‘Where do we go?’: Over 50 Vijayawada families left homeless after Krishna floods
Anjamma had left her house with her three daughters in mid-August to move to a shelter camp, when the Krishna river flooded the thatched roof structure she was renting in the Tarakaramanagar area in Vijayawada. With the Krishna river in spate again, the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) issued a flood warning in her neighbourhood once again on Friday.
But Anjamma and nearly 60 other families have no use for the warning. They have not been able to return to their homes since the first large-scale evacuations on August 15.
Ever since the Krishna river flooded on August 14, the families have been rendered homeless, after being moved to the ‘shelter camp’, an open space under a water tank near Tadikonda Subbarao government primary school in Rani Gari Thota.
“The thatched roof of our house was destroyed in the floods. We went back to get our clothes and vessels, but we can clean the house only once the water completely recedes and the floor dries up,” Anjamma says.
People staying at the camp say that since they moved to the camp, water has entered their house at least three more times. “The roofs are gone and the floor is muddy and filthy with stagnant water. Snakes have entered our homes. We keep waiting for the house to dry so we can clean it up, but either the barrage water is released or there are rains,” says Kumar, who has been living at the camp with his wife and two children.
People at the camp say that while the VMC provided them food and grains in August, eventually the support stopped. “Those of us living in rented houses tried to find other places but the rents are too high,” says Kumar. Both Kumar and Anjamma say that they’ve tried looking for houses in Rani Gari Thota, but were unable to afford the properties which were available.
Speaking to TNM, VMC Additional Commissioner (General) Shakuntala said since the families shifted there completely, they’re only being provided with sanitation and water facilities for now. “There are about 50 to 70 families, about half of them keep going back and forth, half of them are permanently there. Since they’ve been living there for a while, they were not provided with food this time when the water was released,” she says.
Durga, who has also been staying at the camp area, says that a few ward volunteers had noted their details for the state government housing scheme for the poor. “But they say those will only be available by Ugadi, which is 6 months away. They haven’t told us whether we are eligible yet, so we don’t even know if that is something we can bank on,” she says, adding that some of the people who lost their Aadhaar cards or ration cards in the floods weren’t even able to apply for the scheme. Shakuntala on the other says that some of the families may not be eligible for the scheme since they may not have ration cards from Vijayawada.
The VMC’s stand is that since the now homeless families are immigrants to Vijayawada, there cannot be a permanent solution to the housing problem. “They are migrant communities from Prakasam district and other parts of the state. They don’t have fixed homes. They stay in houses on the river bank where no one else stays. We can only find a temporary solution for this,” says Shakuntala, adding that the families have been told that they can stay at the water tank indefinitely.
Meanwhile, the families have no options but to continue to stay at the shelter. Parents are worried about the risk of mosquito-borne diseases for their children. “Fogging is done regularly, but still there are mosquitoes since it’s an open space. Some of us have bought mosquito nets for our children. But when it rains at night, it’s impossible to sleep as there are no walls. We just have to huddle and wait for the rain to stop,” Kumar says.
Only last week the people say they received a warning from an unknown person asking them to vacate the premises. “It was someone related to the water tank, who visited during the day. The women asked him to give us time till the coming Tuesday. But now the water is back in our homes, where can we go?” asks Kumar.
Kumar adds that even if the water were to completely recede, restoration works for the houses with thatched roofs would cost up to Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000, which will be difficult for them to bear as their income has already been hurt by the uncertain living conditions.
On Friday, the VMC also issued a flood warning in a few other areas, including Bhupesh Gupta Nagar and Ramalingeshwara Nagar. Families have been staying in tents on elevated land, waiting for the water to recede so they can go back and repeat the cycle of cleaning their homes and returning to normalcy, in many cases for the third or fourth time.
In spite of longstanding demands, the retaining wall which could shield the residents from flood waters remains incomplete. The wall is said to have been proposed in 2009, which was the last time that the city was flooded this severely. The wall has been completed only partially, with a long stretch from Ramalingeswaranagar continuing up to Rani Gari Thota and beyond yet to be completed. A few residents of Rani Gari Thota say that the work was stopped citing lack of funds.
As low-income areas in the city are repeatedly flooded, posing financial and health risks to the people living along the river bank, the wall is stuck in limbo, as are the families living at the shelter camp.