Yamuna surges to seasonal high of 204.40 metres amid heavy rains in Delhi, inches close to 'danger' mark

Screen grab: X/PTI

The Yamuna in Delhi touched 204.40 metres at 9 am on Saturday at the Old Railway Bridge, just shy of the warning mark of 204.50 metres, reported PTI. The flood control department and other agencies have been placed on alert to take precautionary measures to deal with any potential flood-like situation.

An official from the central flood room said the rising water level is primarily due to heavy water discharge from the Wazirabad and Hathnikund barrages.

Rainfall in the upper catchment areas of Haryana and Uttarakhand has also contributed to the increase. Wazirabad is currently releasing around 30,800 cusecs of water, while the barrage itself is releasing about 25,000 cusecs every hour. Water released upstream generally takes 48 to 50 hours to reach Delhi.

The warning mark for the Yamuna in Delhi is 204.5 metres, while the danger level is 205.3 metres. Evacuations are ordered if the level reaches 206 metres.

The Old Railway Bridge is a key observation point for tracking the Yamuna’s flow and flood risk. On Friday, the river’s level reached the season’s peak of 205.15 metres at 3 am, coming close to the danger mark. The water level began receding from 5 am, dropped below the warning mark by 8 pm, and continued to decline through the evening.

Bhim Singh Rawat, associate coordinator at the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, told the Times of India that this was the first time this season that the Yamuna’s flood level in Delhi had not only crossed the warning mark but also approached the danger level.

He said the halt in rainfall in the upper catchment areas rules out immediate flood risk, but noted that the river has seen historic flood spells in the late monsoon months.

According to Rawat, the recent flood spell has allowed the Yamuna to flow freely, restoring its hydrological functions and flushing out toxins dumped in it throughout the year. “While the effluents generation is ongoing and treatment plants continue to perform poorly, the river is stink-free and has improved water quality. This underlines why floods and flows are essential for its revival in Delhi,” he said.

However, he flagged several concerns: the absence of low or medium-scale flood events this season, increasing diversion of river flows even during the monsoon, and the unusual breach of the warning level in Delhi despite insignificant upstream flows.

He also pointed out that in the past two days, the water level exceeded forecasts twice, indicating unquantified flows entering the Yamuna through seasonal rivers and drains downstream of the Hathnikund Barrage, as well as a gradual rise in the riverbed level in Delhi.