4 lakes in city south breach from heavy rain

About four lakes located in an around Bengaluru South – Dorekere Lake, Gubbalala Lake, Vasanthapura Lake and Doddakallasandra Lake have all breached due to heavy rain in the wee hours of Monday.

Areas around the Kanakapura Road received maximum rainfall recording more than 124 mm rain around Konanakunte, Doddakallasandra, Uttarahalli, and Rajarajeshwarinagar, Kengeri and Hemmigepura.

The lakes breached and flooded the stormwater drains and even entered houses in many low-lying areas. Despite the BBMP stating to have taken measures to ensure that the lake water does not flood residential areas, it seems like it was only assurance and no actual work is done.

DH based on a BBMP report had on June 30, 2018, reported that the five lakes in Bengaluru South are likely to breach this monsoon.

Sunday night rain brought horror to residents of Saptagiri Layout, Lakshmaiah Layout and Lakkanna Layout, with over 200 houses flooded with the rainwater in the wee hours on Monday.

These layouts are located behind Subramanyapura police station in Uttarahalli.

Shivanagamma, who owns a flour mill in the area, was in a shock to find her mill submerged in the rainwater.

“The motors are in a good condition. But if the water gets into the motors, they will stop functioning, and we will lose our livelihood. We drained the water and removed the motors from the machine. But we are not sure if the mill can function now,” she added.

Asha Babu, another resident, said there was water up to four feet in the area and, contaminated water entered the sump in her house.

“We woke up at around 2 am and have not slept a wink since then as there is a fear of flood. Every year during rains, there was waterlogging on the streets. But this time, the water has entered the houses,” she added. Savitha Jayasimha broke while explaining the difficulty she faced protecting her children who were sleeping when the house was flooded.

“For the past three years, it has been continuously flooding, and there is no one to stop this. I had to wake up my children to move them to a safer place when the water entered the houses,” she added.

Uttarahalli coporator Hanumanthaiah, who visited the area, said since Dorekere Lake breached due to the heavy rain, the overflowing stormwater drain in the downstream flooded many areas including Saptagiri Layout.

A local resident said an apartment was constructed on the stormwater drain and the Bangalore International Public School had also encroached upon the drain. And so there is very less space for the rainwater to flow.

Three upstream lakes of Hulimavu — Subrayanapura, Kalena Agrahara and Basavanapura — are also said to have overflown.

Doddakallasandra, the erstwhile gram panchayat village located off Kanakapura Road, was turned into a sludge after the rain.

The village is now the part of 110 villages. The BBMP had dug up the road on Kumaran School to lay underground drainage pipelines.

After the rain, with the sludge filling the entire area, it became difficult for the commuters even to walk on the road and many vehicles got stuck in the sludge.