Hyderabad: Anti-fungal medicines are urgently required for residents and volunteers cleaning the muck and slush from Babanagar, Nallabagh, Alinagar, Osmannagar and Al Jubail Colony in the Old City.
Cleaning of knee-deep slush has been a challenge and many of them are suffering from fungal infections. It is stated that 70 per cent of the residents and volunteers are complaining of severe fungal infections, which causes itching and rashes.
Manual removal of the much is being taken up as the machines cannot enter inside these small colonies. The stagnating water is drying very slowly and the outlets are still choked. The groundwater level has increased and catchment areas where water collected when the tanks were full now have stagnant water.
The areas are now covered with muck, slush and waste which the floodwater carried along with it. Sewage, sand, carcasses of animals and waste is now being removed but it is also adversely affecting the workers.
Azam Khan who is working with volunteers in Babanagar, says “Along with the residents, there are students, doctors, engineers, techies who are volunteering for cleaning. There is still a lot of much to be removed.”
Only a few of them have protective gumboots and gloves. Most of them are suffering from severe scratching and itching and need creams which will help them.
Volunteers estimate that the work will continue for another week at least.
Some residents have slowly begun to return but many are still too scared to. A call has been given to citizens to come to these affected areas and provide aid that would help residents tide through the crisis.
