Delhi on edge: Yamuna at 3rd highest level in 63 years; discharge from Hathnikund spells more trouble

NEW DELHI: As heavy discharge from Hathnikund barrage continued to push water levels up, Yamuna crossed the 207-metre mark in Delhi at 1pm Wednesday. By 10pm, it had swelled to 207.43m - the third highest level reached since systematic record-keeping began in 1963 - inundating numerous villages and areas such as Ring Road, parts of Civil Lines, Bela Road, and Sonia Vihar, among others, and displacing around 12,000 people.Central Water Commission expects Yamuna to rise further and touch 207.48m by 8am Thursday, very close to the mark of the historic Delhi floods of Sept 1978.Read also: Delhi-NCR Rains Live UpdatesFlood waters reached Ring Road and Outer Ring Road, impacting traffic between Majnu ka Tilla and Salimgarh bypass. MCD stopped cremations at Nigambodh Ghat and the Geeta Colony ground due to flooding.River water also entered Vishwakarma Colony in Jaitpur and Civil Lines' Monastery market, while a simultaneous rescue operation continued at southwest Delhi's Geetanjali Enclave in Jharoda Kalan. A breach in Mungeshpur drain, a subsidiary of Najafgarh drain, flooded the area with neck-deep water late Tuesday night.How discharge from Hathnikund barrage has spelt trouble for DelhiDistrict magistrate East Amol Srivastava, the nodal officer for the flood situation, said NDRF teams were deployed based on requests made by the southeast, central, and east Delhi districts. “Between 10,000 to 12,000 people have been rescued so far, with the number of people in tents fluctuating as some leave to stay with their relatives. Relief camps have been set up at 38 locations. While over 2,000 people are in permanent shelters, the remaining are in tents,” said the official.On Wednesday, Hathnikund barrage in Haryana released about 1.6 lakh cusecs of water at 3 pm, up from 1.1 lakh cusecs late Tuesday night, following intense rainfall in the upper Yamuna catchment in the Himalayas. The discharge rose to 1.78 lakh cusecs by 7pm, Wednesday. The usual discharge at Hathnikund barrage is less than 50,000 cusecs.The India Meteorological Department has forecast some relief, with rain intensity in Uttarakhand likely to decrease from Thursday onwards, potentially easing the flow upstream.“Today (Wednesday) is the last day of extreme weather conditions in Uttarakhand as by Thursday onwards we expect a gradual return to normalcy. Significant respite from ongoing extreme rainfall conditions is expected over the Himalayan region and adjoining plains of Haryana, Punjab, Delhi and UP. But over eastern Rajasthan, rainfall will continue over the next three days,” said IMD senior scientist Krishna Kumar Mishra.In July 2023, when Delhi saw its worst floods, the discharge from Hathnikund had remained well above 1 lakh cusecs for five days, while the peak discharge was observed at 3.59 lakh cusecs on July 11. The city was flooded by July 13, 2023, with water reaching Red Fort.Officials at the irrigation and flood control department, Delhi, however, said that they are better prepared this time, with all ITO barrage gates open and important regulators closed. In 2023, while a regulator at ITO broke, five ITO barrage gates were also jammed, impacting the flow of the river.