Delhi has been ravaged with unprecedented floods. The rise in the water level of the Yamuna river is supposed to be the main contributing factor to the flooding which is dependent on the release of the water from the Hanthikund barrage in Haryana. But this happens regularly in every monsoon. Then why is Delhi witnessing flooding this year?
According to reports, the water released from the Hanthnikund barrage this year took less time to reach Delhi in comparison to previous years.
Its velocity was high probably because of the encroachment of the floodplain leaving a constricted route for the water to pass. High siltation elevating the riverbed could also be another factor contributing to Delhi flooding without rain.
Delhi witnessed extreme rain last week as the Capital recorded the wettest July day in 40 years last Sunday (Delhi recorded 153 mm of rain, the highest since the 24-hour rainfall of 169.9 mm on July 25, 1982).
In the words of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi’s systems are not prepared to take such a huge volume of rain. If the same amount of rainfall took place over days, the situation would not have worsened.
This shows that extreme weather events due to climate change are causing havoc even in places where the rainfall is not known to be high.
Coupled with unprecedented heavy rainfall is the problem posed by encroachment and siltation. Earlier, the overflowing water would have had more space to flow. Now, it passes through a much narrowed pathway.
The Delhi flood situation has become a political flashpoint with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal shifting the blame to Haryana’s release of the water from the Hathnikund barrage. Kejriwal wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah seeking Centre’s intervention to slow the water flow from Haryana towards Delhi.
But this is not the time to play the blame game. It is less about politics and more about misgovernance, which has allowed encroachments of water bodies despite loud protests from environmentalists.
Floods in Delhi represents the situation we see across India every monsoon, courtesy rapid and unplanned urbanisation.
Our multiple freshwater sources are under stress now due to the growing demand on account of increasing population, negligence, pollution, and exploitation.
Increased incidence of high intensity rainfall in short duration, is mainly responsible for urban floods which is further compounded by unplanned growth, encroachment of natural water bodies, poor drainage system, etc. The first-ever census report on water bodies undertaken by the Ministry of Jal Shakti was released recently. The report provides valuable insights into the water bodies in India by providing important information such as the size of the water body, usage, status of encroachments, storage capacity, and recovery works, among others.
The report defines encroachment of water bodies as the illegal entry into the defined boundary of the water body for various human activities like construction, agriculture, etc.
Out of the 24.24 lakh water bodies enumerated in the census, a total of 38,496 water bodies, or 1.6% were reported as encroached.
State-wise data reveals that Uttar Pradesh had the greatest number of water bodies encroached, with 15,301 followed by Tamil Nadu with 8,366. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have also recorded more than 3,000 encroached water bodies each.
Delhi, which is witnessing acute floods, has about one in four water bodies encroached. Out of 893 water bodies, 216 or 24% have been encroached.
In Goa there are 1,463 water bodies, of which eight have been encroached.
Numerous studies have multiple times highlighted how the damage during floods and cyclones is huge because of poor planning and encroachment of water bodies that affect the drainage of excess water, especially in cities where encroachment is widespread.
Ironically, there is no proposal under consideration of Government of India for setting up a national level regulatory mechanism to check encroachments of water bodies.
We can’t control weather events. But we can and have to control human-induced disaster by preventing encroachments, deforestation of hills, else we Indians will continue to meet watery grave every monsoon.
According to a report in 2021 by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction,79,732 people lost their lives and 108 crore people were affected in 321 incidences of natural disasters in India between 2000 and 2019.
Already, over 100 people have lost their lives due to flash floods in North India and the season has just begun. How many more lives will be lost due to human greed and government apathy?
