Yamuna wanes slightly in Delhi, but threat persists
According to the CWC forecast, the water level of the river will continue to decrease incrementally and reach 207.3m at 8am on Friday
New Delhi
Areas along the course of the Yamuna continued to reel from inundation on Thursday too, two days since the 206-metre mark was breached in Delhi for the first time this monsoon, but there was some respite as data from the Central Water Commission (CWC) started showing a downtrend on the day, with the water level stabilising.
At 6am on Thursday, the Yamuna touched the highest level this season, of 207.48 metres. It remained at 207.48m until 7am, but then fell to 207.46m by 11am. By 7pm on Thursday, the water level at the Old Railway Bridge, which is considered the benchmark, fell to 207.42m and maintained it until 8pm. By 10pm, the water level receded to 207.4m.
The warning level of the Yamuna is 204.5m and the danger mark is 205.33m.
According to the CWC forecast, the water level of the river will continue to decrease incrementally and reach 207.3m at 8am on Friday. An Irrigation and Flood Control (I&FC) official said that the long range forecast by the CWC indicates that while the water levels will remain stable, they are likely to remain much above the danger level, causing waterlogging woes in the city with poor outfall.
{{/usCountry}}According to the CWC forecast, the water level of the river will continue to decrease incrementally and reach 207.3m at 8am on Friday. An Irrigation and Flood Control (I&FC) official said that the long range forecast by the CWC indicates that while the water levels will remain stable, they are likely to remain much above the danger level, causing waterlogging woes in the city with poor outfall.
{{/usCountry}}“More than 1.3 lakh cusecs of water is still being released from Hathnikund barrage. The long range forecast of the CWC shows that the river is likely to remain above 207m in the next few days,” the official said. With the water level high in the river, the regulators from drains remained closed on eight locations—Vijay Ghat, Tonga Stand, RME 180m, Metcalf, Qudsia, Drain no 12, 12A & 14, and Civil Military drain.
{{/usCountry}}“More than 1.3 lakh cusecs of water is still being released from Hathnikund barrage. The long range forecast of the CWC shows that the river is likely to remain above 207m in the next few days,” the official said. With the water level high in the river, the regulators from drains remained closed on eight locations—Vijay Ghat, Tonga Stand, RME 180m, Metcalf, Qudsia, Drain no 12, 12A & 14, and Civil Military drain.
{{/usCountry}}The river on Thursday morning was just 0.01m shy of the 207.49m level reached during the devastating 1978 Delhi floods, which led to several precautionary measures being taken and embankments being undertaken. The water level has only reached higher levels on two more occasions—in 2013, when it touched a high of 207.32m and in 2023, when it reached 208.66m, according to I&FC data.
The Capital has seen widespread evacuation drives across several locations over the past two days, including Old Usmanpur, Garhi Mendu, Yamuna Bazar, and Ladakh Budh Vihar Colony near Civil Lines. Evacuation also continued at the Pakistani Hindu refugee camp near Majnu ka Tilla, localities surrounding Nigambodh Ghat, Mayur Vihar floodplains, Geeta Colony floodplains, Madanpur Khadar and Jaitpur.
The water level in Delhi is directly linked to discharges from the Hathnikund barrage, located at the Haryana-Uttar Pradesh border. The I&FC department said that the discharge at the Hathnikund barrage was 136,844 cusec at 7pm on Thursday. The discharge from the Wazirabad barrage was 136,844 cusec at the same time and 244,478 cusec at the Okhla barrage, according to data by I&FC.
On Monday, the barrage recorded peak hourly releases of over 300,000 cusec, the highest this season. This was triggered by incessant rainfall in the upper catchments of the Himalayas and northwestern India.
By Wednesday, the Hathnikund barrage had filled to 99.99% of capacity by 11pm and its hourly discharge was between 158,000 and 184,000 cusec per hour.
During the record floods of 2023, the barrage maintained discharges above 100,000 cusecs for five consecutive days, peaking at 359,760 cusecs on July 11, 2023.
Despite the Yamuna levels stabilising, experts expressed concerns about the “trend of floods that the city has experienced”.
Bhim Singh Rawat, associate coordinator at the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), said, “The discharge from the Hathnikund barrage is still over one lakh cusec, but it might come down below one lakh by Friday. However, authorities should be worried about why we are seeing floods now, while in the flood of 1978, the discharge from the Hathnikund barrage was over 7 lakh cusec.”
In light of the Yamuna Bank Metro station being inaccessible, Rawat said, “When the metro station was being constructed on the Yamuna floodplains, we had raised concerns several times regarding encroachment of the floodplains. If official bodies themselves do not stop destroying the floodplains, the city must prepare for a flood disaster in the very near future.”