Sometimes it’s easy to forget just how blessed we are to live in America. Last year, several articles such as this one from the BBC, this one from Waging Nonviolence, and this one from the New York Times all detailed the fight for the rights of sewer workers over in India. Unbelievably, workers still manually clean sewers, septic tanks, toilets, and drains by occasionally getting into manholes to clean blockages of mud and plastic. According to the BBC article, there is little agreement on how many people are engaged in the practice of manually cleaning the sewers. In 2021, a federal minister told parliament that the government had identified 58,098 sewer workers in the country through surveys. However, according to Safai Karmachari Andolan (a movement whose mission is to eliminate the unsafe job), there are more than 770,000 such workers. Due to the serious immediate health risks with the toxic gasses, it is estimated nearly 350 workers have died in the last 5 years.
We at Apex do not clean sewers as these men do, but we do work on them when blockages like tree roots can’t be cleared. While we get to use heavy machinery to work on sewers, this serves as a sober reminder that we are incredibly blessed to live in a place that does not require us to send workers down into the sewers. That does not mean risk is completely mitigated in performing sewer repairs and underground plumbing in America, which is why each member of our team is OSHA certified. However, it is much safer than many workers have it around the rest of the world.
Whether in America, India, or anywhere else in the world, cleaning and repairing sewers is a job that must be done. Fortunately, activists are working to eradicate unsafe work environments in India and laws have recently been passed to protect Indian sewer workers. Just as they are beginning to commit to safety, we at Apex are committed to offering the safest work environment possible as we offer sewer repairs and water line replacements. If you are in need of underground plumbing, contact Apex today!
