Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena on Friday wrote a letter to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal listing 11 reasons that caused massive floods in the national capital this year and suggested a slew of measures to prevent them in the future.
In a 13-page letter, the LG said that out of the 44 km of Yamuna in Delhi, the 22 km stretch from Wazirabad to Okhla has 18 major obstructions inside the river, which resulted in impeding the free flow of water.
“Lapses on the part of the government include outdated and inaccurate level-based discharge computing table held by Delhi Jal Board to compute the discharge at Wazirabad barrage and unprofessional practice of the government departments of not clearing the construction and demolition (C&D) and other waste from bridge construction sites that obstruct the free flow of Yamuna,” the letter read.
Saxena also held a heavy accumulation of silt in Yamuna over the last several years and lack of desilting was one of the reasons for floods in Delhi.
“Najafgarh drain, which brings the maximum discharge from the city into the Yamuna, is filled with silt and garbage to the tune of 108 lakh metric ton. This severely affects the water holding/carrying capacity of this 57-km-long channel,” he wrote.
Saxena also suggested a single nodal agency to be made for the upkeep of the river. He added that two agencies – CPWD and PWD – should work together to ensure hassle-free drainage from Rajghat and Samadhi Complex, which were “embarrassingly inundated” last month.
In the letter, mentioning measures to prevent floods in the national capital in the future, the LG said permanent ownership of Yamuna river stream must be assigned to one department. He suggested 11 short-term and six long-term measures to avoid a similar disaster in future.
Other measures suggested by the LG include sustainable desilting of Yamuna, Najafgarh drain, drainage master plan of the city and advanced flood management plan for Yamuna bazar and other low-lying areas.
Meanwhile, in a 7-point rebuttal, Delhi water, irrigation and flood control minister Saurabh Bhardwaj said the problems in the Yamuna occurred due to Saxena’s decision to implement “an innovative method” to desilt drains, which deposited huge quantities of silt in the river, reported Hindustan Times.
There were projects under the L-G that were being carried out without any details being shared with the elected administration, Bharadwaj claimed.