Heavy Rainfall in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana – Burning Issues – Free PDF Download

• Torrential rain pounded the neighbouring states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday and Wednesday, submerging low-lying areas, triggering roof and wall collapses, prompting the evacuation of some 80,000 people to relief camps and claiming at least 30 lives, officials said.
• 15 people were killed in Hyderabad, and its suburbs, caused a lake in the middle of the city to overflow onto the roads, and three died in a house collapse in Nagarkurnool district.
• Due to the heavy downpour, rivultes and other water bodies are overflowing in Bhadradri Kothagudem district in the state.

Hyderabad Situation

•  ACP, Falaknuma, M A Majeed, said eight died when huge slabs of granite from a compound wall and boulders fell on around 10 houses at Mohammadia Hills in Bandlaguda at around 11 pm.
• One more person died in another wall collapse at Phool Bagh Colony in the same locality.
• At Ibrahimpatnam, a woman and her 15-year-old daughter died after the roof of their house collapsed on them.

Banjara Hills affected

• A physician died of electrocution when he was trying to drain out water from his clinic in Banjara Hills on Wednesday morning.

Even the Hyd-Blore NH is affected

•  In Gagan Pahad area of the Hyderabad-Bengaluru national highway, three members of a family died in a house collapse.

Hussain Sagar Lake

• The water level in Hussain Sagar lake in the middle of the city overshot its level on Tuesday evening and started overflowing onto the city roads. At 6 pm, the water level in Hussain Sagar was recorded at 513.59 meters against the full tank level of 513.41 m.

Musi River (Tributary of Krishna)

• Until Tuesday, the Musi river in Hyderabad was struggling to flow but now it is brimming.
• All the roads beside the river are being vacated and vehicle movement is restricted over fears of roads being washed away by the river.

Relief Camps have been set up

•  Making a statement in the state legislative council, minister for municipal administration and urban development K T Rama Rao said as many as 40 relief camps had been set up where food and water were being arranged for nearly 80,000 people.
• Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation’s disaster management wing personnel, Teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) are helping the search and rescue efforts.

• IMD Hyderabad has warned of thunderstorms along coastal regions in the state – after a deep depression in the Bay of Bengal crossed the coast near Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday.
• “Special attention needs to be paid to low-level bridges and causeways,” he reiterated, adding, “All traffic and pedestrian movement has to be strictly prohibited to ensure no loss of life.”

In Andhra Pradesh, heavy rain resulted in the death of 10 people. Heavy rains led to floods to Champavatiriver in Vizianagaram. Maize and banana crops were damaged due to heavy rains.

Why do floods occur in Hyderabad?

•  1908: Great Musi Floods: Claimed 15000 lives. Sir Visvesvaraya was commissioned to conduct a study and suggest measures to manage the impact of floods on the city. That’s how two reservoirs — Osmansagar and Himayatsagar — came up to act as flood control centres
• In August 2000, the rains wreaked havoc again. The city recorded a total of 469 mm rain, leading to one of the worst floods we’ve seen since 1908.
• As many as 90 residential areas in the city were under water.

Clear Case of Urban Flooding

• Hyderabad is a system of catchments. The western edge is in the Godavari River basin. To the east, it’s in the Krishna River basin. Also, Hyderabad is in the Deccan region, which has a chaotic drainage pattern as the slope is in multiple directions. These tanks served agrarian purposes and the areas surrounding them were ‘protected local catchment areas’.
• Encroachments: In the last 40 years, we’ve gone and built a complete city on top of this agrarian imprint.

Recommendations by the CSE

• In its 2016 report titled ‘State of India’s urban Water Bodies’, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) had estimated that in the last 12 years, Hyderabad has lost 3,245 ha of its wet lands. The report had said that urban water bodies in India have been a victim of unplanned urbanisation

Way Ahead

• Risk mapping of the areas of the city should be done to assess the vulnerability, related to urban floods, using GIS Technology.
•  Town Planning department of GHMC should regularly monitor the prohibited areas to prevent encroachments.
• Promote groundwater recharge and pollutant attenuation by removing concrete flood-control channels and exposing the underlying native sediment.
• Conserve and protect areas for groundwater recharge. Utilize conjunctive management to enhance groundwater storage: in some instances, diversions of surface water for groundwater infiltration could enhance flood management by reducing peak flows.
• GHMC should rethink its policy of charging amount for rainwater harvesting structures while according permission to plan. They should keep this as a check point for giving occupancy certificate.

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