Despite Delhi bearing the brunt of heavy rainfall in the upper reaches such as Himachal Pradesh this monsoon season, environmental experts say that the city is witnessing flooding because of several man-made factors such as illegal construction on the floodplains of the Yamuna.
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Experts told The Hindu that apart from illegal structures by private persons, religious sites such as the Akshardham Temple and infrastructure projects like Outer Ring Road have come up on the floodplains.
“The Delhi Secretariat, Commonwealth Games Village, Akshardham Temple and Outer Ring Road have been built on the floodplains. Despite notices being issued by the agencies concerned against the construction of the Akshardham Temple, it was built,” said Depinder Singh Kapur, director of the Water Programme at the Centre for Science and Environment.
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The river has become narrow owing to concrete structures on the floodplains, especially in the 5-km stretch between Civil Lines and Okhla, leading to flooding in these areas and parts of east Delhi, Mr. Kapur said. He added that the current crisis should serve as a warning against concretising riverbanks in the name of riverfront development projects.
‘Problem is in Delhi’
Bhim Singh Rawat, associate coordinator, South Asia Networks on Dams, Rivers and People, pointed out that though there are six flood monitoring stations between Hathnikund in Haryana and Old Railway Bridge in Delhi, the Yamuna waters breached the Highest Flood Level (HFL) only in Delhi.
“This shows that the problem is in Delhi. In 1978, more than 7 lakh cusecs of water was released from the Hathnikund barrage and the water level in Delhi was only 207.49 metres. Now, only 3.59 lakh cusecs was released, but the water level went up to 208.66 metres. This shows that there is more flooding in Delhi though less water is coming to the city,” Mr. Rawat said.
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He also held that “official encroachments” by governments and “unofficial encroachments” by people were responsible for flooding in the city.
“Carrying out construction on the floodplains obstructs the natural flow of the river. So, when the flow increases, the river recaptures its original flow area, flooding these areas,” Prasoon Singh, a fellow at Climate Change Division, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), said.
Mr. Singh said dredging to remove silt and planned water diversion channels are possible solutions to the problem of flooding, but they can be implemented only after conducting proper studies on them.