Lucknow lanes witness rare waterlogging and flooding in September

Lucknow was not associated with flooding or waterlogging till recently. But the month of September saw several parts of the state capital getting flooded with knee-deep water following rain. Even as most residents in the city of Nawabs continued to enjoy the salubrious climate with chai and pakodas, many struggled to keep their houses dry and to cope with waterlogging.

Mohammad Ateeq, who lives in Gulzar Nagar, says that his whole house was flooded when it was raining continuously over the last weekend. “There’s a nala near my house which overflows every year during rains, and water from it enters houses in the whole street,” he says.

Ateeq adds that the water level is often knee-deep, and filled with sewage. It’s not just a health hazard but also poses the risks of electric shocks since the appliances too get wet. He explains, “Every year, whenever it starts raining heavily, we ask the electricity board to cut off our power supply, just so our appliances are not damaged and we don’t get shocks. We’ve been asking the municipal authorities for so long to fix the situation, but to no avail”.

Ranjeeta Rajput, a resident of Rajendra Nagar, faces double the wrath of rains. One, her roof is broken so it leaks. And two, the water from roads and sewage lines enters her house. She says that even when they drain out all the water, the smell it leaves behind takes a couple of days to go. She says, “There’s one cot in our room. My husband, two children and I, sat on it the whole day because the floor was drenched.”

Mamta, Rajput’s neighbour, shares a similar tale. “My roof was also leaking, and the street water had entered the house. No one in my family could sleep the entire night, because we were all soaking wet,” she says.

However, this is not a problem faced by only poverty-stricken people, though it affects their lives the most. Rajput says that her boss’ house too was flooded and all their electrical appliances and furniture got damaged. A resident from Aashiana, who wished to remain anonymous, too shares that her whole locality faces the same problem every year.

The root cause of all these problems appears to be an improper sewage disposal system, and the answer? Only the municipal authorities know.