Osmania General Hospital flooded after heavy rains lash Hyderabad

Hyderabad: For the second time in three days, parts of Osmania General Hospital (OGH), Hyderabad’s iconic state hospital, got flooded by sewage water on Wednesday.

The flooding started on the pathway that connects the heritage structure with Quli Qutub Shah building due to sewage water from a nearby canal overflowing.
The overflowing water wreaked havoc in many general wards and one ICU in the heritage building.

Hospital staff tried to prevent the water from getting into the hospital using mattresses and sand bags, but the flooding was too much to control. The flooded walkway also made it difficult for hospital staff to shift patients from the OP ward to in-patient building.

Videos of the flooded hospital have been widely shared on the social media, earning brickbats for the state government. In one video, a woman tending to her sick son in a general ward complains of the unbearable stench due to sewage water.

A doctor said Wednesday’s rains could hardly be considered “heavy”, but they still led to flooding. “Every time it rains, we keep looking anxiously at the ceiling to check out whether we are standing under a loose piece of mortar,” he stated.

The crumbling infrastructure of Osmania General Hospital, one of the oldest in Hyderabad, has been in the news for wrong reasons many times. Around two weeks ago, a part of the ceiling came down on the second floor of the IP building. The second floor has been off-limits for several years, after it was deemed “unsafe”.

Dr. Pandu Naik, in-charge superintendent, said his staff tried to divert the overflowing water into a nearby garden to prevent any wards from getting flooded. But the flow was too much. “We immediately asked GHMC, who came and pumped the water out,” he said. Dr. Naik pointed out that the drainage system of the hospital is over 100 years old. “We are hoping for a permanent solution for this problem, as the rainy season is upon us,” he said.

Officials of the Telangana State Medical Services and Infrastructure Development Corporation (TSMSIDC) meanwhile said Wednesday’s flooding was due to overflowing of a “kachha nala” coming from Begum Bazaar. They said TSMSIDC is working with GHMC to sort out the issue.

It may be recalled that following Monday’s flooding, OGH officials had said flooding was caused by improper planning and poor engineering of internal roads. They said one of the structures had blocked manholes of the storm-water drain, leading to stagnation of water.