Sehore’s C2 Drain: Where Promises Flow but Sewage Stays

Sita Kushwaha, a 55-year-old resident of Ward No. 6 in Sehore, begins each day with the sight of the polluted C2 drain flowing just outside her home—a channel now choked with the city’s garbage.

She remembers a different time. “When I moved here after getting married 25 years ago, this drain was clean and full of water,” she says. We used to come here to wash clothes.” 

C2 drain, also known as Lotiya Nala, runs through the heart of Sehore city. This five-kilometre-long drain originates near the Town Hall and eventually merges with the Sewan River—a vital lifeline of the region—near the Ganesh Temple. Along its banks stand nearly 2,500 homes, where residents begin and end their day with the sight and stench of the drain. Once a waterway, it now carries the waste and excreta of the entire city. Its waters have turned pitch black, and the foul odour that arises from it has made daily life unbearable for those living nearby.

Unofficial landfill

One of the main reasons for the persistent foul smell is the stagnation of drain water caused by accumulated garbage. Although municipal vehicles conduct door-to-door garbage collection, many residents—especially from slums and houses along the banks—continue to dump waste directly into the drain.

The municipality has installed warning boards at several points, stating, “₹500 fine for throwing garbage in the drain,” yet piles of trash can be seen right beneath them. There isn’t a single stretch of this drain left untouched by garbage. It appears to have become the city’s unofficial landfill.

In the evenings, you can also see burning garbage on its banks, which fills the houses of people living near the drain with smoke. Animals often die in this drain, and the resulting stench troubles people for many days.

Sita points to a deeper injustice. “People living in buildings clean their homes and throw the garbage into the drain. It’s the poor, like us, living here out of compulsion, who have to suffer,” she says.

Her words highlight a stark class divide—one that remains unresolved despite decades of progress. The Preamble of the Indian Constitution upholds fraternity as essential to ensuring individual dignity and maintaining the unity and integrity of the nation. Yet, the dignity of Sita and her community is under constant threat, a reflection of how far society has drifted from this constitutional ideal. When residents from more privileged areas discard their waste into the drain without regard for those who live alongside it, they pollute the environment and erode the spirit of fraternity that binds a society together.

To understand this phenomenon in a simpler way, imagine that if the people who throw garbage so carelessly had a strong sense of brotherhood, wouldn't they have considered the people living on the banks of this drain as their family members? Indeed, this carelessness contributes to the diminishing value of brotherhood. This gives rise to inequality, which Sita experiences by using the phrase "people living in the building."

Sita is a housewife whose husband died four years ago. She lives in her ancestral home with her son, daughter-in-law and a grandchild. She says, "We have to keep our door closed in the evening. When the wind blows, the foul smell from the drain and the smoke from the garbage enter the house. The children start coughing. There are so many mosquitoes and flies that it becomes difficult to sit." Sita says that the Nagar Palika sprays mosquito repellent all over the city, but this vehicle does not come to her ward.

Sita's son Prem Kushwaha spent his childhood in this house. He is 35 years old and has a four-year-old daughter. He says,

"I don't want my daughter to spend her childhood in front of this drain. There is always a fear of disease. But there should be income to buy a new house. If the municipality cleans this drain, at least our children can get relief from this stench and dirt."

Neglected and unheard

The neglect shown by the Nagar Palika toward Sita’s ward is often brushed off as routine administrative failure—just another example of systemic inefficiency. But if one pauses to reflect, a deeper truth emerges: the administration itself appears detached from the very constitutional values it claims to uphold—values proudly displayed on signboards inside the Nagar Palika office.

The authority and prestige enjoyed by its officers, councillors, and presidents come from the Constitution, granted with the hope that the ideals enshrined in the Preamble—justice, equality, liberty, and fraternity—would be reflected in the way they govern. Yet the lived realities of Sita and her neighbours stand in stark contrast to these ideals. The gap between principle and practice is not just disappointing—it is a betrayal of the social contract.

