Hyderabad's Shaheen Nagar submerged under flood waters since one month

HYDERABAD: For the past one month, 66-year-old Mohammed Siddique has been making the 5-km trip from Pahadi Shareef to Shaheen Nagar daily to check on his half-submerged residence.

He wades through floodwaters that have oozed out of the nearby Shukur Talab to reach his house whose foundations are gradually deteriorating because of the inundation. 

He is a resident of Shaheen Nagar near Balapur, where floodwaters have stood still since September, inundating around 800 houses, and forcing the majority of its residents to shift to a higher plane.

Siddique now resides in a rented accommodation in Pahadi Shareef. 

The water first entered Shaheen Nagar on September 21 after heavy precipitation in the area. After the current spell of devastating rains in the city, the inundation intensified in the area. The stagnant water is riddled with algae, sewage, plastic giving rise to the risk of water-borne diseases. 

"We are facing so many problems," said an exasperated Siddique who looks far too frail for his age.

"We do not have drinking water. People are giving food and distributing cash. What will we do with that? We just want the water to flow out so that we can start rebuilding our lives," he added. 

Residents of the area were told by officials that if the floodwaters was allowed to run off, then it would inundate the nearby Venkatapuram area.

"The water will also flow into the Balapur Talab (which recently breached inundating Hafez Baba Nagar and Omer Colony)," said Altaf Shaik, an engineering student and a resident of the area. His house too has been under waters since September. 

"Government officials keep on saying that they will pump out the water in a day or two. It has been weeks but they have done nothing," said Mohammed bin Abdullah, a scrap worker. Like Siddique, Abdullah too had to shift to a higher area for rented accommodation. 

For Abdullah, who has been out of work because of the floods in the city for the last 15 days, paying rent for his temporary residence has become a headache. "Landlords are asking for Rs 20,000 as rent in advance. How do we pay for that? Meanwhile, our houses here are getting weaker day by day," Abdullah said while requesting the government to let the floodwaters flow out.