9-hr downpour leads to unprecedented flooding in Vasai

The nullah has been carrying sewage and storm water from three townships Anand Nagar, Manikpur and D G Nagar in the NMMC limits, since the past thirty years, an NMMC official said.

“However”, says chief officer Karche, “a railway engineer told me that the sandbags were laid at the spot to protect an adjacent building with a weak plinth, from collapsing onto the tracks,” which would have resulted in a major disaster involving human lives and railway traffic.

But, “the engineer has informed me that they would make some arrangement for the smooth flow of water from the civic nullah into bridge no 78 in a day or two.”

Work on clearance of the blockade began on Saturday morning to allow the flow from the civic nullah into bridge no 78.

The NMMC was under siege by local residents since Friday morning due to water logging in their homes following nine hours of rainfall on Thursday last.

In a span of two hours, four morchas consisting of housewives from about 25 complexes in the Navghar-Manikpur area. The rains began at 9 am on Thursday and by 11.30 am the waters (contaminated) had risen to about three feet in our ground floor homes,” Swati Kapdi, who lead one of the morchas to the office of the Chief Officer of the NMMC told this reporter on Fridayr. A resident of Bharat Nivas, adjacent to the NMMC building, Swati pointed out the damage done to around 25-30 homes in the area.

My cot (2 ft high) and the bed on it were soaked in the flood inside my house”, she said, pointing to the mute witnesses to the damage in her house. Her showcase and her foodgrains, vessels, table drawers and vessels were also badly affected by the filthy water.

There was around 6-8 inches of water in many flats whose owners had locked their homes and gone on vacation. Beleaguered women and children were seen cleaning out the wetness from their homes, and their vessels and containers which had held their food stocks before the waters contaminated by the overflow of the refuse chamber of the neighbouring society due to choking of the gutter water a few yards ahead.

“All the residents, around seventy, including ladies and young children of Bharat Nivas and the nearby society went hungry on Friday afternoon as they could not light their stoves, and their food stocks were all affected by the filthy flood inside their homes. Dhanlaxmiben, a blind woman, living alone in a nearby tenement, had to be helped out of her house by neighbours as she could not venture out fearing the flood.

An MSEB transformer also added to the trauma, as its cables were three feet under water. Fear of electrocution blocked all attempts by the residents of to venture out during the daytime.

Children and ladies perched on top of the verandah wall for over 4 hours, till the rains decreased and finally stopped at around 6 pm on Thursday.

Dinner for the residents was at the nearby vegetarian restaurant (Hrishikesh Hotel) as the stink and the damp surroundings inside the homes of the 27-yr-old buildings proved a major deterrent.

Three hours after the morchas had left the NMMC, civic staff made a provision (at 2 pm on Friday) for the logged drain and storm water to flow out into the adjacent Navghar bus depot, through a breach in the boundary wall, which was broken open by the resident late on Thursday night.

Around 30 more societies were also inundated with around 3-4 ft water due to over-flowing gutters in the NMMC area.

The arterial Vasai Road was choc-a-bloc with vehicles due to water logging and shops alongside the road were also inundated with about 2 ft of water inside their premises, damaging their stocks.

Many shopkeepers and residents in the ground floor of many societies were seen building three ft high bunds with cement and bricks to protect their premises from further onslaught during monsoons, which have just begun.