NOIDA, Jan. 28 -- Residents and experts say rainwater and treated or untreated sewage has been accumulating in newly developed residential and industrial areas along the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway because of the Noida Authority's failure to build a master drainage and sewer network. This has created "artificial ponds", such as the one in Sector 150 where 27-year-old software engineer Yuvraj Mehta drowned on January 17.

"These artificial ponds pose a major risk to human life," said Atul Gupta, president of the Noida chapter of the Uttar Pradesh Architecture Association, adding that the treated or untreated wastewater of newly developed residential and industrial areas goes into either green belts, low lying vacant plots or sector drai...