When the city is wallowing in La Nino induced flood waters with a grim October disaster awaiting to strike, the GHMC top brass dusted off a 16 year old Kirloskar Report with a view to assuage the 'water borne ' fears of its denizens.

• After 16 years

• While saying that the functioning of network of urban lakes had deteriorated rapidly, and lakes have been encroached upon and polluted, and linkages have been blocked, the study focused on freeing the recurring problems to face future floods with a robust mechanism

Lack of political will by successive goveremnts wrought havoc to the city is no hidden fact. The moot question is ' will KCR administration with 100 corporators in GHMC pull the magic plug and drain the city of flood water by implementing the comatose Kirloskar Report?". The Kirloskar Committee which was appointed after the Hyderabad floods of 2000, pointed out in its report submitted in 2003 that 13500 illegal properties have sprouted on the nalahs.

That number in the last 13 years has doubled to 28000. They have come up over 390 km stretch of drains and about 169 water bodies. What's worse, these settlers dump 56 metric tonnes of garbage daily into Hyderabad's ecosystem, further choking the outlets. A majority of these settlements have found themselves under water in the last one week. The government estimates GHMC will need Rs 11000 crore to remove these encroachments.

After the floods in year 2000, MCH has taken an initiative in a form of development of Drainage Master Plan for MCH Area and M/s Kirloskar Consultants were appointed as Technical Consultants. The major highlights of the Kirloskar study include the 170 square kilometer area forming part of Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad divided into 6 drainage catchment basins. The committees identified 71 drains with a total length of 169 kilometers.

It was estimated to cost Rs 256 crore in the year 2002. The present study includes the incorporation of earlier studies for erstwhile MCH area (170 Sq.km) and preparation of detailed storm water drainage studies for surrounding 12 circles under GHMC area (455 Sq.km). The major components of the study include Preparation of Master Plan for Major Drains (width >2.0m)(Stage-I), preparation of detailed project report for major drains (Stage-1), preparation of Master Plan for minor drains ( width less than2.0 meters (stage-II) and preparation of detailed project report for minor drains (Stage-II).

The technical committee of the GHMC stressed the need for holistic approach and suggested amalgamation of 12 surrounding municipalities into MCH area and formation of GHMC in April 2007 which has resulted in rapid and uncontrolled urban growth and the consequent changes of land use. It forecasted that the combined effect of increased impervious surface and deteriorating quality of urban water shed has resulted in an increased incidence of urban floods.

While saying that the functioning of network of urban lakes had deteriorated rapidly, and lakes have been encroached upon and polluted, and linkages have been blocked, the study focused on freeing the recurring problems to face future floods with a robust mechanism. The GHMC officials said that I n view of high flooding and inundation of Hyderabad and its peripheral areas, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has taken a proactive role to conduct studies on major storm water drainage network covering entire area of GHMC and to prepare a master plan for the same.

Floods in Hyderabad

Year 1908

• On 28th September, 430mm rainfall occurred in one day
• Enlargement of River bed
• Construction of two storage reservoirs, Osman Sagar in 1920 and Himayath Sagar in 1927

Year 1970

• 199mm rainfall received in one day
• A Committee was constituted vide GO MS no 799 to recommend protective measures
• The Committee assigned various roles for different departments

Year 2000

• Continuous downpour for four days
• 240mm rainfall received over night
• Bottle necks & Encroachments were identified and temporary measures undertaken

Year 2008

• 220mm rainfall received in 36 hours
• Hussain sagar lake has reached its danger mark of 513.700m
• People residing in low lying areas had been evacuated to safer places