After heavy rains on August 19 in the National Capital Region, the Aam Admi Party, which rules Delhi, released a video captioned ‘Water Park Gurgaon’ taking a dig at the waterlogging situation in the BJP-ruled neighbouring city. However, if Gurugram was a water park that day after incessant rains, the story was similar in the national capital with many roads turning into water channels.
With the clouds clearing and the civic officials working overtime, the waterlogging across the region has been cleared-- for now. The problem of deluge across the NCR lies in the model of development, which is not naturally sustainable.
In last five years, it’s the third time that Gurgaon was overrun after heavy rainfall. On July 28 in 2016, 48 mm of rain in a period of one hour and 15 minutes had resulted in a 16-hour and 25km-long jam on the Delhi-Jaipur National Highway. The road could only be opened after taking emergency measures including the imposition of Section 144 of CrPC asking people not to venture out. The millennium city witnessed another, but less severe, deluge two years later on August 28.
Though the situation was less dire this time, the flooding of Gurgaon, or the NCR, during the monsoons is here to stay. Be it in Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, Noida, Faridabad, or parts of the national capital, such inundation has become a regular occurrence. And nobody is asking why. People rather forget the trauma as soon as the rainy season is over.
The cause of the deluge in Gurgaon is traceable to urbanisation which devoured a whole river. The Sabi river was the sole source of natural drainage in the area flowing through villages like Ghata, Gwal Pahadi, Behrampur, Maidawas and Nangli en route to Badshahpur. According to people working towards retaining natural topography of the NCR, in 2010 the riverine land of Sabi was included in R (residential)-zone of the city’s Master Plan 2025.
The river’s flat dry bed used to absorb the water from the monsoon showers. In case of heavy rainfall, its course took the flow to Nazafgarh drain, and onward to the Yamuna. Today, the river is a covered drain with a road running over it. No wonder, it has repeatedly proved inadequate in taking the load of heavy rainfalls. Sabi river started from Aravalli hills in Rajasthan and flowed through Rewari and Gurgaon before joining Yamuna through Nazafgarh canal in the national capital. So, when it rains the river overflows the embankments of the drains it has been forced to flow through.
NCR’s eastern suburbs —Ghaziabad and Noida— face the same fate for similar reasons. The residents of Karera village in Ghaziabad point to the construction of a bridge on the Hindon river. For the 800m-long bridge connecting the Hindon Expressway with Karera Road, an embankment was raised across the river changing its course. This was done to create the township of Raj Nagar Extension. Such floods in the life of a river can never be ruled out. If Gurgaon faced deluge this time, Noida-Ghaziabad could face it next. It’s just matters of chance where the clouds decide to drop their load.
Sidharth Mishra
Author & president, Centre for Reforms, Development & Justice