HYDERABAD: Even after five days, hundreds of families are staying indoors in Old City after inundation due to both floods as well as flood water discharged into Musi river after floodgates of the Himayathsagar reservoir were opened.
As many as 150 to 200 residential colonies of the seven major mandals including Charminar, Bahadurpura, Bandlaguda, Asifnagar, Nampally, Himayathnagar and Amberpet are submerged and thus people are facing a grim situation. Many bylanes are inundated with flood waters and up to two to four feet thick piled up mud. In some areas, residents are suffering power cuts and water supply issues.
Even Hyderabad district administration or civic body could not assess the situation till October 12, but both heavy rainfall and simultaneous release of flood water from Himayathsagar have made the situation worse. In fact, floodgates were opened on October 13 and then again on October 18.
Apart from district administration, the army, NDRF and civic body are jointly putting rescue efforts to evacuate the affected families for the past five days. “We have set up shelters and arranged food and water supply for the evacuated families, but most of them were refusing to leave their houses. We are trying to convince them but they are not obeying our appeal,” a senior Hyderabad collectorate official told TOI.
Their fear is that valuables and other belongings from their houses will be stolen by miscreants, said the official.
According to HMWS&SB, four floodgates of Himayathsagar were opened and 2,744 cusecs of water was discharged.