Hyderabad: With substantial rains and flash floods immersing Hyderabads Nadeem Colony, specialists squeezed into service a couple of boats for rescue and relief works, however after seven days two or three boats are still spotted floating in the flooded waters in the area of Hyderabad.
Abdul Qadeer and his friends sail from door to door, providing free food, milk packets and water containers to those still caught in immersed houses. There was another inflatable boat seen floating in the area to give relief.
These are not the boats of the Hyderabad Disaster Response Force (DRF) or National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC).
With the colony confronting persistent issues of water-logging and as there is no end as far as anyone can tell to repeating floods, a few inhabitants of the colony have acquired boats to stay ready for worst.
Abdul Bari, a relative of Abdul Qadeer, carried the inflatable boat with a seating limit of 5-6 people from a recent visit to the US.
Despite the fact that Abdul Qadeer’s home is likewise immersed with 2-3 feet of water, this didn’t discourage him and some others from helping the individuals who are the most badly hit.
Abdul Qadeer said to IANS: “The next lane still has five feet of water and this boat is the only means to reach out to the people who have taken shelter on the first or second floor of their homes.”
A senior accountant in a private engineering school, he has been living in the colony in Toli Chowki region since 1989. At whatever point it rains intensely, the colony gets immersed however the inhabitants have figured out how to live with two or three feet of water each year.
Abdul Qadeer stated: “This is the third worst flood have seen. We earlier witnessed a similar situation in 1989 and 2000,”
The colony is situated close to Shah Hatim lake, which gets stormwater from different uphill areas in Jubilee Hills. The residents in this colony of 500 to 600 families refuse that they constructed the houses in Full Tank Level (FTL).
As per them, the primary explanation behind water logging is the encroachments on the pond.
He stated: “The pond in 1989 was spread over 35-40 acres but now it is just 17 acres because of encroachments.”
Syed Azhar, a businessman who has been living in the colony for a very long time, said a section of the pond was loaded up with debris to construct houses and a golf course.
The stream of stormwater was additionally disrupted because of encroachments which prompted narrowing of the drains at different points.
A few visits by public representatives and authorities and assurances throughout the years have failed to change the fate of the colony.
Regardless of their homes still staying submerged and with no power for over seven days, individuals like Abdul Qadeer are doing their part to support those most terribly hit.
Asia Begum, who needed to move to her sister’s home in another colony, prepares dishes for 50-70 individuals daily and carries it to Nadeem Colony for distribution.
She stated: “This is the testing time for all and this is the time to earn good rewards.”
A few families are not prepared to leave the houses as they either dread robberies or have no family members where they can move.
“They can’t go to any other place. In these pandemic times even, the guests are not being welcomed,” said Abdul Bari, who additionally comes here from another zone in the city to participate in help work.
One of the most awful floods in Hyderabad’s history in the previous week took 33 lives and immersed a large number of colonies in and around the city.
