Delhi floods: Residents in Jaitpur wait for water to recede

Thousands of houses in south-east Delhi remain submerged with waist-level water, causing residents to evacuate and leaving their belongings at risk of destruction. Relief camps have been set up and social workers are distributing food and supplies. The flood caught many residents off guard, causing damage to important documents and leaving them homeless. The relief centers are providing food, water, and medical supplies.

In south-east Delhi, thousands of houses in areas such as Jaitpur Extension, Vishwakarma Colony, and Khadda Colony remained submerged with waist-level water on Friday. Residents, who vacated their houses on Wednesday and Thursday, said that the lanes in front of their houses were submerged due to which they could not assess the extent of damage.

National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel rescue people at Jaitpur khadda colony. (Sunil Ghosh)

Several residents have pitched makeshift tarpaulin tents apart from arriving at the relief camps on the Jaitpur-Kalindi Kunj road. Social workers were also seen distributing food in stalls on the stretch.

Kavita, 20, a resident of Vishwakarma Colony who moved out of her house on Wednesday to the relief centre at the neighbourhood government school along with her family, said that most of the things at their house will now likely be destroyed.

“We were asked to vacate our house only on Wednesday and did not get the chance to carry anything with us. All important documents will be destroyed. The water level has reduced a little but we will have to procure fresh documents,” said Kavita, who goes by her first name.

“Earlier, I used to live in Jasola. I moved to this neighbourhood nearly two years ago and had no idea that the area was flood-prone. We were sleeping when the water level started increasing steadily on Wednesday morning. We ran outside to save our lives, but even then we never anticipated that the situation would render us homeless for days. I had kept documents under the mattress and they must be destroyed by now,” said Guddo, who goes by her first name.

At the relief centres, besides food and water, medicines were also provided by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s (MCD) health department. Provisions were in place for mobile ambulances as well.