HYDERABAD: The State governments over the years have been on an artificial beautification drive of lakes in Hyderabad, constructing parks and laying walking tracks all around the lakes, and have even been boasting about it as one of their achievements.
However, the situation at Nerella Lake and Safari Nagar at Kothaguda after Wednesday’s downpour tells a different story, forcing one to wonder whether such beautification measures, in the event of high intensity rainfall, could spell doom for the citizens in general and the residents of the area in particular. After Wednesday’s morning showers, it was quite intriguing to see Nerella Lake remain dry while the areas around the lake were flooded with rain water.
The question is: Why did the lake remain dry while surrounding areas were flooded?
More than a decade ago, as part of beautification drive at the lake, embankment was raised on all sides of Nerella Lake for the purpose of developing a garden and a walking track. And that left the rain water from adjacent colonies with only one way to flow into the lake - through a narrow inlet canal. According to local residents, with this canal too blocked with garbage and silt, there was no way for the rain waters to flow into the lake.
Pradeep Gadicherla, Secretary of Safari Nagar Residents Welfare Association and member of Corporate Social Responsibility Forum of Hyderabad Software Exporters Association, said that flooding due to rains is an annual feature in the area.
“There are two inlets to the lake, of which one has become obsolete and the other is not maintained properly. It always remains blocked with garbage and silt. An outlet from the lake has also been blocked. We have been complaining about the problem for a long time but the authorities are more focused on tree plantations and landscaping than providing a proper inlet and outlet to the lake.”
BV Subba Rao, an urban lake management expert, said: “Lakes play an important role in flood mitigation in cities. All lakes in Hyderabad are interconnected and flood waters are diverted everywhere whenever there is rainfall. However, in the name of beautification government is destroying these interconnections, compromising role of these lakes.”
When Express team visited the spot, it was observed that despite tall talk of implementing smart city plans, all that the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) could manage in clearing the flooding was to push two sanitation workers into the filthy garbage covered waters and makes them decongest the inlet canal of lake with their bare hands.
GHMC slaps Rs 1.5L fine on builders for choking stormwater drains
In first such instance, the GHMC officials fed up with constant damages to the drains, went on the offensive against builders and slapped a total of Rs1.5 lakhs fine on three contractors who were found to have dumped the construction material into the stormwater drains.
These drains which were in the parallelly-running bylanes of Road No. 36 near Karachi Bakery and Image Hospital in Madhapur were clogged with construction material like cement and sand, reducing the percolation and absorption levels in the drain.
“Majority of the drains have some sort of debris from the rapid construction going around the area and these particular companies were found to be directly blocking the vents which lead to major inundation on the main roads,” said Harichandana Dasari, Zonal Commissioner West Zone.