It Is Easy To Blame Water From Hathnikund Barrage For Delhi Floods, But It Is Not The Real Cause

What caused the unprecedented floods in Delhi that saw water from River Yamuna even reaching close to the Supreme Court complex? The answer to this will depend on whom you are asking.

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Delhi government blames Hathnikund barrage

Since day one, the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi has been pointing fingers at the Hathnikund barrage, on the River Yamuna located in Yamuna Nagar, Haryana.

According to the Delhi Government, the release of water from the Hathnikund barrage to the Yamuna resulted in the river overflowing and flooding Delhi, even when there was very little rain in the national capital.

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AAP even went on to imply that the water was deliberately discharged from the Hathinikund barrage to the Yamuna River, resulting in the flood.

"In case of a flood, water is released from Hathnikund towards Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi in balanced quantities. But from July 9 to 13, all the water was released towards Delhi. Had water been released equally towards all the three states, the areas of Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh adjacent to the Yamuna would have been safe," AAP MP Sanjay Singh had said.

What Haryana government said

Haryana government hit back, saying that as per Central Water Commission (CWC) guidelines, water with a flow of over 1 lakh cusecs cannot be discharged into Western Yamuna and Eastern Yamuna Canals.

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"If the water flow in Hathinikund barrage is more than 1 lakh cusecs, the water will flow into Western Yamuna and Eastern Yamuna Canal due to large boulders cannot be discharged. This may damage the barrage structures, so the head regulator gates of the canals are closed and the cross regulator gates at the barrage are opened for free flow of water into Yamuna river," the DIPR Haryana said in a series of tweets.

Encroachment of Yamuna floodplains

While heavy rains upstream and the release of water from Hathinikund can be partially blamed, these are not the only reasons.

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A closer look at the pattern in which some of the high-profile areas that were flooded shows that they were built on the floodplains of River Yamuna.

The floodplains act as a natural buffer and absorb the excess water from the river when it is overflowing.

But the rampant encroachment of the floodplains for construction left it unable to perform its duty.

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The Yamuna River system's catchment covers parts of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Delhi.

2,480 hectares of Yamuna floodplain lost since 2009

The low-lying areas near the river in the northeast, east, central, and southeast districts, inhabited by around 41,000 people, are considered prone to flooding.

A study on "Urban Flooding and its Management" by the Irrigation and Flood Control Department identifies east Delhi under the floodplain region and highly vulnerable to floods.

Despite this, encroachment and development have occurred at a rapid pace in the ecologically sensitive region over the years.

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Letters exchanged between the Delhi Forest Department and the primary land-owning agency in the city, Delhi Development Authority, show that 2,480 hectares of land in the Yamuna floodplains have been encroached upon or developed since 2009.

How siltation is affecting flow of Yamuna

Along with the encroachment of the floodplains, experts also blame extreme rainfall occurring within shorter durations and silt accumulation that raised the riverbed for the floods in Delhi.

"The main reason could be encroachment and siltation. Earlier, the water would have more space to flow. Now, it passes through a constricted cross-section," a senior official at the CWC told PTI.

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According to Yashveer Bhatnagar, country representative of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the record water level in the Yamuna can be attributed to intense rainfall in the entire upper catchment area.

"Encroachment of the floodplains may have an incremental effect," he said.

Bhim Singh Rawat, the associate coordinator of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers, People (SANDRP), said the unprecedented rise in the Yamuna water level is due to riverbed elevation because of significant silt accumulation.

"More than 25 bridges within the 22-km river stretch from Wazirabad to Okhla obstruct the flow, leading to deposition of silt in the riverbed and formation of a lot of mid-stream sandbars," he told PTI.

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