CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has directed the Chennai Metrowater Supply and Sewage Board to use polythene or plastic bags to collect sewage waste from manholes while desilting its sewer lines and immediately remove them instead of allowing it to dry up on roads.

The Madras HC First Bench comprising Chief Justice A.P. Shah and Prabha Sridevan, issued the order in a case filed by Broadway-based voluntary organisation, Massline.

In March, it filed a plea demanding court intervention against the practice. The organisation president O.S. Masood had said it was creating unhygienic living conditions for residents.

The Madras High Court had directed Metrowater to come up with an alternative arrangement for the removal of silt and present a report. Metrowater managing director, in a report, noted that the agency was maintaining a total length of 2,650 km of sewer system with 74,600 manholes.

There are 178 sewage-pumping stations. The agency had said the silt removed during maintenance was wet so could not be handled and disposed of immediately.

Metrowater officials said, "The CMWSS Board will ensure that silt removed is deposited into the nearby dustbin from where garbage and other solid waste materials are collected in a day by the Corporation of Chennai.

However, various methods of collecting the silt into gunny bags and dumping into the nearby dustbins or collecting the silt directly in the plastic container and disposing into the dustbins will also be tried."

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