Choked nullah in Taimoor Nagar the source of flooding in southeast Delhi

On Saturday and Sunday, the unusually high rainfall and lack of a proper outlet combined to create massive problems in the entire area

Parts of Friends Colony, Maharani Bagh and New Friends Colony in southeast Delhi were inundated because of heavy rain over the weekend. But what made matters worse was water backflowing from drainage pipes at several places, and gushing into homes.

Taimoor Nagar drain filled with garbage and encroachments on one end. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

All the underground drainage pipelines in these colonies end up in what is supposed to be a 20-feet-wide drain abutting the Eastern Avenue Road. This drain, however, progressively gets narrower, reduced to a width of barely 4-5 feet near the slums of Taimoor Nagar due to accumulated filth and unchecked encroachments. This creates a massive chokepoint, resulting in water flowing back into the colonies from where it originated.

On Saturday and Sunday, the unusually high rainfall and lack of a proper outlet combined to create massive problems in the entire area -- so much so that pump operators could find no place to dump the water they were drawing out, officials aware of the matter said. When HT visited the spot on Monday, it found that the “outfall drain”, a lifeline for the drainage system of this part of Delhi, was covered with a thick layer of plastic bags, floating containers, food wrappers, and domestic waste bundled in bags – defying claims of monsoon preparedness and desilting. Then, there were encroachments along its sides, gradually impeding the flow of water.

But first, the lay of the land: A narrow lane off the arterial Eastern Avenue Road (parallel to Mathura Road) runs into Taimoor Nagar. Here, an open drain, Taimoor Nagar nullah, locally known as “nullah road”, runs parallel to Taimoor Nagar, which is made up of an urban village one side and two slum clusters on the other. All the smaller drains from across the planned colonies in the vicinity lead to the Taimoor Nagar nullah, and the water is then supposed to flow directly into the Yamuna.

On Monday, the impact of the mess cause by the blockage was visible across the entire basin.

In the immediate vicinity of the nullah, several basements were flooded. Local residents could be seen using water pumps to prevent seepage. And some households were busy building small barriers at their doorsteps to prevent a repeat of the mess created over the last two days.

Shiv Charan, who runs an electronics shop in Taimoor Nagar, said that, over last two days, the whole area has faced a flood-like situation. “We had to shift our goods to the first floor as water started entering the basements. Many godowns located on the ground floor have been flooded. There has been no clean-up of the drain this time,” he said, adjusting the pump that was being used to push the rainwater back into the nullah. “Luckily it’s not raining,” he added.

Further away, adjacent streets were still full of filth and silt from the weekend’s flooding.

Almost a kilometre away, in New Friends Colony, the residents were livid about the lack of water drainage and how no steps were being taken by agencies to flush out the drain. Chitra S Jain, general secretary of the New Friends Colony RWA (Ashoka Park), said that the nullah has been a natural drain for the region but the growth of two slums at Pahari 1 and 2, and the lack of waste management in the area have led to the only major outfall drain in the region being obstructed.

“The drain looks like a garbage dump. At places, it is just full of solid garbage layers. This is not a localised problem; this place gets water from as far back as Lajpat Nagar and Sriniwaspuri. The outfall is also at a lower level than the drain and when the water level goes up, the streets get repeatedly flooded,” Jain said.

Triveni Mahajan, secretary, RWA, Friends Colony, said that the choking of Taimoor Nagar drain is the root cause of flooding in the entire region. “We had basements in Maharani Bagh and houses in Friends Colony West getting flooded on the weekend. There is a rush of water right from Sriniwaspuri but the outfall in the Yamuna from this drain is blocked due to encroachments and garbage. This leads to backflow in the societies and flooding in basements and first floors. Only one hour of rain leads to a complete mess,” she added

Amit Bhagchandka, an RWA member and resident of Maharani Bagh, a few hundred metres on the other side of the drain, said that most houses located along the Eastern Avenue Road suffered from flooding over the weekend. “A couple of days ago, the MCD attempted to open the local drain but it has led to backflow entering our houses. It is a terrible situation,” he said.

Sumer Sarin, another resident the area, said that this stormwater drain has remained a major chokepoint that leads to flooding in Maharani Bagh and Friends Colony. “All that is required is to clean the drain. The flooding in these colonies is an annual event, and causes sewage to enter the homes, causing major loss of property,” Sarin tweeted, urging MCD mayor Shelly Oberoi to take action on the matter.

Oberoi did not comment on the issue.

Though the erstwhile South MCD constructed an eight-foot-high barrier wall around the drain in 2017 to prevent locals from throwing garbage in the drain, the practice continues. On Monday, HT saw that residents in Taimoor Nagar continue to bundle up their domestic waste disposing it of in the nullah. There are dairies that also operate there, dumping their waste into the waterbody freely.

At a section barely 500m away from the Eastern Avenue Road, the drain was barely four-feet wide, with encroachments in the form of slums, silt deposits along the banks, and a drainage pipe that was being used as a bridge to cross the nullah.

Md Wajid, 52, a local, blamed the MCD for the lack of garbage collection. “Where will people take their garbage? We were also affected in the deluge over the last two days. There was waist-deep water in some houses. No desilting has been done this year,” he said.

An MCD official, on his part, said that the affected 500m section of drain is overseen by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA). “We have repeatedly raised the issue with the DDA but the drain has not been cleaned properly. Two days back, we deployed our JCB to clear the blockages in the drain as pump operators were not able to pump out the water from neighbouring areas and all roads and drains were surcharged,” the MCD official said.

DDA officials did not respond to queries in the matter.

Area MLA Amanatullah Khan of the Aam Aadmi Party did not respond to calls and messages seeking comment.

Dr S Velmurugan, chief scientist and head of traffic engineering and safety division of the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), who is also a resident of the CRRI staff quarters at Eastern Avenue Road near Maharani Bagh, said that residents faced a terrible situation over the weekend as there was heavy waterlogging.

“This has become an annual problem. There may be choking at the Taimoor Nagar drain but the whole drainage system needs an overhaul. The size of drains along arterial roads like CV Raman Marg is simply not enough for the catchment area and even 15-20mm of rain leads to urban flooding,” he said.