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INDIA-SOCIAL-SANITATION-HEALTH
New machine aims to end India’s sewer death shame
NEW DELHI, Nov 19, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Hundreds of “manual scavengers” die
each year cleaning out sewers in cities across India but a machine unveiled
for Monday’s World Toilet Day could help to end that tragic record.
Thousands of mostly low-caste Indians are employed in one of the world’s
dirtiest jobs unclogging human waste from underground pipes.
More than 1,300 have died, mainly suffocated, in the past three years,
according to the Sulabh International charity.
The men are called “manual scavengers” because they mainly scrape the waste
with their bare hands without any protective gear or masks.
The machine launched by Sulabh injects high pressure water into the tunnels
and tanks and then collects the waste with a mechanical bucket operated from
ground level.
A remote control inspection camera generates high-resolution images of the
sewer system.
Bindeshwar Pathak, the Sulabh International founder, said that forcing
humans into the sewers was “demeaning”.
“We hear so often the tragic news about sewer workers losing their lives,”
he said.
“This machine can safely clean the waste matter and it will gradually make
manual scavenging redundant.
“With this machine we hope no person will die in the sewers any more.”
Indian lawmakers have passed several laws aiming to stamp out the age-old
practice of manual scavenging, the latest in 2013. But many scavengers are
still used through subcontractors.
In rural areas, women “scavengers” clean out primitive non-flush toilets
with basic tools, although the practice is now on the wane.
Pathak also unveiled a giant Indian-style toilet pot to raise awareness
about sanitation in a country where some 150 million people do not have home
toilets.
BSS/AFP/RY/1625 hrs