Hyderabad: With heavy rains lashing the state over the past week, as many as 101 water tanks including the Appa, Gurram and Palle Chervu have been brached across Telangana. The water bodies, due to heavy inflows, have reached their full tank levels (FTL), which have wreaked havoc in low-lying areas of the city and wherever people have built houses in FTL areas.
Moreover, tanks in the Hyderabad limits such as Musapet, Mansurabad, Badlaguda and Balapur are on the verge of getting breached, while the bund of the Balapur lake had to be widened to avert more trouble. Faced with inundation of low-lying areas, civic authorities also made public announcements on Wednesday morning asking people to shift to safer places. The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) also shifted people to relief camps.
The state’s Irrigation departmenth has also begun repair and restoration works at various lakes, to prevent inundation in residential areas, whrever the water bodies are about to breach their FTLs.
All major lakes in Hyderabad including the Osman Sagar, Hussain Sagar and Himayat Sagar have turned areas built in their FTLs into vulnerable spots for citizens. Three other lakes in the city, the Appa Chervu and Palle Chervu have in fact already overflown, while the Gurram Cheruvu’s bund had already collapsed causing flooding in Hafeez Baba Nagar last week. Moreover, bunds in about 50 other water bodies have developed cracks, including the Fox Sagar and Meerpet Chervu.
According to Principal Secretary for Water Resources Rajat Kumar, around 185 tanks are almost full due to heavy rains. As per an alert issued by the civic authorities, out of 41,000 water bodies in the state, 200 are reported to have suffered damage. According to the water board officials, water levels in the Himayat Sagar and Osman Sagar have reached their full tank level of 1763 feet and 1790 feet, respectively. Two gates of Himayat Sagar were lifted on Thursday at 12 p.m. after which 686 Cusecs of water was released from the reservoir.
The Water Resources department has also deployed 15 special technical teams to monitor the water level and to look after the safety of the tanks and lake. As per the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) weather forecast, heavy rains have been predicted to occur over the next two days.