Close to 1,000 families of four colonies abutting the Musi river have been paying the price of Strategic Nala Development Project (SNDP) works for no fault of theirs. Streams of sewage mixed rain water come to stay in the colonies for three to four days every time it rains heavily.
“This is a fairly recent phenomenon. We never had this problem before 2020, and our colony was appreciated by none other than Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao as a model colony,” says P. Praveen Kumkar from Venkata Ramana Colony.
Now, the residents of Venkat Reddy Colony, Venkata Ramana Colony, Sri Venkata Ramana Colony and Sairam Nagar Colony are forced to reorganise their lives around the inundation or possible inundation of their roads by sewage mixed rainwater.
“We follow the weather bulletins religiously, to know when it’s going to rain. Last year, our child’s medical history got lost as our home was invaded by knee-deep water. So, we now exercise caution so as not to keep important documents in the lower shelves,” explains M. Aruna, a software employee.
Her child takes a long jump into the school van from her doorstep to avoid contact with sewage, but Aruna must get her feet dirty to reach her mother’s home two streets away.
“I cannot drive my car as one street is dug up for ongoing works, and the other street gets inundated. I keep getting skin allergies due to contact with dirty water. Last time our colony was flooded, we incurred losses in lakhs. With toilets flooded in my parents’ home, I had to reach my home climbing over walls carrying my children,” Ms. Aruna recalled.
Now working in hybrid mode, she finds it difficult to convince her overseas managers about her inability to reach office.
Completion of SNDP works, under which the Vanasthalipuram -Mansurabad – Bandlaguda – Nagole – Musi drain system is being developed, is nowhere on the horizon. The nala works from Vanasthalipuram up to Mansurabad lake, and from there up to Bandlaguda lake have been completed, which means that the rain water right from Vanasthalipuram up to Bandlaguda is now being dumped at Bandlaguda lake.
However, the drain system from Bandlaguda Lake up to Nagole Lake and from there to Musi River is yet to be developed, which leaves copious amount of water gushing out of insufficient drain network.
As per information from civic officials, two box drains are being developed, one from Bandlaguda lake to Nagole lake with a length of 990 metres, and another from Bandlaguda lake to Musi river via Nagole lake along 2.6 km.
“Work on the first drain is 86% complete, but on the second drain, only 26%. The existing drain between Nagole lake and Musi river is to be re-modelled, but only after these two drains are ready to take the flows,” informed an official. Owing to unremitting spells of rain, it has become difficult to continue with the work without interruptions, he said.
