Toxic fumes in Vadodara hotel septic tank claim 7

In yet another incident of manual scavenging gone awry, seven people lost their lives — in a chain reaction of events — on Saturday afternoon as they inhaled toxic gases while attempting to clean a septic tank of a hotel in the Fartikui village in Vadodara district. Incidentally, though manual scavenging is banned across the nation, incidents of deaths due to lowering of people into gutters and septic tanks occur with shocking regularity.

Of the seven dead, four of the victims were from the same family hailing from Thuvavi village and hired by Hassan Boraniya, owner of Darshan Hotel, to clean the overflowing septic tank. The other three were employees of the hotel.

"As soon as one of the workers went inside, he fainted due to the toxic fumes. The other three went in after him to rescue him and all of them fell unconscious. Then, three of the hotel employees too, jumped in an attempt to save the four and also lost their lives," said Purshottam Vaghela of Manav Garima, an organisation that works to end illegal manual scavenging in the state. Meanwhile, Boraniya is absconding.

"We rushed to the site and teams of the fire brigade from Vadodara and Dabhoi civic bodies launched rescue work, which took three hours. The bodies of the deceased have been recovered," said Kiran Zaveri in-charge district collector.

8 Deaths In Apr-May

• May: Four sanitation workers died while cleaning a water pumping station in Odhav
• May: Labourer, hired by a housing society in Juhapura, died after he entered a gutter
• April: Two workers and a contractor, who tried to save the other two, died inside a manhole in Bavla