Hyderabad: Rains tire citizens, test resolve

Hyderabad: Colonies in Ramanthapur, Kapra, Madinaguda, and Moula Ali have borne the brunt of the flooding caused by the recent rains.

Every family of the hundreds affected has had electric appliances, furniture, and other property damaged and most residents have spent several sleepless nights. The response from the authorities has, as usual, been slow in coming.

Things are slowly returning to normal but there is no hope that any of the damage will be compensated. Some food is provided as part of relief-rescue measures, but there is no thought to provide more, even though civic neglect as usual has aggravated the situation.

In the Ramanthapur area of Uppal constituency, 5,000 residents living in Ravendra Nagar, Laxmi Nagar, Sai Chitra Nagar, downstream Pragati Nagar, Netaji Nagar, Nehru Nagar spent days living in houses where the water was knee-deep.

“The inundation wasn’t for just a few hours but for a week. We had to live on food supplied by the government and sleep in community halls. Our furniture, appliances are soaking in water. Books and documents had to be shifted to a relative’s home. The walls still have marks of the water level,” said Bhargavi Reddy who lives in Ravendranagar — Ramanthapur.

Mixed with the rain water were sewer water, plastic waste and trash, all of which entered people’s homes accompanied by a foul smell. 

It took more than five days to pump out the water. On Saturday, the affected residents had to shame the government into taking action by taking to the streets. But it took another 48 hours to get a response. 

On Monday, the Mayor and GHMC officials conducted an inspection at Uppal. Water sluices were cleaned for smooth flow.

“The topography was checked and it was decided to maintain the full tank level of the Chinna Cheruvu. Osmania University Vice-Chancellor was asked to build dams and maintain their ponds so that water does not flow towards Ramanthapur,” said Uppal MLA NVSS Prabhakar.

In Kapra, a housing colony was completely filled with water for five days as it is in the FTL area. Moula Ali was no better. People lived in knee-deep water and gave up trying to save their furniture.

What happened at Ramanthapur 
The catchment area upstream of Ramanthapur Pedda Cheruvu was submerged due to heavy rain, inundating habitations that had come up within the full tank level (FTL) in the last few years. To ease the problem, water was pumped away from the lake. The FTL is about 32 acres but the water spread has been reduced to 22 acres. About 3.5 million cubic feet of water needs to be pumped, and it will take a 120 HP motor 48 hours to do the job.

Colonies that faced repeated floods
Kukatpally: Dharaninagar, Bandari Layout, Jimkalawada, Allwyn Colony. 
Bowenpally: Manasa Sarovar Heights.
Old City: Dabeerpura, Azampura, Chandrayangutta, Uppuguda and Bandlaguda
East Zone: Malakpet, Saidabad, Amberpet, Uppal Chilukanagar, Nacharam, Habsiguda
West Zone: Friends Colony, Chandanagar, Deepti Sri Nagar, Kondandaramnagar in Saroornagar, East Saroornagar
North Zone: Kapra, colonies along Kapra High Tension Road, Moula Ali, East Anandbagh, and others.