Electrocution a regular issue at disaster site: Locals

A lack of communication between government agencies despite red flags, the restoration of electricity without identifying the root cause of a fault, and lack of accountability seem to have caused the death of 16 people and injuries to 11 others, all of whom were electrocuted at Namami Gange Sewerage Treatment Plant at Gopeshwar in Chamoli on Wednesday.

- Amit Bathla

The sewerage treatment plant (STP) with a capacity of 0.5 megalitres per day was set up under the Namami Gange project in 2019 and handed over to the Uttarakhand Jal Sansthan in 2021, with electricity provided to it by the Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited. Local residents in Chamoli, a small town in Uttarakhand, around 240 km away from Dehradun, said the first inkling of something going wrong was on Tuesday night, when the lone security guard at the STP, Ganesh Lal, stopped picking up his mobile phone.