there, in the first instance? Or why was it that BWSSB had to redo the lines repeatedly? Or why is it that we do not have footpaths to walk on?

The answer to that is not a simple one. I start this blog to start an enquiry!