Of three sewage pipelines, only one blocked; Ramalingeswara Nagar residents in jitters

Rattled by the increase in inflows and outflows at Prakasam Barrage on Tuesday, officials of the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation and the Water Resources Department rushed to three spots near the retaining wall built to prevent flooding in Ramalingeswara Nagar.

They were finding ways to block the sewage pipelines that led to inundation of the area and displaced thousands of people during the recent floods.

With no solid action taken up to block the three-foot-wide pipelines since the recent floods, officials made makeshift arrangements such as placing metal sheets and sandbags to block the pipeline on Sairam Cut Pieces road.

“Several officials visited the pipeline since morning today. All they did was placing loosely packed sandbags against the opening in the pipeline. We are not sure if this could stop the floodwater,” a local said.

To remove the sewage getting accumulated in the area due to blockage, officials made arrangements to pump the water out through the weep holes, but the motor pump provided was out of order.

The other two pipelines at the 10 MGD water plant and Bhupesh Gupta Nagar were still open as of evening but officials were confident that the flood level would not reach the pipelines’ opening in the river.

Ramalingeswara Nagar and other areas began receiving floodwater when the outflow from Prakasam Barrage was over three lakh cusecs and when it crossed five lakh cusecs, hundreds of houses got submerged.

“Just because there is this wall we moved to the relief camp during the recent floods leaving our belongings behind, but when we returned, we realised that our houses got submerged and we are yet to recover from the shock,” says Bhagyamma, an elderly woman, pointing at the retaining wall at the end of Sairam Cut Pieces Road.

She was among several locals, including children, who gathered at the sewage pipeline in the evening while many others began preparing to leave the area.

“We all got exhausted due to the recent floods and can’t imagine facing another one,” says another woman.

‘We were not alerted’

Meanwhile, locals were recalling how the government machinery used to visit flood-prone areas and make announcements asking people to shift to relief camps. Even before the last flood, there was no such announcement, recalls Ms. Bhagyamma.

Meanwhile, VMC officials say that they have prepared estimations for construction of sluice gates at the three sewage openings and proposals have been submitted to higher officials. Once cleared by the Special Officer, tenders will be called to install sluice gates.