Vijayawada floods: surviving the wrath of ‘sorrow’

Thousands of victims of the Vijayawada floods had to grapple for food and water to sustain themselves as they battled the wrath of rain for three days. Even as government relief operations continued to reach the victims, the loss of lives and properties in combat with the wrath of water left a deep mark on the victims. However, humanity keeps afloat the flood-ravaged colonies of Vijayawada, writes Nellore Sravani

Updated - September 06, 2024 01:48 pm IST - VIJAYAWADA

People were holding each other while wading through knee-deep water in Ajith Singh Nagar in Vijayawada on Thursday (September 5, 2024).

People were holding each other while wading through knee-deep water in Ajith Singh Nagar in Vijayawada on Thursday (September 5, 2024). | Photo Credit: Giri KVS

Hari Priya, in her night dress, anxiously sobs in silence as she sits with her toddler in her arms on the footpath of a flyover overrun by a crowd, chaos, and despair. With her phone running out of battery, she waits there helpless in the hope of finding her husband and elder daughter, who got separated in the swarm of flood victims that thronged the place to grab water food packets being distributed at a truck.

On seeing her, Nagesh, who was carrying a sackful of buttermilk packets, stops to give her a few packets. He says his family and neighbours in Ajith Singh Nagar could not come out as the roads were inundated by the flood water. “I am taking the buttermilk to give it to whoever needs it in my colony,” he says

September 2, 2024, was just another Monday for most people in Vijayawada, the capital region of Andhra Pradesh. The markets bustled as people who had been cooped inside their houses for two days due to heavy rain that lashed the city on Friday and Saturday came to buy essentials. Most parts of the city were getting back to normal.

Also Read: Andhra Pradesh rain highlights on September 2, 2024

Only 7 km away, the situation was anything but normal. From 7.30 a.m. onwards, hundreds gathered around a truck, where food, milk and water were distributed for free, on the Ajith Singh Nagar flyover that connected the submerged colonies to the other parts of the city. Most of them had nothing to eat or drink for the past 24 hours.

“I tried to get a food packet but in vain. The men who stood at the front managed to grab every food packet thrown at us by a volunteer from the truck; I could only get my hands on just two packets of buttermilk,” says Hari Priya, a daily wager, sweating despite the cold weather.

Carrying a toddler in one hand and a stick in another, she waded through more than waist-deep water to reach the flyover from her house in Ajith Singh Nagar, which was inundated. “There is no food at home for the children and no drinking water. When we learned that food was being distributed here, we had to dare to step out,” she says.

“We do not have any cash or jewellery with us. We are only worried about lives,” says Hari Priya who lives in a small rented room with nothing but a cot and cooking essentials.

Nagesh, on the other hand, says his loss is in the tune of lakhs as his three bikes, a car, furniture, cash, jewellery, and appliances got damaged by the flood fury. “I don’t know who will pay me for my loss. But people at my place need food and drinking water first,” he says.

On the flyover, strewn with spilt rice, milk, slippers, plastic covers, and water bottles, people, most barefoot and in their night dresses, ran helter-skelter for food, water, and medical help. Pregnant women, women who had just had delivery, children, and elderly persons walked from the inundated end of the flyover to the other, around a kilometre, for help. While some reached there by boats deployed by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the others waded through waterlogged roads on foot.

Never-seen-before devastation

With the deluge unleashing a never-seen-before devastationon the colonies built on the flood plains of Budameru in Vijayawada, the Andhra Pradesh government immediately sent 22 lakh food packets to be distributed to people in flood-hit colonies on September 3. On September 4, they readied around 18 lakh food packets.

While parts of the Central Assembly constituency in Circle 2 of the city were the worst hit, more than 50% of the nearly 4 lakh people living in the 14 divisions were victimised. The total number of people affected in the city, including some from the West constituency, is estimated to be nearly 3 lakh. As many as 32 people are estimates to have died so far.

Chief Minister responds

Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and other Ministers have visited the affected places. “I want to reach every person (affected). Justice has to be done for everyone. The first priority for us is to give food to everybody. For this, we are going to operate tractors and deploy volunteers.”

Former Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and leaders of other opposition parties also visited the affected places and pledged their support to the people there.

Watch: CM Chandrababu Naidu visits flood-affected areas in Vijayawada

Two days of extremely heavy rain (300 mm) in 36 hours in the city and surrounding areas of the district did more damage than inundating the roads—it increased water levels in streams and rivers.

“Until 8.30 a.m. on Sunday, there was no water outside. My husband was to leave for Chennai. The train was at 10.45 a.m., but within 15 minutes, the water level reached two feet high. And within an hour or two, there was water six feet high around the house,” Sridevi, an accounts manager at a private firm in Hanuman Junction, recalls.

Her family, which has lived in Andhra Prabha Colony since 1986, says floods are not new to them. “Our house is built on an elevated area. But, still, water came in,” she says.

