Heavy rain floods parts of Bengaluru; more predicted over next 48 hours

Torrential rains over the past week in Bengaluru flooded several low-lying areas in the city. On Wednesday (September 9), the city recorded the highest rainfall of 113 mm in parts of the city and about two dozen places received over 100mm rain.

The weather department predicted rainfall to continue for the next two days.

Between 01 June to September 9, the city received 485 mm of rainfall as against the normal 332 mm.

Several lakes including the Hebbala, Rachenahalli, and Chikkabanavara lakes have begun overflowing due to heavy rains. Water entered the houses and storm water drains began overflowing, highlighting the poor civic infrastructure of the city.

With the BBMP Council’s term ending on September 10, residents of Bangalore worry over delay in flood-mitigation and relief works.

Several of them took to Twitter to highlight their concern.

Https://twitter.com/SmiletechZ/status/1303925246102175744?s=20

VijayKumar, a resident of Amruthnagar, Bytarayanapura, whose house and street outside remained flooded, appealed to the government to build a drainage system to prevent sewage from mixing with rain water and entering houses.

For residents near the lake beds and low lying areas, it’s turning out to be a routine every year.

It's just once !! Now imagine what if bengaluru gets rain like mumbai amd other places. @BBMPCOMM @BBMP_MAYOR @BSYBJP Any comments on what preparations you did for rains?
Just learn to collect taxes and do nothing. #bbmpdoesnothing

— Farhan Parkhaniya (@Farhanparkhaniy) September 9, 2020

With desilting of drains not done at many localities during the lockdown period, it added to the woes of the residents with waterlogging witnessed all around.

During the period from 1 June to 09 September 2020, the state as a whole recorded an actual amount of 807mm of rainfall as against the normal 733 mm, according to a report of the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre.

Over the next one week, Coastal Karnataka and Malnad region is expected to receive heavy rainfall and offset the deficit seen during the south-west monsoon season.

That said, out of the total 3654 minor irrigation tanks in the state, only 38% of the tanks had storages more than 50% of their respective capacity and 25% of the tanks were still dry or were having insignificant storage.

With widespread rainfall, the agriculture activities remained normal with 74.02 lakh hectares under cultivation, meeting the Kharif target of 73 lakh hectares. It was 10.18 lakh hectares more than the recorded coverage last year during the same period.

The water levels in reservoirs in the Cauvery and Krishna basin remained higher compared to the corresponding period of previous year and last 10 years’ average water levels.