Canal breach leads to chaos in Delhi’s Bawana

Breach in Munak canal disrupts Delhi water supply, floods Bawana, leading to evacuation of 2,000 residents. Repair work ongoing, normal supply by Friday. Political blame game ensues.

A portion of the channel-lined canal (CLC), or the Munak canal, breached near Bawana in outer Delhi on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday, disrupting the water supply to four of the nine water treatment plants (WTPs) in the Capital, people aware of the matter said.

People leave the JJ cluster area in Bawana after the water flooded their homes on Thursday. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

The breach also led to parts of Bawana getting flooded, with water entering thousands of houses in the locality, leading to at least 2,000 residents being evacuated.

Teams from the Haryana irrigation department, which maintains the canal, were working on repairing the aqueduct till late on Thursday night. The Delhi government said that raw water from the canal is being diverted to other routes to minimise losses, but WTP operations are only likely to normalise by Friday evening.

Delhi Jal Board (DJB) officials said that the breach could result in the loss of 60-70 million gallons per day (mgd) of water, with parts of southwest Delhi such as Dwarka, Palam, and Matiala expected to be hardest hit.

The Delhi government has set a target of supplying 1,000mgd of water to the Capital, and a shortfall of 1mgd affects an estimated 21,500 people in the city.

The breach and inundation of parts of Bawana also led to a political tussle between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led Delhi government — which said it has ordered an inquiry to probe whether the breach was a result of sabotage — and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress, which accused the AAP of poor maintenance. Lieutenant governor VK Saxena too waded into the issue, noting that he had flagged the matter of repairs of the canal in June.

The Munak canal is a 102-km aqueduct that is part of the Western Yamuna Canal in Haryana and Delhi. It carries water from the Yamuna at the Munak regulator in Karnal, Haryana and travels south via the Khubru and Mandora barrages, before finally terminating at Haidarpur in Delhi.

The Delhi and Haryana governments signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in 1996, and the canal was constructed by Haryana between 2003 and 2012. This canal is one of the two major channels that carries Yamuna water from Haryana to Delhi and directly feeds two DJB water treatment plants — Bawana and Haiderpur. The canal water is also used to partially run the Nangloi and Dwarka plants, officials said.

How the breach came to light

The breach, located near the Bawana M-block JJ Cluster, was first reported at around Wednesday midnight, when parts of F, G, J, K, L and M blocks began getting waterlogged. As more water started entering the neighbourhood, people from these areas were evacuated with the help of NDRF and revenue department officials.

Truckloads of sand were brought to the site to plug the leaks. Officials also made preparations to develop temporary bunds on either side of the breach.

By 2pm on Thursday, a Haryana irrigation department team arrived from Kakroi and Hathnikund, and began repair works, with a dozen workers and an excavator deployed at the site.

An official overseeing repair work at the site, requesting anonymity, said that the water from the Kakroi regulator upstream has been diverted to the Delhi Sub Branch (DSB) canal — which runs parallel to Munak — and into the Yamuna to prevent further damage.

“The breached section was already 40-50ft wide, and it took the entire day to drain out the water already present in the canal channel. We are creating two sandbag bunds on either side of the breach, and a 90-100ft wide section will be refilled and covered with a concrete liner overnight,” the official said.

Water supply to be hit

A senior DJB official said the catchment area of the Dwarka WTP in southwest Delhi such as Dwarka, Matiala, Palam and the surrounding areas are not likely to get any water till Friday evening. The water utility has advised residents of the impacted areas to store sufficient water and use it judiciously for the next two-three days.

“The real quantum of loss has not been assessed, but we are expecting a shortfall of at least 60-70 mgd,” the official said.

A second official said that operations at the Dwarka WTP have completely stopped, and areas supplied by the remaining three plants — Bawana, Haidarpur, and Nangloi — will face low pressure and disruptions in tail end areas.

The Bawana WTP supplies 20 mgd to northwest Delhi, Haiderpur supplies 241 mgd to parts of northwest and west Delhi, and Nangloi supplies 44 mgd to west Delhi.

Jitender Kumar, a resident of Sadh Nagar in Palam said that the area received no water supply on Thursday. “Many areas in South West Delhi receive water on alternate days. How will people survive without water for three days.” Rakesh Kumar a resident of Dwarka said that his colony receives water on alternate days. “There was zero water supply today and Friday is not the designated supply day for us,” he said.

Delhi water minister Atishi, who was inspecting the point of breach, said the new concrete lining will take time for curing. “We are expecting that the canal will be able to carry water tomorrow (Friday). Meanwhile, the water supply has been impacted at Dwarka, Haiderpur, Bawana and Nangloi WTPs. Since the water has been diverted to DSB canal, the production at other plants will increase by night but the resumption of operations will take longer for Dwarka water treatment plant which is solely fed by the CLC canal,” she said.

Politics over canal

The breach also led to a political slugfest between the city’s political parties.

Atishi said, “It is clear that there was no leakage. You can see that in this 8-10 ft wide embankment, there is no moisture and if there was any leakage, the soil would have been wet… We will carry out an inquiry if there has been any foul play… There will be an inquiry but the priority is to repair the canal.”

BJP MP from North West Delhi, Yogendra Chandolia said he inspected Garhi Bindroli village in Haryana, from where the water for the Munak canal is released.

“An area of 7km in Bawana was affected by waterlogging. Calls were made to the departments (Delhi government and MCD) but only seven pumps were installed after 11 am, which was insufficient,” Chandolia said, accusing the AAP-led government and corporation of not responding adequately.

Delhi Congress president Devender Yadav said that damage will create a water shortage in the Capital, and the Delhi government should also take prompt steps to avoid another major water crisis. “According to local residents, leakage at the Munak canal was noticed last week, but DJB did not take timely action to repair the damage, which has now resulted in a major breach,” he alleged, demanding compensation for Bawana residents who have suffered losses due to the inundation.

Meanwhile, the LG office said that Saxena had flagged the matter of repairs and maintenance of the canal in June.

This is not the first time that there has been a breach on Munak — a section of canal had rupture on June 14, 2023, impacting the water supply of large parts of Delhi for two days, with the repair work taking 48 hours. Before that, in February 2016, the canal was breached during an agitation by the Jat community, leading to a water crisis in Delhi, and the army taking over the canal to restore the water supply to Delhi.