Over 300 thousand curtains and 130 thousand toilets
After the conclusion of the Hindu pilgrimage Khumb Mela with the last ritual bath on February 26, in the area near the city of Prayagraj which hosted the mega religious event, a massive operation of dismantling temporary structures is underway.
The infrastructures that must be removed include 300 thousand curtains of various types and sizes, over 1,300 kilometers of underground pipes for drinking water, 1,582 kilometers of air electric cables, 500 square kilometers of sheet metal, 30 floating bridges and over 130 thousand toilets.
Throughout 45 days of duration of the event, they were produced from 200 to 300 tons of metric waste, removed daily and disposed of 20 kilometers from the area, in the city of Ghorpur.
The managers of the construction sites provide that the time needed to fully clean up the area will exceed the 45 days of duration of the Festival, and that the area will not return to the original situation before the beginning of June, while various buildings, including some new temples, drinking water pipes, solar panels and a 13 -kilometer road along the banks of the gange will become permanent. Yesterday the Chief Minister of the State, the monk Yogi Adithyanath, spoke in the public of the accident that on January 29 led to the death of at least 30 people overwhelmed by the crowd after his government consciously decided to minimize the incident to avoid the escalation of panic. “That day,” he said, “one of the most propitious for the ritual bath, in the city of Prayagraj there were 40 million people who moved to and from the Maha Kumbh area, and the bathroom of thirteen groups of the Akharas was expected, the sects of the ascents, who always fight each other, even violently, to get to immerse themselves first”.
Chief Minister also contested the recent accusations of environmentalists who said that the river water during the event was polluted, with levels of fecal bacteria above the norm.
