Hyderabad: Will Baldia babus ever wake up?

Hyderabad: People’s voice against GHMC for not taking up permanent measures to prevent flooding of roads and houses during monsoon in city is increasing. Seeing the reports of various colonies which are prone to flooding being published in Hans India, for past two weeks, more and more colony people are approaching the newspaper and pouring out their woes.

It is not just the people from old city or certain areas of Secunderabad but even those from the Eastern part of the city like ECIL Kushaiguda, Kapra, Charkripuram, Padmavati Colony, Kamla Nagar, and colonies near Kapra Lake say that they too were facing the serious problem of water logging and inundation during monsoon and no help has been forthcoming from authorities.

The story here too is same. Every season officials and political leaders including corporators visit, make promises but no serious effort is made to provide permanent solution to resolve the issue. The residents pointed towards the lanes that are very narrow with no proper channels for water to flow out. They complained that whenever there was huge downpour the complete lane gets submerged with rainwater making it very difficult to commute. Another major problem is rainwater mixed with sewage water enters the basement of the houses making life impossible.

They said they were informed that the plans for constructing stormwater drains have been worked out but they have not been executed so far.

Recalling the memories of the 2020 flood, social activist Akhilesh Reddy said, residents of these colonies suffered heavy loss to their properties. Even pumping out water was not done properly by the authorities and the people had to hire private workers, he said.

However, when contacted officials claim that various related works were started two months back in the entire eastern part of the city and that desilting the drains and renovating of Kapra Lake was in progress. But the residents said that there was no change in the situation as was evident from the recent unseasonal rains where waterlogging was witnessed.

Residents of Kushaiguda point out that the sewer lines have become old and a moderate amount of rain is enough to make the situation worse. The water along with sewage water accumulates in front of the roads and also another concern is that none of the manholes there are closed. This makes it risky for the residents even to walk. The foul smell that emanates from it is unbearable. We too are taxpayers, please look at us, they add.