Musi River (India)

Places of interest

• Telangana High Court
• City college
• Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station
• Osmania General Hospital
• Salar Jung Museum
• State Central Library

Floods

Main articles: Great Musi Flood and 2020 Hyderabad floods

Railway bridge over Musi river

The Musi river was the cause of frequent flood devastation of Hyderabad city until the early decades of the 20th century. On 28 September 1908, Hyderabad was flooded, which included 17 inches of rain in one day, killing around 15,000 people.

Musi River is a tributary of the Krishna River in the Deccan Plateau

The modern era of the development of the twin cities began soon after these floods in 1908. This necessitated planned, phased development.

Abdallah Ahmed Bin Mahfooz submitted his report on 1 October 1909, with recommendations on preventing a recurrence of floods and improving civic amenities. However, there are conflicting reports that Sir M. Visvesvaraya was engaged by the erstwhile Nizam to help design the drainage system and prevent floods. Nizam VII constituted a City Improve Trust in 1912. He built a flood control system on the river. A dam was built in 1920 across the river, ten miles (16  km) upstream from the city called Osman Sagar. In 1927 another reservoir was built on Esi (a tributary of Musi) and named Himayat Sagar. These lakes prevented the flooding of the River Musi and are major drinking water sources for Hyderabad city.

Current status

Due to indiscriminate urbanization and lack of planning, the river had earlier become a receptacle of untreated domestic and industrial waste dumping out of Hyderabad. It was estimated that nearly 350 MLD of polluted water and sewage originating from Hyderabad and Secunderabad flow into the river. Efforts to clean it have failed. The river water downstream of the cities remained highly polluted and considered to be a major disaster in Hyderabad.

Musi is now one of the most polluted rivers in India. Recent studies have shown the presence of super bugs in the water of Musi. Researchers and some drug company employees say the presence of more than 300 drug firms, combined with lax oversight and inadequate water treatment, has left the river laced with antibiotics, making this a giant Petri dish for anti-microbial resistance. Drug makers including large Indian firms Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd REDY.NS, Aurobindo Pharma Ltd ARBN.NS and Hetero Drugs Ltd, and U.S. giant Mylan Inc MYL.O discharge effluents into waterways, Musi is now "critically polluted". These drug-resistant superbugs are a serious threat to people as these bacteria are resistant to almost every known antibiotic.

External links

• Making a Living Along the Musi River, India
• Livelihoods and Wastewater Irrigated Agriculture along the Musi River in Hyderabad City
• Hyderabads twin safaris left to dry and disappear