All About the Yamuna Floodplains
Introduction:
- After getting a lot of rain, the Yamuna seems drowsy, slow, and swollen. Last week, the water levels rose to a 60-year high, sweeping through wealthy districts built close to the floodplains. For the first time in 50 years, water was a threat to the Taj Mahal.
Yamuna’s significance:
- Although rivers and floodplains are connected, we frequently discuss rivers in isolation.
- The river system includes both land and water. The Yamuna is essential to the existence of five States, and its floodplains provide energy.
- The Yamuna enters Palla Village in the east of Delhi and exits at the Okhla Barrage in the west.
- In the past, farmers have planted rice, wheat, and flowers on the fertile silt that the river has deposited close to the villages of Palla and Hiranki.
- The floodplains are two kilometres wide on either side. The 22 km of the Yamuna’s flow in Delhi have been classified as the O zone by the Delhi Development Authority. It covers around 9,700 hectares.
- Zone O supports a variety of eco-friendly, naturally based livelihoods.
- A river’s “right to expand” and the availability of its flood plains are essential for it to function. Attempts at concretization limit the object’s access to air.
- As a part of river systems, floodplains reduce runoff during floods, recharge the groundwater, and store excess water, all of which help to replenish the city’s water supply.
- Extra water that has been stored in the floodplain is released back into the river during the dry season when the flow is slow.
- Water storage capacity is lost if the floodplain vanishes.
- In Delhi, similar severe floods struck in 1978, 1988, and 1995, inundating floodplains and endangering the health of locals.
Delhi’s master plan’s general outline:
- The Yamuna floodplain was designated as a protected area exempt from construction in the Delhi Masterplan of 1962.
- The Central Ground Water Authority designated the floodplains as “protected” for groundwater management in 2000.
- The Yamuna floodplains are located in “Zone O” of the Master Plan for Delhi 2041, which divides Delhi into 18 zonal zones. The river zone, which is an active floodplain, and the riverfront, where permitted construction is allowed, make up this zone.
- The South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers, and People (SANDRP), which made this discovery in 2020, claims that the Yamuna floodplains and riverbed were “grossly abused” in most places.
- The regions included in the Yamuna Riverfront Development (YRDF) plan, which calls for biodiversity parks and “recreational” activities, were located inside an active floodplain where topography, pollution levels, and flood-carrying capacity might all be impacted.
- The layers of silt in the floodplains create aquifers that help the river’s path, which in turn replenishes the groundwater. However, intrusions end this two-way dialogue.
- In order to save the riverine ecology during monsoons, the river is unable to moisten the soil, deposit dirt along its banks, or carry flood waters downstream.
The purpose of the encroachments:
- Floodplains can provide protection from severe flash floods by allowing extra water to disperse and be stored.
- The river swells throughout any extended period of severe precipitation, increasing only in height until exploding with terrific force.
- Climate change has led to an increase in rainfall frequency and severity, as evidenced by the Yamuna floods, which saw runoff water arrive as a vast gushing flow in a brief period of time.
- Due to the fact that they transport silt, clean the riverbed, and renew the river itself, floods are an essential part of the hydrological cycle.
Moving forward:
- Floodplain zoning is not mentioned in the Master Plan, and the authorities have not yet accepted the river’s authority to expand.
- Due to this loophole and the poorly implemented restrictions, the river land is now available for both private and public real estate.
- A drafting of a law outlining floodplains and zoning was made accessible in 1975. There are now only four States that have written the National Floodplains Zoning Policy.
- It is possible to construct climate-resilient infrastructure, de-silt drains, create green spaces, and enhance drainage systems.
