“All our utensils, four cylinders, everything we have, got washed away,” said a resident of Anna Nagar in New Delhi’s ITO, who watched her house and everything she owned submerge into a sinkhole as a waterlogged road collapsed in the Anna Nagar slum area following heavy rains in the national capital.
Ten to fifteen homes in a slum in New Delhi’s ITO area was washed away in the incident on Sunday, 19 July. The residents of the area said that the occurrence was unprecedented. They alleged that the flooding was caused by an on-going construction of WHO headquarters on the other side of the canal.
“In the (WHO) building that is being constructed here, they are digging five floors of the basement for parking and other activities. They did not consider that there is a canal here, the foundation is not strong, it might wash away. They did not consider all this. There was a huge old tree here. These people placed their water pipes on the ground only, instead of through the canal. So, the soil there got eroded and created a gap. The water collected inside the gap, changed its course to our side and folded our houses.”Shailendra, a resident
The residents also shared that they saw the walls of the WHO building crumbling, realised that something was wrong and left everything and rushed out of their houses.
The government has provided them a tent. Vishal, a victim of the tragedy, shares that they have been asked to live there for 7-10 days. However, the residents also told The Quint that no compensation has been provided or promised to them by the government yet. “Let us see what they do for us in the coming days,” says Vishal.
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