Fact Check: Video from Pakistan falsely shared as visuals of flood in AP’s Vijayawada

Heavy rains and river overflows, particularly from the Krishna, have caused significant flooding in Vijayawada and the surrounding districts of NTR, Krishna, and Guntur in Andhra Pradesh. The intense rainfall has inundated low-lying areas, disrupting daily life and causing significant property damage. A total of 415,171 people have been affected by the rain and floods in the state.

Against this backdrop, an aerial video showing people in a large water body has been circulating on social media. The accompanying claim suggests that the gates of the Budameru River were opened to prevent Chandrababu Naidu's house from sinking in Karakatta, which led to the flooding of Vijayawada.

A Facebook user shared the video and wrote, “There should be a lot of discussion about Budameru after the flood threat subsides. Discussion that Budameru gates have been opened for the safety of Karakatta Kompa...If the same is true then he (Chandrababu Naidu) will be the biggest loser in the history of Andhra Pradesh…” (Translated from Telugu) (Archive)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is false as the video is old and not from Andhra Pradesh.

We conducted a keyword search in Telugu and found a clarification from the Andhra Pradesh state government's fact check handle on X. The post clarified that there are no gates on the Budameru River, refuting the claims that the gates were opened for embankment safety or to prevent flooding at the Chief Minister’s residence. The post also noted that while Budameru is adjacent to the Krishna River, the Chief Minister's residence is on the opposite side. (Archive)

Upon performing a reverse image search of the video's keyframe, we found that it was posted in July 2024 by several Facebook accounts, with the location identified as Karli Lake in Thatta District, Sindh Province, Pakistan. (Click here and here to see the posts.)

Naveed Khatri, the admin of the Facebook page "Weather Updates Karachi," that posted the same video on July 15 confirmed to NewsMeter that the video shows people enjoying their time at Karli Lake. He said, “The video is around 2-3 months old. Karli Lake is a picnic spot, and people from Karachi and other parts of Pakistan visit the place from May to August.

To further verify the information, we searched for videos of Karli Lake on YouTube and found a video blog by a Pakistani channel, Chaltay Phirtay, uploaded on June 16, 2022. This blog features footage of people bathing in the lake and boating, as well as several tent houses along the lake's banks—elements that are also visible in the viral video. According to the blogger, these tent houses are available for rent to visitors.