The incessant rainfall in the last few days is causing much misery to people living in low-lying areas of the city.
Thousands of people in Jogupalya, Shamanna Garden, Wilson Garden, Shantinagar, Ananth Nagar and New Guddadahalli in Bapujinagar are witnessing floods every year as soon as the rain arrives.
The measures taken by the BBMP to prevent the flood are of little help, they say.
Lakshmamma, a resident of Ananth Nagar tells Express, “We have to live in fear when it rains. Last year, a child was washed away in the rainwater.”
Storm and drain waters mix at the locality regularly when it rains, she says.
Gowru Bai, another resident, says, “We had to close a side entrance to our house as the protection built to stop the rainwater from entering the house was of no use.”
Corporator V Krishna agrees that floods have caused problems in the area.
‘Lack of Funds’
However, he expresses helplessness as additional funds have not been provided to raise the height of safety walls of storm water drains.
Echoing similar sentiments, Jogupalaya corporator Goutam Kumar says, “The secondary drain is responsible for water entering 300 houses here every time it rains. We need a proper plan along with funds.”
The lack of funds has the BBMP so paralysed that chief engineer for storm water drains Ananth Swamy says nothing major can be done to prevent flooding in low-lying areas.
“We will certainly attend to problems and look at raising (the height of storm water drains’) walls on a priority basis in these areas,” he says.
The BBMP officials, however, are drawing some emergency plans to tackle the issue as most of the areas are flooded every year during the monsoon, he says.
“Areas like Koramangala, Austin Town, Domlur and Jayamahal in the East zone; Rajkumar Road, RMV Layout and Mahalakshmi Layout under West zone and Bhuvaneshwari Nagar, Maruthi Nagar, Bapuji Nagar and Tavarekere in the South zone are some major areas that are prone to flooding,” says a senior BBMP official.
The East zone is most vulnerable to rainfall. The West zone has 31 rain sensitive areas and the South zone has 43 such areas, according to officials.