Epidemic threat looms as sewer system goes awry

Scene: It''s a hospital, which has a park. One side of the park is filled with sewage water. Pigs can be seen reveling in it. This repulsive sight is compounded by a foul smell that emanates from it. The place also serves as a fertile ground for breeding of mosquitoes and is open invitation to dangerous diseases like malaria.
This sight welcomes you as you enter the CRHSP-AIIMS, Ballabgarh Hospital in Faridabad, which is run in collaboration with the Haryana government.These conditions are a precursor for an epidemic to sprout, this time paradoxically from a treatment centre itself.
According to the hospital doctors, this situation has been prevailing for the last six months and is due to a broken sewage line outside the hospital. But when Faridabad Plus contacted the Municipal Corporation of Faridabad (MCF), they had a different story to tell. "Our men have checked it. There is no clogging of sewer line outside the hospital, all lines are clear," says Mittal, assistant engineer (civil), MCF.
The MCF officials insist that all sewer lines are open and there must be a fault in the sewer line of the hospital. With both hospital and MCF authorities passing the buck on to each other, the filthy surroundings continue to wreak havoc on patients and visitors of the hospital.
Set up in 1965, CRHSP is run by AIIMS in active collaboration with the state government of Haryana. The 60 bedded hospital, which began as a primary health centre today offers specialties in Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics, Gynaecology, Pediatrics, Psychiatry and Dermatology. It provides health cover to about 4.5 lakh population from Palwal, Hodal and Ballabgarh. Around 500 patients visit this centre daily. It also runs special clinics once or twice a week in these disciplines. Specialty clinics for pregnant women, diabetics and hypertension are also held thrice a week here. The hospital also has a small nursery for newborn babies. This centre also serves as a field practice centre for teaching and research activities. Undergraduates from AIIMS get a residential posting here and participate in the healthcare and community services under the supervision of residential doctors.
Doctors from AIIMS regularly visit the CRHSP and are actively involved in the training and assessment of these graduates.
It is a pity that such a prestigious institution is presently caught in the pool of insanitary condition.