The Yamuna is rising again, threatening to enter city limits with more than six lakh cusecs of water being released into the river from Hathnikund barrage on Wednesday evening after heavy rainfall and inundation in Haryana and Punjab. However, environmentalists maintain that, of late, the “flooding” in Yamuna is more a case of encroachment on the flood plains.

According to official figures, the worst flood witnessed by the city was in 1978 when seven lakh cusecs of water was released from Tajewala dam in Haryana and the water level rose up to 207.49 m. Areas like Mukherjee Nagar had then seen boats plying on the roads and in some cases, people had to be evacuated using helicopters.
Of late, however, the “floods” in the city have begun occurring even when the water rises a metre above the 204.83 m danger mark.
For instance, in 2008, a flood warning was issued on August 16, while the peak water level of 205.71 m was recorded on August 20. By that time, the river water had flooded the entire flood plain between the Ring Road in west Delhi and Yamuna Pushta in east.
This year, in the first wave, the river reached up to 205.93 m. Again the low lying areas got inundated and people had to be evacuated. But, as far as near flooding of places like Akshardham and Commonwealth Games Village is concerned, environment conservationists say that it is a simple case of encroachment of the flood plains.
“Be it the Shastri Park Metro Complex, Akshardham, Yamuna Metro Complex, Games Village, Transco Ltd, and DND Flyway, they all have the potential of turning a medium level flood into an intense flood in terms of damage caused,” said an expert.
However, authorities have so far maintained that there is no threat to these structures as there are suitable embankments to keep the flood waters away.
Manoj Misra of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan said that what the authorities do not understand is that the carrying capacity of the river has been severely compromised.
“A 2005 report of the National Environment Engineering Research Institute clearly says that the river has lost its carrying capacity and hence its remaining flood plains should not be compromised in any manner,” said Mr Misra.