Yamuna water level to recede to 206.72m by tonight: Central Water Commission

The India Meteorological Department issued a yellow alert for the weekend, saying they expected light to moderate rain

NEW DELHI: The Yamuna receded to 207.53 metres at 9 am on Saturday, down one metre from the peak of 208.66 metre on Thursday evening, the highest in recorded history but parts of the capital across six of the 11 districts are still inundated.

A view of the flooded Sector C of Tronica city after flood water from river Yamuna entered Loni in Ghaziabad on Friday (HT Photo/Sakib Ali)

Officials said the water level of the Yamuna, which was at 207.98m on Friday at 10pm, receded by 0,45 metres over the 11-hour period. But there is concern about the impact that heavy to very heavy rainfall predicted by the weather department over Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh for the next five days will have. The India Meteorological Department has issued a yellow alert for the weekend.

For now, the Central Water Commission forecast said the water level will continue to recede and will reach about 206.72 metre by 9-11pm tonight. It will still be much higher than the Yamuna’s danger level mark of 205.33 metre.

Delhi’s busiest intersection at ITO was virtually empty on Saturday morning as the arterial Vikas Marg feeding it continued to be flooded and was shut as a drain flowing into the Yamuna fed back flood waters after a flow regulator failed. The entrance to Rajghat is also still flooded. Large parts of the city’s key roads continue to remain closed and have limited the roads that can be used by commuters to travel to east Delhi, Noida and Ghaziabad.

Referring to the receding water level, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said the situation will soon become normal if there are no heavy rains. “We have started draining water from the Chandrawal and Wazirabad water treatment plants. The machines will be dried and can start by tomorrow,” he said in a post on Twitter.

Weather officials of the India Meteorological Department issued a yellow alert for the weekend, saying they expected light to moderate rain which, experts separately added, could worsen the flooding.

“Normally, such spells are not sufficient to lead to an increase in the water level, but we are likely to see waterlogging across the city as most drains are currently full and have no outlet. The stormwater drains could start spilling out, with them taking longer than normal to drain out,” said Bhim Singh Rawat, a Yamuna conservation activist and member of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People.

Despite the water level receding since Thursday, thousands of houses in parts of six districts -- East, North East, South East, Shahdara, North, and Central district -- are still submerged. Several important roads including the large parts of Ring Road, Vikas Marg, Bhairon Marg, continued to remain closed due to flooding. Over 25,000 people have been rescued so far and most of them are staying in temporary camps erected on higher grounds and government buildings.

The flood water is still accumulated on large stretch of the Ring Road near Kashmere Gate, behind the ramparts of the Red Fort, bungalows in Civil Lines, Manju Ka Tila, Monastery Market, Bela Road in central district; Mukherjee Nagar, Adarsh Nagar, Kingsway Camp, Haqiqat Nager, Jindpur, Budhpur, Mukhmelpur, Swaroop Nagar in north district; Usmanpur Village, Garhi Mendu, Badarpur Khadar, Pakistan Refugee Camp, Colony Near Old Iron Bridge, Sriram Colony, Khajuri Khas in north east district; Vishkarma Colony, Dhobi Ghat Joganai Batma House, slums of Millenium Depot at Sarai Kale Khan, slums of Gayaspur Jain Mandir, and Beholpur Near Shamshan Ghat in south east district; and parts of Geeta Colony in Shahdara.