Hyderabad: As the fury of rains continues in Hyderabad, Balapur Lake — the city’s smallest– started overflowing on Saturday evening, Municipal Corporation officials said. As the lake’s catchment area has been receiving rains in the past few days, the full tank level was breached.
Residential areas of Nabeel colony, Barkas, Salalah, Hafez Baba Nagar, Mohammed Nagar and Errakunta located along Balapur have been alerted after the discharge of water, said officials from Hyderabad.
Besides, several families in these areas were already evacuated after heavy rains lashed the city on Tuesday earlier this week. The heavy outflows from the lake even entered into residential complexes in the area, after severely damaging the roads.
Balapur Lake contributes to one per cent of total water storage for the city. The lake with a useful storage capacity of 8046 million litres overflowed five years ago. After spells of rainfall on Saturday evening, the lake began overflowing.
Abdul Wahab, AIMIM Corporator from Chandrayangutta, urged the residents of Barkas, Nabeel colony and Hafez Baba Nagar A, B, and C block to evacuate immediately or move to a higher floor. “The overflowing water from the Balapur Lake (katta) may cause flooding in low-lying areas,” he said in a video. He was overseeing flood rescue operations near Hafez Baba Nagar.
“This water goes straight into the colonies areas that were worst-hit in the recent rains like Falaknuma, Hashmabad, Chandrayangutta, Al Jubail Colony and others. Other smaller nalas too would get flooded again,” said activist Syed Moiz Quadri, a resident of Balapur.
“We are trying to evacuate more people and requesting them to temporarily take shelter in their relatives’ houses. Many are also choosing vertical evacuation methods, by climbing on the top floors of their buildings,” said Moiz.