Monsoon blues for Banjara Hills

HYDERABAD: It's turning out to be a dreadful monsoon for residents of Banjara Hills, Road No. 13. The authorities have been neglecting sewerage problems of this area, which the rainfall over the last few days has only aggravated. Residents rue that they have been forced to live amidst utter filth and stink for the last few days with sewage water flowing into their homes and the area lacking proper drainage facility.
"The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply & Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) has left a pipeline project along the Taj Banjara lake unfinished.That is at the root of this mess," said Dr Annie Hasan, who has been living in the area for over 30 years now. She explained how the Water Board had taken up the project several months ago to streamline the flow of sewage from Banjara Hills, Road No. 1 (where the lake begins) to Road No. 13. While work went on in full swing initially, it was stalled about five months ago and has failed to take off ever since. As a result, the sewage water that would have flowed into a dump yard (had it been finished) is now flowing into the residential pocket on Road No. 13.
"Recently they did make some temporary arrangement to stop the sewage water by building a nala but it has failed to check the menace. The heavy rains have made matters worse and my house is regularly getting flooded with dirty water these days," Dr Hasan said.
So is the case with the other 25 odd houses in the locality, many of which belong to senior bureaucrats. While geographically it is a low-lying area, residents here say they have never faced a similar problem before. "We have taken up the matter with the authorities concerned a plenty of times. I have personally written to the board and even spoken to senior officials there. But nobody seems to be bothered," said D V Rao, president of Road No. 13 Citizen's Society, that has been fighting for a 'clean environment' for a long time now. "The sewage is choking our drainage systems. Our houses are in a complete mess," an exasperated Rao added.
But HMWS&SB authorities seem to be a little perturbed by such concerns. When contacted, officials passed the buck on to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) for the incomplete pipeline and even claimed that they were 'helpless' in this matter.
"The problem is because of an open drain which needs to be extended in order to get connected with the pipeline that we are laying. This work has to be done by GHMC. Until they complete the task, we can do nothing about it," said Naveen Reddy, deputy general manager, HMWS&SB.
He further said, "It is anyway a low-lying area. The houses are bound to get flooded if it rains."