Monsoon nears but desilting lags with deadline far behind in Delhi

Delhi, for many years, has suffered from a multiplicity of agencies looking after its drains with around 10 bodies earlier responsible for its stormwater drains

Civic and land-owning bodies have identified over 2,300 points across Delhi where untreated sewage is mixing with stormwater drains or stormwater is intruding into sewage lines, causing frequent overflows and contamination of public spaces, according to a government review shared during a high-level meeting chaired by the Delhi chief secretary on June 3.

(Representative image) An official present at the meeting said the I&FC has so far plugged 207 of its 1,169 identified mixing points, with 962 still pending (HT Archive)

Documents reviewed by HT reveal that the Public Works Department (PWD) reported 465 locations where sewage is flowing into stormwater drains. The Irrigation and Flood Control (I&FC) department identified 1,169 such points in its stormwater network, while the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) flagged 16 locations.

Delhi, for many years, has suffered from a multiplicity of agencies looking after its drains, with around 10 bodies earlier responsible for its over 3,740 kilometre of stormwater drains. Following an April 2024 Delhi high court direction, all drains were formally handed over to the I&FC department in November that year.

An official present at the meeting said the I&FC has so far plugged 207 of its 1,169 identified mixing points, with 962 still pending. DDA, meanwhile, has fixed six of the 16 locations under its purview. PWD is conducting a detailed survey to address the 465 mixing points it has identified and assess the feasibility of interventions.

“The current situation is such that several major drains are carrying both rainwater and sewage, which defeats the purpose of either network. If these mixing points are not addressed, it often causes backflow of the water, which ends up on Delhi’s roads,” the official added.

The remaining land-owning agencies — the Delhi Cantonment Board, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), and the Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (DSIIDC) — did not have available data on such mixing points under their jurisdictions, the documents noted.

In the same meeting, the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) also flagged stormwater intrusion into its sewer lines as a growing concern. In the same meeting, it reported identifying 714 points where rainwater is entering the sewer network. DJB officials said this data has been shared with the Integrated Drainage Management Cell (IDMC), and the drain-owning agencies have been tasked with plugging these intrusions.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) reported 23 such locations, with 14 already fixed, seven under progress, and two awaiting work orders.

Environmental activist Diwan Singh, who has worked on restoring multiple water bodies in Dwarka, said unchecked mixing of sewage into stormwater drains can destroy revived ecosystems. “In 2023, we lost the entire fish population in a revived pond in Dwarka’s Sector 23. Sewage began flowing through a stormwater drain connected to the pond, reducing dissolved oxygen levels and killing all aquatic life,” Singh said.

HT had earlier reported on May 27 that several drains being cleaned under Delhi’s pre-monsoon desilting drive showed signs of sewage contamination. In some cases, workers were seen entering these stormwater drains without protective gear, exposing themselves to hazardous conditions typically associated with manual scavenging.