Heavy rain in Northwest India, Delhi braces for possible flooding

The discharge from the Hathnikund barrage, upstream of Delhi, peaked at 2.51 lakh cusecs at 2 pm on Saturday. Having crossed 1 lakh cusecs at 9 am, the hourly discharge remained at over 2 lakh cusecs from 10 am to 5 pm. It had fallen to 1.73 lakh cusecs at 7 pm. The usual discharge from the barrage in dry weather is around 352 cusecs. When the levels rose past previous records last week, the peak discharge had been 3.59 lakh cusecs.

Kuldeep Srivastava, scientist, India Meteorological Department (IMD), said that the heavy rainfall over some parts of northwest India was because of a western disturbance and easterly winds bringing moisture to the region. “In the western Himalayan region, this activity is set to continue over the next four-five days. Rainfall activity over northwest India could increase after around three days since the monsoon trough is likely to move northwards,” Srivastava said.

Widespread rain, along with isolated heavy rainfall, is expected over Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand from July 23-26, and in Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi from July 24-26, going by an IMD bulletin issued on Saturday.

On Saturday, heavy to very heavy rainfall was recorded in parts of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

According to a communication from Revenue Minister Atishi’s office, the government is on alert following the discharge from Hathnikund. She said, “According to the latest update from the Central Water Commission, there is a possibility that the Yamuna river may cross the danger level by tomorrow evening.”

The water level at the Old Railway Bridge in Delhi was 205.06 m at 8 pm on Saturday, a little below the ‘danger’ mark of 205.33 m. The highest level that the Yamuna had reached last week was 208.66 m.

Atishi added that certain parts of the Yamuna Khadar might face flooding if the water level rises to 206.7 m and that the government is prepared to carry out immediate evacuations in these areas.

Bhim Singh Rawat, associate coordinator of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, said, “We have seen that though discharge was not very high last week, it caused unprecedented flooding. Considering the recent discharge, it could have some impact, though not on the same scale as before.”