In an alarming revelation, a study conducted by the Department of Civil Engineering of BITS Pilani in Rajasthan has found that half of the land that comes under the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation region would be submerged in water if it received incessant rainfall for a period of 17 days.
Within the Greater Hyderabad municipality limits, the areas located near Musi river and Hussain Sagar face the threat of a deluge the most, the study on “Urban flood risk analysis of buildings” revealed.
Taking into account the historic extreme rainfall of eight consecutive days in 2016, the study found that in case Hyderabad received rainfall of 440.30 mm for 17 days, 334.23 square kilometres of GHMC would go completely under water. If it rained 624.2 mm for 19 days, 357.97 square kilometres of GHMC would be submerged.
The study, which was conducted based on a hydraulic model to assess the flood depth, revolved around building risk analysis and the effectiveness of various flood adaptation strategies to mitigate building risk caused by urban floods in a climate change scenario.
The GHMC covers a total of 650 square kilometres.,
The areas under the GHMC that are most vulnerable to flooding are in the northern sections of zones 1 and 5 — Kapra and Saroorngar falling under LB Nagar zone and southern sections of zones 13 and 15 — Karwan and Musheerabad.
Several low-lying areas in Hyderabad were flooded as heavy rain lashed the city and various other parts of Telangana on Saturday. In the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), L B Nagar (GHMC Office) received 78.5 mm of rainfall followed by Bathukamma Kunta (77.8 mm), official sources said.
Several other localities in the city witnessed moderate rainfall, they said. Nagaram in Suryapet district received 95 mm. Ranga Reddy, Kumram Bheem, Medak, Yadadri-Bhongir, Medchal-Malkajgiri and other districts also received rains, the sources said.
In Mahabubnagar district, the body of a man, said to be mentally unsound, was found in a low-lying area in Jadcharla town following the rain and the exact cause of death was not known immediately, police said. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) here said heavy to very heavy rain is very likely to occur at isolated places in Adilabad, Kumram Bheem Asifabad and other districts from Saturday night till Sunday morning.
Also, it said heavy rain is very likely to occur at isolated places in Mancherial, Nizamabad, Jayashankar Bhupalpally and other districts during the same period.
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Source: News18