Hyd Floods

For the residents of Hyderabad city, September month usually brings unusually
heavy rains. The Great Musi Floods of 1908 that impacted most of Hyderabad was
caused by an unexpected downpour on September 28, and each year September
has been the time for caution.
However, in the year 2020 it is October that saw an extreme weather event that
will be remain long in the memories of the people. Sudden spells of heavy
downpour, cloud bursts and flash floods over a week and especially on the
intervening night of October 13-14, exposed the fragile and inefficient urban
infrastructure of the capital of Telangana.
Some experts claim that it is a clear case of the impact of climate change causing
extreme weather events. Extreme rainfall events occurred in Hyderabad in 2016,
2010 and 2000. Kerala was swamped by floods in 2018 and Chennai battered in
2015.
Hyderabad witnessed a record rainfall in 24 hours:

According to a recent study by the University of Hyderabad by using the Satellite
imagery from ISRO, increasing urbanisation in Telangana and Tamil Nadu is likely
to enhance the rainfall by 20- 25%. Consequently, on October 13-14, the tri-city
— Hyderabad, Secunderabad and Cyberabad — an extent of 650 sq km, got
battered with an all-time record rainfall of 29.8 cms in 24 hours. For the record,
the single-day highest rainfall record in the state of Telangana is 35.5 cms in
October 1983 in Nizamabad.
According to Meteorological Department, “The unusually heavy rainfall was due to
two reasons. The deep depression in the Bay of Bengal that moved onto the land
in Hyderabad. The second was the rain bearing clouds of the withdrawing
Southwest monsoon also pouring out.”
People in large parts of Hyderabad woke up to water everywhere and many lives
thrown out of order. Several low lying are were completely drowned in the water
from rains and overflowing water bodies.
The growth of Hyderabad along a river:
Hyderabad was built along the river Musi, one of the tributaries of river Krishna.
The Hussainsagar, which links the twin cities too came up around that time
Post Independence. With its multiple advantages, Hyderabad grew rapidly as the
home for public sector companies, pharmaceutical companies, and many national
research institutes as well. Coming in of global IT majors such as Microsoft,
Apple, Google, Infosys and e-commerce giants such as Amazon, Walmart to IKEA
have transformed Hyderabad. In 2020, the metropolitan city administered by the
Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is home for around 10 million
people.
Save Our Urban Lakes (SOUL), a citizen’s initiative to save the lakes of Hyderabad
says, “Both, the ‘elected’ (MPs, MLAs, Corporators etc.) and ‘selected’ (officials,
GHMC) are responsible for this situation. Instead of the rainwater flowing into
the river, it is rushing into homes. In this rapid urbanisation, greed and lack of
growth plans, lands in river beds have been illegally grabbed for several domestic
and business purposes by several influential sections.”
Need for a disaster management plan:

Days before the flooding, the state government had announced that it had spent
Rs 67,500 crores on the development of urban infrastructure to prepare
Hyderabad to emerge as a global city since 2015.
The government had taken up Musi River Front Project too. Its dreams of
expanding the city to 7500 sq kms call for dramatic and long term reforms in land
use, building construction and infrastructure.
With the water being brought to Hyderabad from long distances through pipelines
from Krishna and Godavari rivers, there is an urgent need to devise land use
plans, drainage and sewage systems and disaster mitigation. Hyderabad and
even Telangana state should have a strong disaster management plans. Several
suggest that annual desilting of storm drains, utilisation of weather data and an
overall Master Plan to make Hyderabad ready to face disasters in the long run.
There is a need for climate proofing cities, in addition to disaster management.
Hyderabad is a fit case to identify ‘hot spots’ for flooding, design materials and
systems that will withstand such events.

Hyd Floods

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Hyd Floods

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For the residents of Hyderabad city, September month usually brings unusually

Hyderabad witnessed a record rainfall in 24 hours:

Need for a disaster management plan:

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