Andhra Pradesh is a peculiar state, the climate is hot and burning throughout the year. But come monsoon, every year the state’s rivers flood the basins around and take several lives in its waters. Despite floods and deaths of innocent people year there is no proactive initiatives from the state or central governments to ensure that such loss of property and lives would be prevented in future.

This year, in the last five days nearly 18 people were washed away in flash floods, after heavy rains lashed four coastal districts of southern Andhra Pradesh. Hundreds of tanks either collapsed or suffered extensive damage, road and rail networks got damaged as torrential rains disrupted normal life in the districts of Nellore, Prakasam, Kadapah and Chittoor. Official sources say that the worst affected district is Nellore where 12 deaths have been reported. Of the 12 dead include seven persons who were travelling in two vehicles, which were washed away in flash floods. In the neighbouring Kadapah district two drowned in flood waters while three persons went missing after the bus in which they were travelling was washed away by flood waters.

The state’s Tourism Minister A Ramnarayan Reddy, who hails from Nellore district, in a bid to express solidarity and gain popularity among his constituency people, cancelled his foreign tour and rushed to the district to supervise rescue and rehabilitation works. Even as the rescue operations started heavy rains continue to batter south coastal Andhra Pradesh due to low pressure over the Bay of Bengal.

The worst-hit districts due to this low pressure are Nellore and Prakasam. On the other side Chittoor and Kadpa districts are being battered by heavy rains for the past three days leading to overflowing of tanks and rivers which resulted in inundating dozens of villages, causing widespread damage to crops and disrupting road and rail traffic in the region. The floods have directly affected the lives of over 50,000 people living in low-lying areas, who had to be evacuated and shifted to relief camps.

About a dozen buses, trucks and other vehicles were caught in flash floods. While most people travelling inside were rescued by local authorities, four members of a marriage party travelling in a private bus could not be rescued. All the rivulets, streams and tanks which are otherwise dry and parched are now overflowing thanks to heavy rains. The overflowing rivers have damaged standing crops in several villages. The damage is estimated at several crore rupees.

The flash floods have also thrown all rail and road traffic out of gear. State transport corporation buses have gone off the roads while the railways also cancelled trains, especially between Vijayawada and Chennai.

Meterology deparment forecast says more rains will continue to batter south coastal Andhra Pradesh, Rayalseema and north coastal Tamil Nadu due to the low-pressure area over the Bay of Bengal. This time another damage has been sounded, strong winds at speeds of 40-60 km per hour were blowing along the coast, and fishermen have been warned against venturing into the sea.

This is not the first time this year that this kind of flash floods are damaging crops, property and taking people’s lives. Earlier this year, in June heavy rains and floods claimed over 100 lives in the state. Andhra Pradesh has a coastline of over 1,000 km that has seen repeated floods, storms and cyclones since several years but authorities are not doing anything to prevent this from happening. One solution according to scientists would be to construct more dams and tanks in the region and keep them desilted so that excess water can flow into them and get stored. Now though there are floods, the water just flows into the sea and is useless thereafter. But if steps are taken to store this water, it can have twin benefits, abundance of water resources and prevention of hardships to people. Wonder if politicians will stop talking take action to prevent this from repeating again next year.