New Delhi: July 13 marks two years since the floods of 2023 in Delhi, when the water level of the Yamuna went past the 1978 high of 208.66m. A large part of the city was submerged, with residents displaced and drinking water supply disrupted. Experts believe that the situation has remained almost unchanged since then, with little done to prevent similar floods.According to an analysis by South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), floodplain encroachment, silt and dam gate operations pose flooding threats. The analysis also questioned the Union jal shakti ministry report as well as the parliamentary committee report on the floods presented last year, stating that they did not address the problem adequately.The ministry constituted a committee headed by the chairperson of the Central Water Commission in Aug 2023, which submitted its report in Aug 2024. The report identified three reasons for the floods: “Very heavy rainfall spell for five days from July 9 to 13, 2023”, “Incorrect hydrological discharge data for Hathnikund Barrage, Wazirabad and Okhla barrages”, and “ITO barrage, lateral structures on Yamuna, encroachment in floodplain by legacy waste and siltation”.Prior to this, a parliamentary standing committee report was presented to both the Houses of Parliament on Feb 6 last year, saying 3.5 lakh cusecs of water were released from Hathnikund on July 11, 2023, and over 11.3 lakh cusecs from Wazirabad, causing the flood.“The ministry’s committee in its final report found heavy rainfall in the catchment, faulty operation of barrages and floodplain encroachments the main culprits. Since the ministry probe and even the parliamentary committee report addressed the reasons inadequately and offered no decisive actions, the freak episode deserves an independent assessment to find corrective measures,” said SANDRP.Calling it a “man-made disaster”, the report said the permanent encroachments on the floodplain were the most likely reasons for the floods. It also referred to TOI reports on Yamuna’s beautification and riverfront development, stating that by doing so, “Delhi is further losing its precious natural resource to commercialisation”.It said that the river course and floodplain had been already channelised by a huge number of existing cross-sectional and linear infrastructure projects, but similar projects were still being executed or in the pipeline. “The issue of sedimentation raising the riverbed level remains unaddressed,” the analysis added.SANDRP said the 20023 floods remained a puzzle and required an independent scientific investigation and corrective measures to avoid similar adverse events in the future. “At the institutional level, the questions of CWC failure, lack of coordination in the operation of barrages and absence of hydrological data of three barrages in Delhi remain unaddressed. Credible answers and course correction are needed,” said Bhim Singh Rawat, Yamuna researcher and associate coordinator, SANDRP.
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