Kolhapur battles power outage, shortage of drinking water and essentials

Adding to the misery of the people, the situation is likely to continue for some more days.

Road connectivity, power supply, landline phones and supply of drinking water, fuel and food items continued to be disrupted on the fourth day on Friday following heavy rains and floods in Kolhapur district.

Animal carcasses seen in flood hit area of Nilewadi in Kolhapur, India, on Friday, August 9, 2019. (Anil Velhal/HT PHOTOS)

The supply of food grains, vegetables, milk and medicines was hit in the city.

Adding to the misery of the people, the situation is likely to continue for some more days. According to Disaster management cell officials, a large part of the city was submerged or affected by the floods and included areas like the District collectorate, Mahavir Garden, Mahavir College, New Palace, Ramanmala and Bapat camp.

Lack of power supply to large parts of Kolhapur had made life miserable with all routine activities having come to a standstill.

In a statement, Vikas Puri, spokesperson of Kolhapur circle of the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Corporation Ltd (MSEDCL) said as many as 3,333 transformers across the district had been shut down affecting 1.59 lakh electricity connections.

As many as 14 substations across the city and district also stood affected. Sub-stations from Dudhali, Gandhinagar, Nagala Park, Radhanagari, were among those which were kept shut as a precautionary measure.

Several parts of Kolhapur and Sangli district faced power outages due to continuous rainfall.

About 1.59 lakh consumers in Kolhapur and 1.24 lakh in Sangli have been badly hit due to the power cuts amid heavy rains in the past four days. The floods have damaged 29 power sub-stations and 5,582 transformers in both the districts.

MSEDCL officials said that there has been large-scale damage, with floodwater damaging electricity supply equipment. “It will be a mammoth task to repair and rebuild the equipment and transformers damaged due to the floods,” an official said.

For the fourth day the BSNL landlines are not working across the city.

Most ATMs (automated teller machines) remained closed because of lack of power supply. Many citizens were seen going from one ATM to another in desperation to withdraw money. Some ATMs with power supply had been deliberately shut because of security reasons.

As a result of the acute water shortage and breakdown in supply four days ago, residents have taken to collecting rainwater for drinking purposes. People were seen roaming the streets with empty cans and trying to collect rainwater.

The supply of vegetables was also hit for the fourth consecutive day as the wholesale vegetable mandi wore a deserted look. The officials of the Agriculture Produce Market Committee said the trucks carrying onions and potatoes were stranded on the highway.

Despite the scarcity of food grains, the traders did not increase the price of food grains to avoid unrest and anger among the residents.

Owing to floods, all entry points of the city have been closed and the district administration has written to all the petrol pump operators to keep a stock of fuel for emergency purposes such as ambulance and rescue operations.

Meanwhile, the district health administration claimed they have adequate stock of medicines and injections at hospitals in both rural and urban areas. A senior health official said the stock of medicines has been kept ready to deal with any emergency that may arrive due to floods.