Swirling rain waters give sleepless night to Hyderabad residents

“The water reached up to knee level. We could not sleep at night as the water came in two directions and flooded our house,” says a Yousufguda resident.

Haunted by 2020 flood horror: Three hours of rain on Thursday evening left many thoroughfares of Yousufguda heavily waterlogged.

A day after the video of roaring rain water sweeping away push carts of fruit vendors and vehicles on Venkatagiri Road and Sabir Road in Yousufuguda went viral, life returned to normalcy.

“The water reached up to knee level. We could not sleep at night as the water came in two directions and flooded our house,” says Venkatratnam, who lives in the lane abutting Sabir Road. The house is built next to a covered nullah. Right behind the house, a three-storey house has been built on the nullah. “The water bubbled and overflowed from the nullah here,” says Mr. Venkatratnam pointing to a hole as well gaps in the covering slabs of the water channel. A tea stall has also been built on the nullah.

“People have dumped rocks in the sewage line. There are many blockages which cannot be removed with this machine,” said a civic worker trying to drain the rainwater mixed with sludge using a sewer-cleaning machine. “Even if the sewage line was functioning, it cannot take the load of water that comes downhill. This has become a regular feature for us,” said Bobby, a resident of the area. A pool of water with heaps of sand at many locations turned the road dangerous.

The particular stretch of road in Yousufguda is below the slope of Jubilee Hills. While Jubilee Hills Road no. 10 and Road no. 22 are at an elevation of 600 metres above sea level, the Yousufguda area is at an elevation of 552 metres above sea level. It is this 50-metre drop in elevation that gave the velocity to water to sweep away everything in its path on Thursday night.

“The water reached here,” says the owner of Dhanalakshmi Rice Store pointing to the water mark on the low wall in front of the shop. “We built this small wall last year so that the water doesn’t enter and damage rice bags. A lot of other shops had their goods damaged,” he said.

The other areas that got flooded on Thursday night included Nadeem Colony, areas around Gaddinnaram Cheruvu, Bahadurpura, Falaknuma Bridge, Allamthota Bavi, Vanasthalipuram, Kodandaram Colony in Saroornagar and Gulshan Colony.