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By India Today News Desk: It was on September 6, 1978, when the Yamuna breached its danger mark and unleashed its wrath in Delhi. Various sections of the city, including posh colonies, witnessed the unfolding of a mega-disaster in the city.

Lakhs of people were dislodged from their homes as floodwater entered their homes and destroyed their buildings and belongings.

With every passing hour, the water level increased and, within a short period, it rose to dangerous levels, forcing people to leave their homes and shift to safer places.

Delhi had been facing such havoc after a gap of 100 years. With failed communication lines and dead telephones, the city was in a state of emergency.

Due to the imminent danger from the swelling water, people living in many areas of Delhi, including Maharani Bagh, New Friends Colony, Jamia Millia and Okhla, were advised to move to safer places.

The inevitable situation was caused mainly due to the 7 lakh cusecs of water that was released into the Yamuna from Haryana’s Hathnikund barrage.

Amid rising water levels, all the bridges over the Yamuna had to be closed due to high water levels and the armed forces were also deployed in the flood-affected areas of Delhi.

DELHI FLOODS SINCE 1900

Delhi has been affected by floods in 1924, 1947, 1976, 1978, 1988,1995, 2010 and 2013. However, the floods of 1978 majorly affected Delhi, taking half of the city under its grip.

At that time, the Yamuna was flowing at 207.49, nearly 2.66 meters above the danger mark at Delhi’s Old Bridge.

Breaking the 45-year record, Yamuna touched 207.81 meters on Wednesday, July 11, 2023.

CROPS DESTROYED

Along with the urban areas of Delhi, rural parts of the city were also affected by the 1978 floods. Kharif crops on more than 40,000 square kilometres of land were destroyed by the flood water.

In addition, 18 people lost their lives along with the loss of public property, which was estimated to be around Rs 10 crore. Lakhs of people were rendered homeless due to the flood.

Recounting the 1978 horror, one of the eyewitnesses — Devendra Singh — says that he had to take shelter in one of the safe places as flood fury wreaked havoc on his crops.

IAF DEPLOYED

During the mega-floods of 1978, relief camps were set up by the government to shelter people who were rendered homeless by the disaster.

The supply of relief materials was not possible by land because of flooded streets and roads. Hence, the then Indira Gandhi-led union government deployed Indian Air Force (IAF) choppers to drop food packets and relief materials among the flood victims.

Despite the government’s supply of relief materials, the relief camps faced a serious dearth of drinking water.

CRACKS IN DAMS

Initially, the danger mark of Yamuna was gauged according to the height of the old Delhi rail bridge, commissioned in 1866-67. Similarly, embankments were constructed to protect against low-intensity floods.

However, the maintenance work for the strengthening of embankments started between 1960-70. But, the entire maintenance exercise proved ineffective in 1978, as the embankments failed to handle the heavy flow of water caused by the downpour.

Due to high pressure, the embankments cracked at several places, which led to the seepage of water in the urban areas of Delhi.

SEVERAL PARTS INUNDATED

On the night of September 6, 1978, several parts of Delhi, including Model Town, Jahangirpuri, Indiranagar, Majlis Park, Gopal Nagar, Alipore, Mukherjee Nagar, Kingsway Camp, Delhi University, Adarsh Nagar and Civil Lines, were completely inundated in the flood water due to cracks in embankments on the left and right margins of Yamuna

Nearly 30 villages in North Delhi were also burdened with heavy rain-induced floods at the end of the monsoon season in September. In addition, Janakpuri, Vishnu Garden, Najafgarh and 72 nearby villages were affected by flood water due to a spade in the Najafgarh drain.

Government authorities issued warnings for the residents of seven colonies of North Delhi on the night of September 6 due to several cracks in the Shah Alam dam.

LESSONS LEARNT

After the havoc of the 1978 floods, the Delhi government initiated several corrective measures, including the construction of new embankments and repairing the old ones using concrete.

The measures taken by the Delhi government paid off during the floods of 2010 and 2013 when no cracks were observed in embankments during the floods amid the incessant downpour and rise of Yamuna’s water level (In 2013, the water level touched 207.32 meters).

However, the floods were caused by the backflow of water due to choked drains and sewers. Filth and stench had also blanketed several localities in the 2010 and 2013 floods as drain water mixed with the floodwaters.

YAMUNA BREACHES RECORD

On Wednesday, the water level in Yamuna touched the 207.89 mark, breaching the earlier record of 207.49 metres set in 1978. With the rising water level, the Delhi government has shifted 16,500 people to safe places.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has even written a letter to Home Minister Amit Shah and requested that the water release from Hathini Kund be reduced to prevent a further rise in Yamuna’s water level.

Amid the continuous release of water from Haryana’s Hathini Kund barrage, the water level of Yamuna is rising in Delhi, posing a danger of floods in the national capital.

WARNINGS DEPEND ON WATER LEVEL

Officials have divided the flood category of the Yamuna into Low, Medium or High intensity. The normal water level of Yamuna at Old Railway Bridge is 202.00 m (662 to 663 ft) during summers.

Low-intensity floods are declared when Yamuna’s water level remains below the danger mark — 204.22 m (670.00 ft). During low-intensity floods, the water level remains within normal limits and poses no danger to life and property.

Medium-intensity floods are declared when the water level crosses 204.22 meters but remains below 205.44 meters. In this category, the water level touches the embankments.

At this stage, the backflow of water starts in most of the drains falling into Yamuna, which leads to such regulation of drains by the operators. Round the patrolling also gets initiated at this stage to check embankments and pre-determined leak points.

Beyond 205.44 meters (674.00 feet), high-intensity floods are declared.

In this category of flood, proper care has to be taken for monitoring and maintenance with the deployment of Assistant Engineers (AE) and Junior Engineers (JE) for proper monitoring of the flood situation and patrolling.

At this water level, water branches off the embankments start entering the low-lying areas of Delhi.

(With Inputs from Rahul Chauhan)