Helpless at home: Water floods basements, enters living rooms

GURUGRAM: At 1.30pm on Wednesday, Deepti Dhingra had no other choice but to sit helplessly on the sofa in her living room, which was almost submerged in water. Her only hope was a message that she got from the authorities asking her for her location after she tried getting help from the MCG. Like Dhingra, who lives in Sushant Lok, TOI spoke to a number of residents across the city who witnessed similar situations on Wednesday after heavy rainfall led to widespread flooding.“Water started entering my house at 9.30am and within an hour, the entire house was flooded. My bed is also under water and water has not receded even by an inch. The condition is so bad that there is also water inside my car. I tweeted to the CM and MCG authorities about my situation and now I am waiting for somebody to take cognisance of the matter,” said Dhingra, adding that the residents have been asking the MCG for a permanent solution for the past three years.The situation was no different in DLF 4. Nikunj Saurabh saw water gushing down the stairs in the basement of his house like a waterfall after it rained continuously for three hours. Saurabh said that it was for the first time in his two-and-a-half-year-long stay here that he saw such a sight.He said, “Though the basement of my house is flooded, water has not reached the ground floor yet as it is above the road level. My neighbours are also facing a similar situation. A car parked outside is completely under water. However, water on the street has now started receding.”The city witnessed heavy downpour since morning. The rains flooded several streets, turning them into small rivers and traffic came to a virtual standstill at key stretches. As many vehicles lay marooned on the roads, traffic congestion brought back memories of the rains in 2016 when commuters were stuck in a massive jam for several hours. Residents faced a similar situation in Sector 10A. Vehicles were seen crawling through the road. It was difficult for cyclists and people to walk in knee-deep water. “The flow of water was such that I was hardly able to stand there. People were not able to hold their cycle and were walking. Our sector is a low lying area, the town planners have done blunders and the government has done nothing to solve the problem,” said Udaybir Yadav, RWA president of Sector10 A. Prerna Sethi, a resident of Suncity in Sector 54 along Golf Course Road, said the lack of proper drainage was the cause of waterlogging in the area. Water had entered her house and other houses in her neighbourhood located along the lane B of Sun City. “There is one lane in Sun City where water from all higher areas accumulates as there is no exit. When we bought these houses, we were shown a lane on the map. It was a small lane where an MCG stormwater drain was supposed to be constructed. But the builder has taken away the space of the lane where the storm water drain should have been constructed,” said Sethi, adding that water has flooded the last house of the lane where an elderly couple lives. She added that no help has reached her despite sharing photos and videos on the society’s WhatsApp group.For Siddharth Chauhan, a resident of B block in Sushant Lok, the situation he witnessed was worst than a nightmare. “The drainage system here is clogged. A lot of construction is going on here and the construction and demolition waste is dumped along the drains thus blocking them. Since the outlet is blocked, the water flows back and enters houses,” said Chauhan.