Rain adds to worries as Yamuna overflows

By 11pm, the river reached 206.46m, swelling close to the 207m level at which the river caused significant flooding, choked water treatment plants, and caused drains to backflow a little over a week ago.

The cause behind the river being in spate on Sunday was heavy rain upstream, although the situation stabilised in those regions, bringing some hope the crisis may not immediately spiral out of control.

But a second threat looms for the week: the moderate rains predicted for the city between Tuesday and Thursday. Officials said since Delhi’s drains, especially those that empty into the Yamuna, open into the river at 202m, these will need to be closed, thereby blocking outlet for stormwater.

Delhi cabinet minister Saurabh Bharadwaj stated that government is closely monitoring all locations where water from the Yamuna spilled onto Delhi’s roads earlier this month and that measures have been taken to avoid a repeat, such as constructing flood protection bunds.

“For this purpose, 60 separate teams have been deployed in various areas of Delhi to keep a vigilant watch on any such potential points where water could overflow onto roads as it did during the last incident. All residents living in low-lying areas near the Yamuna have been evacuated and shifted to relief camps in advance. Once the threat of flooding subsides and there is no danger, they will be allowed to return to their homes,” he said.

In a remark earlier, he said people living in flood-prone areas should come back to relief camps if they had returned home.

Agencies on Sunday were seen making preparations to prevent a repeat of scenes witnessed on July 13 by strengthening the embankments at low-lying areas like Yamuna Bazar and ITO, and by raising bunds around critical installations like the water treatment plants.

The district administrations in the six vulnerable districts were busy re-strengthening the embankments while marshals mounted on boats carried out public announcements (munadis) urging people to vacate low-lying areas on the floodplains.

Water minister Bharadwaj said enough preparations have been made by the water utility authority of the capital to ensure plants continue to operate even if Yamuna swells to an “impractical and improbable water level” of 209m.

Located along Yamuna floodplains, DJB’s three plants at Okhla, Wazirabad and Chandrawal along with its array of tubewells and Ranney wells were closed at 9.50am on July 13 due to flooding when the river water levels had reached 208.5m.

The India Meteorological Department has forecast that rain intensity over Delhi-NCR will gradually start increasing from Monday, with the monsoon trough predicted to return closer to the capital region. Light rain is expected in the region on Monday, with precipitation turning to a heavier “moderate” category from Tuesday till Thursday, IMD officials stated.

Meanwhile, teams of Indian Navy continued operations to open the jammed gates of ITO barrage. Only two of the five jammed gates — out of 32 in total — have been opened so far and three gates remain jammed. “We are now focussing on gate number 29,” an official from irrigation and flood control department said.

The poor upkeep of the barrage has been a source of controversy between Delhi and Haryana government, since it is the latter that is responsible for its maintenance.

At Hathnikund, the barrage on the Yamuna in Yamunanagar, Haryana that acts as an important gauge for the state of the river 36 hours in Delhi, the discharge rate dropped to under 50,000 cusecs on Sunday, down from 250,000 cusecs for several hours on Saturday.

This spike was due to heavy rains in Himachal Pradesh and Haryana regions upstream.

The monsoon is still in an active phase in much of north India and IMD officials issued orange alert for heavy rain over the weekend for Himachal Pradesh, which implies another spell of flooding cannot be ruled out.