Pond in my Ahmedabad Locality is a Bane, But No One is Listening

Video Editor: Abhishek Sharma and Vishal Kumar
Producer: Rahul Nair

I am from Ahmedabad and I live near Narol Gam. A pond here is causing a lot of problems for the residents. During rains, the water enters people’s houses, making it difficult for them to live here. Many people have died after falling into the pond as well.

But it’s also the lack of sanitation facilities that’s increasing the problem. There is no gutter line. So when people go to fill water from the pond the sewage is mixed with it.

With no sewage line, no drinking water supply and no roads so many people are falling sick, especially children, and it's affecting their education as well. What should we do with no gutter line or drinking water?

They (authorities) won’t even drain the pond. We are tired of telling the government to empty this pond. No one listens to our woes.

I spoke to a resident Mayankbhai, who had a similar story to narrate. “The health department doesn’t care. The estate department says go to the health department, and they say meet the estate department. The AMC doesn’t care.”

We had kept our demands first before the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) and the collector, asking them to fix the problems here, like building a protection wall. They have not done anything so far. Once the gutter water is released here. People can’t even walk on the streets. AMC is not paying any attention here.

We had filed an RTI asking what was done to develop the pond, and asked them to give an account for the same.

In the reply, we were told that there is no account of the money spent. They told us that from now on they will spend money on development.

PM Narendra Modi used to contest the elections from this area. We want to tell Modiji that you have progressed but your locality is still underdeveloped. We need the local authorities to be accountable.

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