Residents living near the drain reveal a pattern: those who can afford to leave, do. Many families with financial means have already started building or have moved into new colonies developing across the city. For them, escape is possible. But for the rest—those without the resources—the polluted drain remains an inescapable part of daily life, a constant reminder of inequality and neglect.

Rajesh Sharma, who runs a clothes shop in ward number six, says,

"We are here because our shop is here, and this is also the main market. But this place is not suitable for a family to live in from a health perspective."

According to Rajesh, for the past 15 years, the Sehore leaders and the collector have been reportedly talking about beautifying the Lotiya drain. But he has seen its condition worsening. “The leaders say that this drain will be cleaned to the extent that boats can be used in it, roads will be built around it, and lamps will be installed. “But forget the fancy plans—we just want the stench and sewage treated. "That's all we ask for," he adds.

Like Sita, Rajesh sees the class divide as the root of the problem. He explains, "We would have cleaned this drain long ago if wealthy and influential people lived along it." The reason it remains neglected is that most residents here are poor—people whose voices go unheard and whose suffering is ignored.”

Sehore city's Nagar Palika president Prince Rathore had promised to beautify the C2 drain during his tenure, for which he has also got a budget of 7 crores approved. Under this, retaining walls are to be built on both sides of the drain, and the wastewater coming out of the houses is to be prevented from mixing into the C2 drain by making a sewage line. However, with only one year remaining in Prince Rathore's tenure, the work of deepening the C2 drain remains incomplete.

Under the government’s Amrit Yojana, a 12 MLD sewage treatment plant has been constructed in Sehore, which treats 75% of the city's sewage water and discharges it into water bodies. However, the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board's report indicates that 15 MLD of water is still being discharged into drains and water bodies without treatment. The settlements located around the city's C2 drain and Sewan River are in the worst condition.

On this, Prince Rathore says that

"The remaining work will be completed under Amrit 2.0. For this, we have set a budget of Rs 58 crore. This includes the budget for beautification of the Sewan River, C2 drain and water supply scheme."

Next to Sita’s house stands a well dating back to 1946, as an inscription on its side reveals.

Sita says, “We still drink water from this well; we haven’t taken a tap connection from the municipality.” She believes the well’s water is clean, even though many neighbours complain about polluted water from their borewells.

Monsoon adds trouble

The rainy season is especially painful for those living near the drain. Sita recalls the rains of 2019 and says,

“The drain water had filled up to our knees in our house. Snakes and scorpions crawled into our house. We suffered a lot. But no compensation of any kind was given.”

According to Sita's son Prem, people living around the drain remain scared during the rainy season because, in the year 2019, many people's houses had collapsed due to the flood in the drain.

Prem has planted many trees in front of his house. He believes that because of this, one does not have to see the drain early in the morning, and the foul smell coming from the drain is also suppressed to a great extent due to the trees. Rajesh says,

"If the administration had to do something, it would have done it long ago. They do not care what condition we are living in. But we want to live a good life with whatever we have."

Sita says, “Because of this drain, even our relatives avoid coming to our house. The boys living here do not get married easily. Why would anyone send their daughter to live in this filth? But what should we do? Where should we go?”

Environmental justice?

The right to a clean and healthy environment is enshrined in the fundamental right to life under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. This right guarantees citizens the right to live with dignity in a pollution-free environment. The responsibility of environmental protection has been placed on both the State and citizens through Articles 48-A and 51-A(g) of the Constitution. The courts have strengthened this right in landmark cases such as M.C. Mehta vs Union of India. This right is linked to constitutional values, such as justice, equality, and fraternity. A clean environment is the basis of social justice, and it is our constitutional duty to ensure a healthy earth for future generations.

If every citizen living in the city is equal before the administration, then why is it that a rich person is breathing in a better environment and a poor person is forced to breathe in polluted air? If the administration can't help these people after spending crores, it should rethink its policies and inclusivity. There is a need for the government to focus on eliminating pollution and not on beautification because clean nature looks beautiful in itself; it does not need any artificial decoration. 

Edited by Diwash Gahatraj

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