Just next door to VIPs, Hyderabad's BS Maktha colony flooded with sewage

Residents say filth left on roads by water board mixes with water during monsoon.
Just next door to VIPs, Hyderabad's BS Maktha colony flooded with sewage

HYDERABAD: Residents of BS Maktha live in the vicinity of a high profile neighbourhood. People ranging from judges, bureaucrats, Assembly Speaker live in Kundanbagh, just a stone’s throw away from BS Maktha. Even the CM lives right across the main road. However, the residents of this colony live in the stark contrast of their neighbourhood.

The basic living conditions, starting from roads and drains of Maktha, fail miserably when compared to Kundanbagh. People here have to endure a perennial sewage problem. More sewage flows on the road than in the drains. “Most of the area gets flooded with drain water during monsoon,” says Bipin Kumar, a resident.

The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) desilt regularly and leave the filth on the road. When it rains, this sewage mixes with the water and flows freely on the streets. It gets sludgy, smells foul and make living a nightmarish experience for us, he adds.

People walk and a boy rides a bicycle
 on a road flooded with sewage water
in BS Maktha |  Sathya Keerthi

Authorities blame residents
If the water board officials are to be believed, they dispense their duties on time. “The water board sends sewer-jetting machines to unclog the sewers once every week,” says M Prabhu, general manager, Begumpet, HMWSSB. “We desilt the locality but the area gets clogged again. We sometimes have to visit three times a week,” adds Prabhu.

The main problem is that the area is densely populated and people dump construction and home waste into the drain, Prabhu says. To ensure a smooth flow of sewage water, the water board had dug along the narrow Makta road to lay bigger drainage pipes. However, that was over 20 days ago. The already narrow road thus has lost space to the damaged roadside, which is yet to be restored.

Unplanned growth also to blame?
“In 2007, Floor Space Index (FSI) rules were removed. The idea was to make the city more efficient by packing in more people so that the services become efficient,” says Anant Mariganthi, director of Hyderabad Urban Labs. FSI is the ratio between your land area and your built up area. The end result is an area like Maktha which has vertical buildings closely built with stressed out basic services. The roads and drainage service of the locality was unable to catch up with the unregulated growth.

“Maktha is the lowest entry point to Hussain Sagar in terms of drainage. The locality is the foreshore of Hussain Sagar, the area where the lake expands and contracts. You don’t realise this as so much has been built and after Necklace Road was built the idea of foreshore has completely disappeared,” says Anant. The disparity in basic services are in sharp contrast due to the scrapping of Floor space Index (FSI) ratio for Hyderabad, he adds.

Problems faced by people in Maktha
People in Maktha have to endure a perennial sewage problem. More sewage flows on the road than in the drainsEvery monsoon, people have to brace themselves for the grand flooding of Maktha
HMWS&SB desilt regularly and leave the filth on the road. When it rains, this sewage mixes with the water and flows freely on the streetsThe area is densely populated and people dump waste into drainsVertical buildings are closely built in Maktha leaving already stressed basic services, roads and drainage service of the locality unable to catch up with the unregulated growth

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