Monsoon ready, claims Delhi civic body, police identify waterlogging prone spots

With the June 15 deadline set for civic bodies to be “monsoon ready” whooshing by, stakeholder departments have claimed that all preparations have been made -- a claim that will be tested by the upcoming rains

With the June 15 deadline set for civic bodies to be “monsoon ready” whooshing by, stakeholder departments have claimed that all preparations have been made -- a claim that will be tested by the upcoming rains.

Delhi traffic police has identified 211 points vulnerable to water-logging. This is a sizeable increase from just 30 such points in 2020 and 82 points identified in 2019. (HT FILE PHOTO)

Delhi traffic police has identified 211 points vulnerable to water-logging. This is a sizeable increase from just 30 such points in 2020 and 82 points identified in 2019.

On Friday, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) claimed that it has completed “101% of desilting work”, by removing around about 91,380.25 tonnes of silt from drains falling under its jurisdiction.

However, the figure of “more than 100% desilting” is mathematically inaccurate, said municipal officials themselves, while choosing not to be named. The three erstwhile municipal corporations too made similar claims in the past. The origin of these mathematically inaccurate reports lies in the flawed methodology of estimating the targets of silt removal, these officials said.

A senior MCD official involved in the process explained that this “over 100%” figures are the actual silt removal statistics, as estimated against targets that were set before the season.

“Season targets are just rough figures based on a visual survey of drains. Since the targets themselves are not precise, we obviously end up overshooting them,” the official said. The fact that such critical work is carried out based on rough approximations and visual surveys and not a scientific methodology is in itself a point of concern.

The public works department (PWD), which oversees 129 of the 211 vulnerable to water-logging sites, has also claimed that 100% desilting work has been completed. “Besides a few sites where desilting effort is affected due to ramps constructed by residents, we have completed our pre-monsoon desiltling exercise. The drive will continue all through the rainy season as flowing water pulls in silt from the catchment areas into drains,” a PWD official said.

PWD is also setting up a control room from where 13 critical water-logging locations such as Minto Bridge and Pul Prahaldpur, among others, will be monitored round the clock via CCTV cameras. “We have 128 pump houses and 597 permanent pumps to tackle water-logging and cross verification of all the pumps has been completed,” another PWD official said, asking not to be named.

Last year, Delhi had witnessed several short intense spells of rain with large-scale water-logging observed across the city.

In fact, in 2021, the capital witnessed its highest annual precipitation -- 1,512.4mm of rainfall -- on record since 1933, when it got 1,534.3mm of rain.

The city’s drainage system can cater to a maximum of 50mm of rainfall a day. According to officials, there are about 2,846 drains in Delhi with a total length of 3,692 kilometres.

“Besides the three major basins -- Najafgarh basin, Trans-Yamuna basin and Barapullah basin -- there are also some small drainage basins in Aruna Nagar and Chandrawal which flow directly into the Yamuna,” an official said.

PWD manages around 2,064km of drain network while the rest is overseen by the MCD, the irrigation and flood control department, Delhi Development Authority and the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), among others.

NDMC has also claimed that it has completed its first phase of de-silting drive. The council has set up six control rooms to tackle water-logging. “These control rooms are in Sangli Mess, Khan Market, Netaji Nagar, Malcha Marg, Mandir Marg and Hanuman Road. We have identified five vulnerable points --Africa Avenue, Baba Kharak Singh Marg, Panchkuian Road, Purana Quila Road and Lodhi Estate -- and 600 employees of the NDMC have been deployed at these centres with equipment, and permanent and portable pumps,” the official said.

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