Nightmare for families living along Osman Nagar

Life has become miserable for the residents living in the city's outskirts in areas like Osman Nagar, Shaheen Nagar and Jalpally. More than 1200 people living in about 400 houses were rendered homeless after water overflowed from the lake and submerged houses.

It has been a year since their houses are under water. They waited long for the water level to go down but again the recent heavy rains have haunted them. The entire area was covered with 4-5 feet water and ground floors of most of the houses are swamped in water.

Still people were in an attempt to shift their valuables to a safer place, while some of them were helplessly waiting for the water level to go down. The families living here are the working labour class community. They are labourers working in factories, hotels, auto-rickshaw drivers etc.

Shakeera who works as a house maid in several houses of Barkas and Mohammed Nagar to survive. Like her, about 400 families from Osman Nagar have become refugees near their own homes. "Since the last floods, we hardly had any respite from this situation. The entire area gets inundated and our houses are swamped with more water after every rain," said Hajera Begum, whose house is surrounded by water.

After waiting for a long, we have managed to live in a nearby area in Badangpet, but our entire household items are inundated with water. We have been making rounds to see the level of water. "Due to inundation for the last one year, the foundations of our houses are gradually worsening," she said, miserably.

A 50-year-old Shaik Saleh, a laborer working at a factory said that earlier, the families had no option left and were managed to live at relatives houses but after a few months have shifted to another place. "We belong to a poor family and have made a household by working as laborers. Our entire hard-earned money has gone in water."

"We are starting our life from the beginning and acquiring the household items."

With no taxi or a cab available, residents are facing difficulties.

With water inundation, no private transportation is available in the area and no vehicle is also available in medical emergencies. Pallavi, a widow working as a house maid said, "My entire house is submerged in water, I can't even enter the house and entire items are damaged and left with nothing."

With no house children were seen roaming in the area and a large number of them have become a helping hand for their parents. "To help my family, I stopped my education and started working in a kirana store," said 15-year-old Jawad.

The families said that they are not able to send their children to school, as they can't even afford the notebooks and school fees.