An official from the Irrigation department, who spoke on condition of anonymity, says it was the first time the city had been flooded since 2009. Yet, in 2009, the damage was not this great.

“The discharge at the Velagaleru regulator, built on Budameru rivulet, was 26,000-27,000 cusecs as of August 31 evening. Of them, 15,000 cusecs were let into the Budameru Diversion Channel (BDC), and the remaining were let into the original course,” the official says. Rains in Budameru catchment areas, such as Khammam in Telangana, added to the problem, as streams originating in these places joined the surging waters of the Budameru rivulet, which passes through the heart of Vijayawada, he adds.

According to India Meteorological Department (IMD) Director S. Stella, extremely heavy rainfall, floods, heat waves and thunderstorms are becoming more frequent due to climate change.

Relief operations

After the flood water was discharged through the regulator on Saturday (August 31, 2024), inundation of the colonies built close to the BDC or the original course on the flood plain, such as New and Old Rajarajeswari Peta, Vambay Colony, YSR Colony, Ajith Singh Nagar, Payakapuram and Bhavanipuram, among other areas of the city, were inundated by Sunday afternoon.

The NDRF personnel helped thousands of stranded people by distributing food and medicines. “We have made countless trips to the flooded areas and rescued many pregnant women, elderly, livestock and pets,” said a group of personnel while taking a rest on the bus. However, many decried that the NDRF boats did not reach the smaller lanes.

To tackle this problem, the State government roped officials from the AP FiberNet to use drones to deliver food to places the boats could not reach. By Tuesday evening, 40 drones had made nearly 150 trips, carrying seven to eight boxes of food packets a trip.

One of the worst-hit areas is YSR Colony, where 40,000 people live in apartments provided by the government. “While we had provisions, our neighbours in the same apartment received relief material right from Sunday. However, those at the back could not, since the boats could not reach them,” says Parameswar, an auto driver.

“We saw many boats approaching our lanes, but none came to our house. There was a lot of confusion. The officials also did not know where to go or whom to help. We had to wait 10 hours to get my parents and in-laws a boat. We had all the provisions, but there was no water supply due to a power cut. That is why we had to move out,” Sridevi says.

At such a time of despondency, many Good Samaritans rose to the occasion and helped the victims by distributing free water, buttermilk, and other items. “This is my city. I could not look away when the place I call my home was suffering,” says Siva Prasad, a samosa vendor who spent ₹2,000 every day to buy water for people.

Most of the inundated areas are home to daily wagers and low-income people. The government built many apartments in the new RR Peta to rehabilitate the homeless and those from financially weaker backgrounds. Until September 4, people in Old and New RR Peta were yet to receive help, said Hero Sankar, trapped in an apartment, along with 200 others, in the New RR Peta over a phone call. “We have run out of provisions, and there is no water supply,” he said, adding that they were using floodwater in washrooms and boiled tank water to drink. Sankar, now a vendor, used to live near the Krishna river bank until 2009. Then, he was rehabilitated to this colony.

“My three grandchildren, a 3-month-old, a 3-year-old and a 5-year-old, are alone with their mother. I was not allowed to go there. I was told the water level was too high to wade through. I cannot help but wait here for help to come,” said Durga Bhavani, the maid who left the children at home to leave for work at Chitti Nagar.

Like Durga Bhavani, many daily wage workers sat outside restaurants and shops at the foot of the flyover, waiting for their loved ones. They had to spend the night on the restaurant’s stairs.

“Floods are not new. But the severity has increased,” says Mruthyanjaya Rao, an environmental activist who has studied Kolleru Lake for years. He says the illegal encroachments on the flood basins and Kolleru are to be blamed for the floods.

Sorrow of Vijayawada

Budameru, originating in the NTR district, is one of the feeder rivers for the Kolleru Lake, a Ramsar site. It courses through Gannavaram, Gudivada, and Kaikuluru before joining the Kolleru Lake, where illegal fish tanks have come up in thousands of hectares. “Now, what seems to have happened is that the flood water, which surged through these places, entered the city, and its flow was obstructed due to unauthorised apartments on its way, leading to the slowing down of the flow and thereby inundating the colonies. If the path were clear in Vijayawada, the flow would have been obstructed similarly by fish tanks. In the latter case, the Kolleru would have submerged,” he explained.

Budameru has acquired the title of ‘Sorrow of Vijayawada’ because it is not the first time that it has caused misery to people. However, officials have admitted that it was the first time after 2009 that a devastation of such a huge scale has occurred. Encroachments, which have been happening since the 1960s, have changed the course of drains and rivulets, inundating habitations on their way.

As the chaos of the day silences into despair, 74-year-old tea seller Nageswar Rao, who has been living in Ramakrishnapuram on the banks of Budameru for decades, worries how he can recover the loss of over ₹1 lakh he incurred after his house got washed away in the floods. “I will go back to my house after water recedes. It is only here that I can afford the rents,” he says.

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