Pune flash floods aftermath: Independent bungalow owners struggle to remove sludge

As the municipal corporation concentrated on housing societies and slums to provide necessary help after the flash floods in the city, independent bungalow owners

As the municipal corporation concentrated on housing societies and slums to provide necessary help after the flash floods in the city, independent bungalow owners are still struggling to clean the sludge collected inside their homes and surrounding areas since the last three days.

HT Image

Heavy rains on Wednesday night caused the Ambil odha (stream) and other smaller canals to overflow, inundating housing societies, roads and slums with water and claiming lives and mass destruction of property.

The areas affected include bungalows at Bibvewadi, Sangam society, colonies in front of D-Mart; Padmavati, Sahakarnagar, Premnagar and Shastrinagar.

The water level in these bungalows was more than three feet and sludge has collected in and around the bungalows after the water drained out.

Sumit Kulkarni, a resident of Bibvewadi, said, “We did not get any financial help from the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) even though our losses are high. We at least expect to get manpower help from the civic body to remove the sludge collected at our homes.”

Another resident of Sahakarnagar, Sujata Desai, said, “Our homes were filled with water. The furniture on the ground floor has been completely damaged. Even the fridge and other electronic equipment have been damaged. We understand that the PMC is concentrating on slums and big housing societies in such a situation, but at least they should provide water to clean the roads and backyards.”

Social worker Nitin Kadam said, “Senior citizens are staying in some of these affected-bungalows and they are cleaning the houses all by themselves. The damage to these bungalows is also very high.”

“The priority of the civic body should be to provide help to clean their homes and remove garbage from their localities,” he added.