Delhi Rained In: Floods Unlikely, But Govt Prepared; Not the Time for Blame Game, Says CM Arvind Kejriwal

With incessant rain wreaking havoc in the national capital and water threatening to cross the danger mark in less than 24 hours, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said this was “the time to work together and not to point fingers or indulge in blame game”.

Kejriwal chaired an emergency meeting of all ministers, officers, mayor and officials of the flood control department to review the preparedness. He ruled out the possibility of floods in the national capital, adding that “the rainfall in Delhi and, more importantly, the water that is released from the Hathnikund barrage in Haryana” are the two factors that need to be taken into consideration.

Noting that the amount of water released on Sunday morning was 45,000 cusecs, and Sunday night was 300,000 cusecs, the CM said there was a downward trend with 250,000 cusecs of water released on Monday morning.

Relying on the central water commission’s predictions and weather forecast, Kejriwal said that while in Delhi, the water level was 203.58 m on Monday morning, it will reach 205.5 m on Tuesday morning. “There is a very little chance that the water level in Yamuna will rise steeply in the coming days. It does not appear that there will be any floods in Delhi, according to predictions made by the experts,” said the chief minister.

THE PREPAREDNESS

Kejriwal also said that in the unlikely situation of floods, the government is prepared. As soon as the Yamuna water level touches 206 m, the process of evacuation of approximately 41,000 people people living in the floodplains into relief camps will begin.

A total of 680 pumps of the Public Works Department (PWD), 326 temporary pumps and 100 mobile pumps have been pressed into action, along with leveling of potholes across Delhi to prevent accidents, cleaning mouths of drains, halting construction work and deployment of additional personnel at vulnerable traffic points to prevent jams.

The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has been asked to prepare a special plan so that the situation witnessed in many VVIP areas, where flooding was reported in the past couple of days, does not recur. The Delhi government had also instituted an inquiry into the caving in of roads across the capital.

TIME TO WORK TOGETHER: KEJRIWAL

“The whole of North India has seen unprecedented rain. It is being said that in some places such heavy rainfall has been witnessed in four decades and in others, in 50 years. Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Chandigarh, Punjab are reporting similar news. Understandably, people are facing difficulties…All the affected governments in North India are working to provide relief to people. All governments, people and parties must work together to provide relief,” Kejriwal said.

The CM said: “In 24 hours, between July 8 and 9, Delhi received 153 mm of rainfall. Delhi witnessed such heavy rainfall after a gap of 40 years, after the 170 mm in 1982. The system of Delhi is not designed to deal with this kind of rain.”

Noting instances in the past years when rainfall in Delhi had breached the 100-mm mark, the chief minister said although some parts in Delhi were submerged, the situation had returned to normal within a few hours and Delhi had managed a rainfall intensity of 100 to 115 mm.

Going back to the floods in 1978, the chief minister noted that 700,000 cusecs of water was released from Hathnikund and water level had touched 207.49 m in the old Railway Bridge area. Following the various steps taken, in 2013, when 800,000 cusecs of water was released, the water levels in Yamuna rose to 207.32 mm, however, there was no flooding. In 2019, 828,000 cusecs of water was released and water levels rose up to 206.6 meters.

The chief minister thanked all MLAs, councillors across party lines, officers and ministers of the Delhi government and the mayor of Delhi for providing relief to people. However, he added: “Looking at the scale of the challenge, all efforts are proving less.”

INFRA PUSHED, STRETCHED: ATISHI

On Monday morning, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) minister Atishi, along with district officials, reviewed the relief and rehabilitation plan at the Yamuna Boat club. Speaking to CNN-News 18, Atishi said, “It is very clear that water levels in the Yamuna are rising. By tomorrow, Yamuna water levels would have risen by another 7-8 feet. So where we are standing today, this area would be submerged tomorrow .This means that a lot of area in the floodplains, where there is a fair amount of population, can potentially be submerged. The process for their evacuation and rescue needs to be assessed. We also need to plan that once they do are evacuated, where will they stay?”

Atishi said that more than 30,000 people need to be evacuated and the process of issuing warnings has begun. The minister also said that once the water levels rise further, evacuation will start. More than 50 relief boats have been stationed across the Yamuna stretch from Wazirabad barrage to Okhla barrage, covering three districts. These rescue boats are with the irrigation department, Irrigation and Flood department and various district magistrates.

When asked whether the situation could have been handled better, Atishi said, “Any plans for situations like this are based on climatic conditions of the past five years or 10 years. But the amount of rain that Delhi has seen has broken all records of the past four decades. A total of 150 mm of rain is a very serious climatic event. We were prepared for rain of about 100 mm. Yes, our infrastructure has been pushed and stretched. We are expanding our capabilities and the teams are working 24×7 to ensure that even if there is another round of 150 mm of rain, we should be able to manage it.”