Closely watching flood situation, people to be evacuated if needed: Kejriwal

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal presided over a meeting to review the situation as the water level in the Yamuna was likely to breach the danger mark on Tuesday

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said the government was keeping a close watch on the flood situation and around 41,000 people living on the Yamuna floodplains will be evacuated if the water level in the river touches the evacuation level of 206 metres. The level crossed the warning level (204.63 meters) at 1pm on Monday.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. (PTI)

Kejriwal, who presided over a meeting to review the situation as the level was likely to breach the danger mark on Tuesday, said the Delhi government has its rehabilitation plans ready in case the need to evacuate people from floodplains arises. “After it [the level] touches 206 meters, we will evacuate people and put them in rehabilitation camps that have been set up. Around 41,000 people living in low-lying areas have been identified,” Kejriwal said.

“We are ready to handle the situation. We are monitoring it and keeping in touch with experts and officials.”

Kejriwal said heavy rainfall in Delhi and the release of water into the Yamuna from Hathni Kund barrage in Haryana causes floods in the Capital. “There was a flood in 1978 when 700,000 cusecs of water was released from Hathni Kund. ...800,000 cusecs of water was released in 2013. In 2019, 825,000 cusecs water was released into the Yamuna but no flooding was reported.”

He said on Sunday night, 300,000 cusecs of water were released from the barrage and 250,000 cusecs on Monday morning. Kejriwal said they were in touch with the Central Water Commission, which makes reasonably accurate forecasts. “The weather prediction for the next few days suggests that the Yamuna level will not rise much and flood situation is not likely to arise. But if it does, we are ready.”

The Yamuna level was rising due to the release of water from the barrage. As much as 2,54,806 cusecs of water was released from the barrage at 10am on Monday as an interaction between a western disturbance and the monsoon trough continued to cause heavy rainfall.

A Delhi Disaster Management Authority official said the Yamuna level is anticipated to rise to 205.5 metres between 10am and 12noon on Tuesday.

A second official said the normal discharge of water from Hathni Kund is 352 cusecs, but heavy rainfall in the catchment areas led to increased discharge. “The water from the barrage takes around three days to reach the national Capital.”

The Yamuna spans around 22km in the Capital. Its floodplains have been encroached over the years and mostly vegetables, flowers, etc are grown on them. Apart from farmers, migrant labourers have also built hutments on the floodplains. Many homeless people have found shelter under the bridges there.

In places such as Yamuna Bazaar slums as well as concrete houses have come up close to the floodplains, which are prone to flooding. Over 35,000 people are estimated to be living there.

People living on the Yamuna floodplains across six of 11 districts of Delhi are likely to be affected. The authorities were setting up camps and alerting people living there.

Collapsing portions of buildings and uprooted trees left four people dead in Delhi on Sunday as it recorded a little over 261mm of rain, or 125% of rainfall it receives on average over the entire month of July, between 8.30am on Saturday and 5.30pm. It was one of the wettest spells the Capital has ever recorded.

A total of 153mm of precipitation was recorded at the Safdarjung station in the 24 hours until 8.30am on Sunday morning. It was the third-highest rainfall in the city’s history since records were kept.

The downpour left the city’s roads waterlogged. Many stretches were jammed as rain caused potholes. A sinkhole opened up at a crossing in Rohini.

The city received 296.8 mm of rainfall, or nearly 47% of the average during the June-September monsoon season, in the first nine days of July.

The rare interaction between monsoon winds blowing in from the south and moist winds from the west (western disturbance) created atmospheric troughs over the country’s northwest and brought very heavy to extremely heavy rainfall.

The rains forced the closure of schools on Monday in the National Capital Region. Key stretches such as the Minto Bridge and Pragati Maidan Tunnel were closed. Electricity supply was shut down in places such as North Avenue, Lodhi Estate, and Bharti Nagar to prevent the risk of electrocution due to flooding. Traffic was disrupted as trees were uprooted and branches fell at around 39 locations.

The 153mm of rainfall recorded in 24 hours until 8.30am on Sunday was the highest since July 25, 1982 (169.9 mm). The highest-ever 24-hour rainfall in July was recorded on July 20, 1958 (266.2mm).For the first time since September 2021 Delhi recorded two consecutive days of over 100mm of rainfall.