Delhi's flood preparedness tested as Yamuna water level nears 1978 record, thousands evacuated

The Yamuna river in Delhi surged to its third-highest level on record on Wednesday, inundating major arterial roads and residential areas and prompting the evacuation of thousands of residents.

The river crossed the critical 207-metre mark by 1 pm on September 3 and continued to rise throughout the day, peaking at 207.43 metres by 10 pm. This level is the highest seen since the historic floods of September 1978 and has led to widespread disruption across the capital.

Key areas including sections of the Ring Road, Outer Ring Road, Civil Lines and Sonia Vihar were submerged, severely impacting traffic on the crucial stretch between Majnu ka Tilla and the Salimgarh bypass. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi was forced to halt cremations at the Nigambodh Ghat and the Geeta Colony ground due to flooding. Residential neighbourhoods such as Vishwakarma Colony in Jaitpur and the Monastery Market in Civil Lines also saw river water entering the streets, according to a report by TOI.

The flooding was driven by a massive and sustained release of water from the Hathnikund Barrage in Haryana. Discharges, which are typically below 50,000 cusecs, escalated dramatically to 1.6 lakh cusecs by 3 pm on Wednesday and further increased to 1.78 lakh cusecs by 7 pm. This surge was a direct result of intense rainfall in the upper Yamuna catchment areas in the Himalayas.

Authorities have been engaged in a significant rescue operation. The East Delhi District Magistrate and nodal officer for the flood situation, Amol Srivastava, stated that National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams were deployed across the southeast, central and east districts. He confirmed that between 10,000 to 12,000 people have been rescued so far, with relief camps established at 38 locations. While over 2,000 people are using permanent shelters, the remainder are being housed in tents, with numbers fluctuating as some evacuees choose to stay with relatives.

A separate localised flooding incident occurred in southwest Delhi’s Jharoda Kalan, where a breach in the Mungeshpur drain, a subsidiary of the Najafgarh drain, left the Geetanjali Enclave area under neck-deep water late on Tuesday night, necessitating simultaneous rescue efforts.

There is a glimmer of hope for a near-term respite. The India Meteorological Department has forecast that the intensity of rainfall in Uttarakhand is likely to decrease from Thursday onwards. IMD senior scientist Krishna Kumar Mishra stated that a significant respite from the extreme rainfall is expected over the Himalayan region and adjoining plains, potentially easing the upstream flow into the Yamuna.

The Central Water Commission anticipates the river will rise slightly further to approximately 207.48 metres by 8 am on Thursday, a level perilously close to the 1978 record, TOI reported. The flooding recalls a previous major event in July 2023, when the Hathnikund barrage released over one lakh cusecs for five consecutive days. The discharge peaked at a record 3.59 lakh cusecs that year, leading to severe inundation that saw the Yamuna's waters reach the walls of the Red Fort by July 13.

Officials from Delhi’s irrigation and flood control department were cited by TOI as saying that they are better prepared for this event than during the devastating floods of 2023, noting that all gates of the ITO barrage are open and important regulators are securely closed, addressing the technical malfunctions that exacerbated last year’s crisis.