‘We spent night on roads with no food or power’: Bawana residents hit by canal breach
Residents living on the ground floor were suddenly under three to four feet of water, amid floating utensils and furniture. The elderly and children relocated to adjoining roads, having higher elevations, where they spent the rest of the night
New Delhi
Over 2,000 families living along the periphery of the Munak Canal in Bawana woke up around midnight to loud noises and cries for help as water from a 50-foot-wide breach in the canal channel — that carries over a third of Delhi’s water supply — gushed into their localities.
Residents living on the ground floor were suddenly under three to four feet of water, amid floating utensils and furniture. The elderly and children relocated to adjoining roads, having higher elevations, where they spent the rest of the night.
The worst hit were blocks J, K, L and M of Bawana Colony. They were completely submerged and dewatering pumps from the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), flood control department and Public Works Department (PWD) were pushed into operation. They were still pumping out water from the residential areas, as of late Thursday.
The submerged areas comprise narrow lanes and three to four-storey brick-mortar buildings, where people from low-income groups live. The area is flanked by high-rise DDA flats on one side and the Narela-Bawana waste-to-energy plant on the other.
Sitting with a hunched back, near a dewatering pump in Block L, 72-year-old Jai Mala Devi said that she woke up around 12.30am to loud notices and hurried knocks on her main door. “People were banging doors asking others to get out. I heard something was damaged. When I went down to the ground floor, utensils were floating in water. There was no rain, but the whole area was flooded. I quickly woke others up, but power supply had not been cut off yet... so, we waited to avoid risk of electrocution. Now, we have been stuck on this road for more than 17 hours,” Devi said.
Monu Namdev, 28, Devi’s neighbour, who works as a carpenter, said the flow of water was so forceful that initially, it felt as if a river was flowing in the lanes. “In no time, we were in waist-high water. The main problem was to get the elderly and children out of water in the dark. Those on upper floors remained indoors but thousands of people were forced to spend the night on road, with no power, water or food,” he said.
Block M, which is located right next to the point of breach, in Budh Vihar, was severely impacted.
Rakhi Devi, 26, said her entire family was out for a marriage ceremony near Burari and when they returned home, the whole area was submerged. “We came back around 3am after all the marriage rituals only to find that a mini-flood had struck home. Our documents, ration and furniture on the first floor have been completely damaged. Guests staying at our home are also stuck, with no water or food. All of us spent the night on road, with hundreds of other people,” she said.
Her brother, Umesh Kumar, 18, who works as a mobile repair technician said children could not sleep the entire night. “Last nights, boats were also deployed to rescue elderly people. We have been making turns to bring food and water. More pumps should be deployed,” he said.
Om Prakash, 27, who works as an LIC agent, said the pumps came too late and hardly any arrangement was made in the first 12 hours. “Most of the people who were stuck were rescued by locals. The administration was too slow to respond,” he said.
Residents also shared purported videos in which a local is seen warning about a water leak from the canal which may lead to soil erosion, warning that low-lying ground in the area was already getting filled with leaking water over the past two days. HT could not independently verify the authenticity of the video.
However, water minister Atishi denied any possibility of leakage or seepage, leading to the canal breach. “It is clear that there was no leakage. We can see that in this 8-10 ft wide embankment, there is no moisture and if there was a leak, the soil would have been wet. We will carry out an inquiry if there has been any foul play as we cannot see any evidence of seepage in the embankment.”
During a spot check, HT found that eight large dewatering pumps mounted on tractors were pumping out water from the affected areas around 4pm, but the water level was still at two to three feet in many parts. A Delhi Jal Board tanker was deployed to provide drinking water.
Bawana MLA Jai Bhagwan Upkar, who was inspecting the site, said that no one was injured in the flooding episode and the administration was mobilising all available resources to dewater the area. “The whole colony will be free of water by night. We are sending water tankers to provide drinking water. By the evening, the SDM will be arranging food for the affected people. Locals have also come together to arrange langars (community kitchens),” he said.
DDA officials said that field staff rushed to site to take immediate remedial measures and water is being drained by temporarily puncturing the existing stormwater drain, in coordination with NDRF, MCD, SDM Narela, DJB, public representatives and residents. “Resources, such as JCB machines, dewatering pump, drinking water tanker and mobile toilet have already been deployed at the location by DDA,” the agency said.