Woman drowns in Maligaon
Payel Nath did not die because of an unavoidable accident. She died because a drain was left open in a flooded street in Maligaon on the evening of April 19 — and because, in Guwahati, this is a hazard that has claimed lives for over two decades without being fixed.
Her death has triggered yet another round of public outrage. And yet, the pattern that surrounds it is grimly familiar: tragedy, official promises, and eventual inaction.
The names of those killed by Guwahati's open drains, uncovered manholes, and unguarded construction pits form a long and disturbing list.
In September 2025, three-year-old Sumit Kumar Sahu fell into an uncovered drain near a flyover construction site in Kalapahar and died. Within days, a five-year-old boy lost his life after falling into an open drain near Vivekananda School in the same locality.
In July 2024, eight-year-old Abhinash Sarkar slipped from his father's scooter into an open stormwater drain in Jyotinagar. His body was recovered three days later in Rajgarh — nearly four kilometres away — a detail that speaks to the lethal force running through the city's neglected drainage network.
In June 2023, Naren Choudhury died after slipping into an unguarded drain during a morning walk. In September of the same year, 74-year-old Mantu Deka fell into a pit dug for a JICA water supply project in Hengrabari and died.
The history extends further back. In 2013, four-year-old Rafiqul died after slipping into a flooded drain in Sijubari. A resident named Balmiki died in Beltola under similar circumstances the same year. In 2012, school student Sagarika Bora fell into an open manhole in Uzan Bazar and died. In 2006, Child Development Project Officer Jhumur Karmakar died after falling into a manhole in Lal Ganesh. In 2003, housewife Upamoni Choudhury was swept away after falling into a drain on a flooded road in Chandmari.
Also Read: Two women injured after falling into open drain in Guwahati
After Sumit Kumar Sahu's death in 2025, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma directed authorities to use satellite imagery to identify open drains across the city and take urgent corrective action. He also flagged the rising theft of manhole covers as a serious safety concern.
On the ground, however, little appears to have changed.
Large sections of Guwahati still have open drains without covers, and construction sites continue to operate with inadequate or missing barricades. During heavy rainfall, floodwaters conceal these hazards entirely — turning ordinary streets into what one might call invisible death zones. Children and the elderly are the most vulnerable.
The problem runs deeper than routine maintenance failures. Construction safety enforcement across the city is weak and inconsistent. Contractors regularly leave excavation pits exposed, in direct violation of basic safety norms. Barricades, where they exist at all, are frequently inadequate or poorly positioned.
The repeated deaths have also cast a shadow over the government's flagship Mission Flood Free Guwahati initiative, which was launched to address the city's chronic drainage and flooding problems. Critics argue that while policies have been announced, implementation has remained slow, fragmented, and ineffective.
The widening gap between official claims and the reality on the ground has become impossible to ignore.
Each year brings new promises. Each monsoon season brings new deaths. And each time, the same uncomfortable question grows a little louder: how many more lives will it take before Guwahati's drains are made safe?