On July 21, Sai Prasad Sawant watched from his house on the ground floor as it rained incessantly in Chiplun, a city in Ratnagiri district in Maharashtra’s Konkan region. Barely 15 km away, the heavy downpour had led to the reservoir of the Kolkewadi dam in the Sahyadri hills filling up past the danger mark. When its floodgates were opened that day, water came rushing into the city.
By the afternoon of June 22, the water had reached up to six feet at Sawant’s home, leaving the 34-year old with little time to pack his belongings and shift his 80-year old grandfather to the first floor of a neighbour’s two-storey home.
“Everything has been destroyed,” said Sawant, who is employed as a computer engineer in Thane, but has been working from his home in Chiplun since June. “My fridge and washing machine were floating,” he said. “A cupboard that takes four people to move was also floating.”
The floods have not only devastated Ratnagiri but also other districts…
