Hyderabad residents in Al Jubail Colony learn to live with floodwater and filth 

As dark clouds gather on Tuesday afternoon just beyond the Al Jubail Colony at the foothills of Falaknuma Palace, Zeba Habeeb is again worried.

Living in a single storey building, Zeba remembers racing away from her home to a friend’s house in the next lane as the floodwaters reached ankle level on Friday.

“My daughter Khuda Fatima had a function in the United Public School as the water started rising at 4.30 p.m. I gathered important documents and my phone to reach my friend’s house. When I came back in the morning, the water seeped into groceries, and my refrigerator got spoilt,” says Ms. Fatima.

The area on the edge of the nala was ravaged by the floodwaters after the October 13, 2020 floods. The horror of sewage sweeping through the area recurred in September 2021.

In another lane carving up meat is Mohammed Ahmed Qureshi, who built a low wall at the edge of the shop so that the water doesn’t enter the area. Why doesn’t he leave the area due to frequent flooding? “Aadat ho gayi rehney ki yahan. I pay a rent of ₹4,500. Elsewhere, it will be a lot more. When the flood water comes in, it takes a few hours to drain out. Once the manholes are opened the water goes,” says Mr. Qureshi who has been in the area for the past 20 years. 

While the flooding in the area were earlier due to sewage from the nala, this year it was the accumulation of rainwater that could not drain to the nala.

“The very next day  Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency people brought in the earthmover to clean the nala,” says Nadeem Khan, another resident of the area whose house on a raised plinth escaped damage.  

“This is a low lying area between a nala and a hillock. We have deployed an earthmover to clear the water channel. And our staff has removed the blockages in the manholes for smoother flow of water. We cannot do anything more,” says K. Kalyan, of HYDRAA who was among the first to reach the area to help clear water channels.