This time, Yamuna saw a sharp rise in its water level due to incessant rains in the upper catchment areas.
New Delhi
Yamuna inundating its banks in Delhi is not new, it has happened on several occasions, an official of the Delhi Irrigation and Flood Control Department has said. In fact, floods or flood-like situations have been witnessed in Delhi and surrounding areas in 1924, 1977, 1978, 1995, 2010 and 2013, he said.
Analysis of flood data between 1963 and 2010 indicates there are more chances of flooding in September than in July. However, this time, Yamuna saw a sharp rise in its water level due to incessant rains in the upper catchment areas as a combination of key factors contributed to record precipitation in the Himalayas.
Delhi witnessed the highest rainfall (153 mm) in a single day in July since 1982 in a 24-hour period ending at 8.30 am on 9 July. The city received 107 mm of more rain in the next 24 hours, further worsening the situation.
This caused a large amount of discharge from the Hathnikund barrage in Haryana. On 11 July alone, 3.59 lakh cusecs were released. Generally, what earlier used to take about two to three days for the water released to reach Delhi from the barrage in Yamunanagar, Haryana, around 180 km from the national capital, this time it “took less time to reach Delhi compared to previous years, due to encroachment and siltation. Earlier where there used to be more space for the water to flow, now, it passed through a restricted cross-section,” said a senior official of the Central Water Commission (CWC).
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) country representative Yashvir Bhatnagar has attributed the record water level in the Yamuna to intense rainfall across the entire upper catchment area and called the excessive rainfall in a short period of time as the main reason for the Yamuna raging in Delhi.
“A prolonged fall of the same amount of water will not cause such a situation, as it gives the water time to pass through. Even small amounts of rainfall can result in high levels of runoff,” he said. The catchment area of the Yamuna river system includes parts of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi.
Experts also highlighted the impact of encroachment on flood plains as a key cause for the Delhi deluge. Even as far back as 2016, late environmentalist and activist Manoj Misra had raised the Commonwealth Games Village and Art of Living festival construction on Yamuna banks to have negative impact in future.
In September 2016, he had raised the issue of pseudo-bridges planned on either side of the Nizamuddin bridge that could affect the river. In his letter to the chief minister, Misra said pseudo bridges which are raised only over the lean season flow of a river severely impacts a river’s ecology.
PhD scholar and geologist Harsh Vats said: “A river never forgets. Even after decades and centuries pass, the river would come back to recapture its borders. Yamuna reclaims its floodplain”, as the rising water level of the Yamuna touched the Red Fort boundary wall and people shared a painting from 1890 which looked much closer to scenes playing out today.
Associate Coordinator of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers, People (SANDRP) Bhim Singh Rawat told a news agency that one of the major reasons for the unprecedented rise in the Yamuna’s water level is the raising of the river bed due to significant silt accumulation.
More than 20 bridges within the 22-km-long river from Wazirabad to Okhla obstruct the flow, leading to siltation of the river bed and formation of many mid-stream sandbanks, including below Signature Bridge, between ITO Barrage and Yamuna Bank, between ISBT Kashmere Gate and ORB (Old Railway Bridge), and between ORB and Geeta Colony Bridge, he added.
The low-lying areas near the river in Delhi, where over 41,000 people live, are considered vulnerable to floods. These floodplain of the river despite belonging to the Delhi Development Authority, Revenue Department among others, has been encroached upon for years.
In the first fortnight of July, Delhi has witnessed extensive flooding and waterlogging as unprecedented rain in a single day in July broke a 41-year record, plunging the city into a deluge over the next few days with scenes reminiscent of the 1978 flood.
From Red Fort to Connaught Place to Chandgiram Akhada, Civil Lines, the Nigam Bodh Ghat, Boat Club, Pandav Nagar, Gandhi Nagar, and Bhajanpura, besides several other places, went under water as Yamuna’s water level breached 208.6 metres.
Roads turned into rivers and water entered houses, medical facilities, crematoriums, temples, shelter homes, malls, Press Club of India. Severe waterlogging was reported in Rajghat and Purana Qila areas, as Red Fort was closed for visitors and schools and government offices till Sunday.
For many in the city, Yamuna in its flood fury across the city is an unseen vision. For a river that for most part over the last several decades had been dismissed for nothing more than a gloried sewer, this upsurge in its water levels is a shock. Things that people need to be beware of are the submerged electrical poles and possibility of water-borne diseases.
A major factor that has contributed to Delhi’s deluge this July is its sorry state of drainage system that dates back almost five decades to 1976, two years before the last major flood to hit the city.
As per the Public Works Department that had been for some time planning to hand over the drainage part of the capital to the Irrigation and flood Control department, the master plan of 1976 was meant for a rainfall of up to 50 mm and a population of around 60 lakh. Now, the population of Delhi is 2.5 crore and on 9 July, Delhi received 150+ mm of rain, that is, thrice the capacity of the old drainage system.
Apart from talks no serious step has materialised in the last 12 years to upgrade the drainage system, said a senior PWD engineer. The Delhi government of 2011 had sought a master plan from IIT Delhi on the drainage system, which was submitted in 2018, only to be set aside by the Kejriwal government.
The Army joined rescue and relief operations in Delhi as waters reached the main gates of Mahatma Gandhi’s Samadhi and the gates of the Supreme Court. The India Meteorological Department has forecast heavy rain for 16 July.