NEWSCAN
Rains unveil the cadaver of age-old drainage system in Hyderabad HYDERABAD: Starting from October 13, heavy rains lashed the capital city of Telangana for 24 hours straight. The rainfall recorded on the day was 191.8mm, which was the heaviest rain spell ever recorded in October in Hyderabad. The incessant rain led to flooding of over 20,000 houses, waterlogging in the whole city, death of over 50 people, and affected more than 35,000 families. K Chandrashekhar Rao, Chief Minister of Telangana, has pegged the loss suffered by the state at `5,000 crore, including the loss of `2,000 crores suffered by farmers due to crop damages. In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rao requested an immediate relief assistance of `1,350 crores-`600 crores for farmers and `750 crores for rehabilitation works in Greater Hyderabad, which bore a major brunt of the downpour.
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November 2020 | www.urbanupdate.in
Frightening visuals of cars being swept away after streets got submerged in water, poles and trees getting uprooted, shook the whole nation. Telangana State Southern Power Distribution Company Limited reported damage in 15 substations, 686 feeders and 312 poles due to the Hyderabad rains. Several areas in the city, including Somajiguda, Abids and Serilingampally, suffered power outages for three consecutive days. Amid the crisis, Vishwajit Kampati, Director, Vigilance and Disaster Management Department, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), tweeted and informed that Disaster Response Force (DRF) personnel of the GHMC were continuously working on the field clearing water stagnations and inundations and all possible measures were being initiated in view of the rainfall. Personnel from the army and the National Disaster Response Force were also deployed to carry out relief operations and evacuate stranded residents. According to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), the unabating rains were caused by weather that formed in the Bay of Bengal which initially weakened on the way but re-emerged in the Arabian Sea. According to Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, Director General, IMD, the reason for its severity was the significant moisture content of soil and a phenomenon called vertical wind shear-the result of a significant difference in wind speed between higher and lower atmospheric levels- which helped the system maintain its intensity as deep depression or a well-marked low-pressure area even on land.
A study on Hyderabad flooding published last year by researchers at the Hyderabad campus of the Department of Civil Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, cited that the frequency and intensity of floods have increased due to a rapid rise in concretisation of the city, as buildings took over open spaces, nalas, tanks, ponds and lakes. A study on cities by researchers at Chennai’s Hindustan University in 2013 showed that the built-up area in Hyderabad had increased by 136 per cent between 1973 and 1996, from 245 to 587 square kilometre. According to publications and press releases of the Government of Telangana, in the five years, Hyderabad has added 392.14 million square feet (sqft) of the built-up residential area. The municipality expects an addition of another 60 million sqft in the coming years. The increase in built-up space was on account of lakes, tanks and other natural and artificial storage areas which allowed rainwater to percolate into the ground. This increased the burden on the drainage system, which was incapable of handling such heavy rains, and as a result, the city streets turned into streams. Telangana government seems to have realized that fast-tracking of building approvals over the years has done the state more harm than good. K Chandrashekhar Rao has directed officials to ensure apartment cellars are protected from gushing rainwaters in all new constructions. He added that building permissions should be given in such a manner that builders ensure that floodwater does not rush in and create havoc. The government has also decided to provide a compensation of `5 lakh each to family members of those who died in the deluge.
