Delhi flood: At least 5,000 households affected in Jaitpur, Faridabad

There were still no shelter tents in the area on Thursday and families were found using makeshift tarpaulin sheets

Divided by a small bridge over a nallah, the ground floors of large swathes of settlements along the Delhi-Faridabad border near southeast Delhi’s Kadar were submerged, impacting at least 5,000 households in areas like Jaitpur extension, Vishwakarma Colony, Khadda Colony in Delhi and Basantpur in Haryana.

NDRF personnel rescue people from Jaitpur Khadda Colony on Thursday. (Sunil Ghosh/ HT Photo)

Even though water started entering the houses in these localities on Wednesday, the Yamuna’s level, which went over 1.76 metres in the last two days, led to large-scale devastation in the region.

Inspector Vickki Kumar from National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), overseeing rescue operations on the Delhi side, said that more than 710 people were rescued from the area.

“People are extremely reluctant to come out of their houses due to fear of thefts,” said Kumar.

The area has been badly hit because of a number of unauthorised colonies on the floodplains while the drain was also backflowing.

While relief efforts were nearly non-existent on the first day, several food stalls and NGO camps have come up on the Jaitpur-Kalindi Kunj road. The government has also converted the local school into a relief center where almost 1,000 people have taken shelter, the caretaker of the facility informed.

Diwakar Mishra, who heads Help and Support Foundation, an NGO, said that all local temples and mosques were supplying community meals but several families were opting to move to their relatives’ homes.

There were still no shelter tents in the area on Thursday and families were found using makeshift tarpaulin sheets to make shelters. Mohammad Aziz, who was rescued on Wednesday with six family members, said that during the first night, the lack of any electricity or source of light in the area proved to be the biggest challenge. “Food and water were arranged but security is the main risk,” he said.

Prakash Mandal, a civil defense volunteer, said that the flooded houses were being checked door-to-door, and 98% of the people willing to come out were rescued. “There was a couple with a six-month-old baby who initially wanted to stay till the water receded but with the level rising so alarmingly, they started shouting for help. It is a struggle to convince people to leave their houses,” he said.