Three sanitation workers suffocated to death while cleaning a sewer in Delhi's Lajpat Nagar
Three sanitation workers have died due to asphyxiation while cleaning a drain in southeast Delhi's Lajpat Nagar on Sunday, police said. The incident was reported at around 1 pm, they said.
The workers were cleaning a sewer line in Lajpat Nagar near the Kabir Ram temple. They had gone inside the sewer and inhaled toxic fumes and were later found unconscious, they said.
They were taken to AIIMS Trauma Centre where the doctors declared that they were "brought dead".
Two of the victims were identified as Joginder (32) and Annu (28), while the identity of the third is yet to ascertained, police said.
In a similar incident just three weeks ago, four sanitation workers died of suffocation while cleaning a septic tank in south Delhi's Ghitorni area. Five men had gone down to clean the tank in a household in the area but did not come out for long. They were later pulled out in an unconscious state by fire department personnel after an hour-long operation. They too had inhaled toxic gases inside the tank.
Sanitation workers across the country often work poor working conditions and without proper protection and tools. There is a lack of safety equipment and proper procedures are seldom followed, which puts the lives of thousands of sanitation workers at risk.