HYDERABAD: There is an immediate need to establish a connectivity between the link channels of the 185 tanks in Hyderabad and the approaching canals of the Musi river to avoid another deluge in the future.
Once the link is established, the excess water can be easily diverted, 15 experts, including engineers, have suggested to the Telangana government.
The engineers, including M Gopal Naik from the Department of Civil Engineering, Osmania University, met State Planning Board Vice-Chairman B Vinod Kumar in Hyderabad on Saturday in this regard.
Gopal Naik had conducted an online survey on the recent floods in Hyderabad and gathered responses from 320 affected persons.
According to his survey, of the 150 colonies that got flooded, 46.07 per cent areas had been inundated for the first time.
The water level in these areas had ranged from two feet to five feet and stagnated for over 24 hours. The areas which have a history of inundation of more than two to five times comprised 32.72 per cent.
Around seven per cent were submerged six to 10 times so far, and 14 per cent had a history of inundation of more than 10 times. In the recent floods, 40 per cent of the areas had waterlogging of two feet, 46 per cent of two-five feet and only 12 per cent had over five feet.
“A monitoring system for all the water bodies should be devised. The catchment area will differ with every tank, while the designed capacity and the discharge capacity of a tank should be closely monitored,” an engineer, who participated in the meeting with Vinod Kumar, informed Express.
The experts will have another round of discussion and submit their consolidated report to Vinod Kumar, who will forward it to the State government for further action.
The experts pointed out that around 17,000 people died when heavy floods wreaked havoc in the city some 100 years ago. But this time, the loss of life was less though the population had crossed one crore.
Micro-tunnelling system must be revisited: Survey
The experts suggested that in order to let out the surplus waters from a tank, it is advisable to adopt a self-regulating system rather than a regulator with gates.
A disaster management action plan should be prepared for all the tanks, the survey suggested.
The survey further suggested that the micro- tunnelling system — initiated by the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB), which could not be completed for various reasons — can be re-examined for implementation after ascertaining the difficulties encountered earlier.
Avoiding another flood in Hyderabad is not a big problem, the experts, who also included Institute of Engineers state president G Rameshwar Rao, joint honorary secretary Banothu Ramana Naik and Irrigation engineer-in-chief Gummadi Anil Kumar, informed Vinod Kumar. Professors of NIT Warangal, OU, JNTU, IIIT and HCU, officials of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and others were involved in the study.
“Some are working on lakes, while some on other aspects. We will meet once again after Dasara. Our consolidated report will be presented to the government through Vinod Kumar,” Ramana Naik informed Express.