Choked nullah in Taimoor Nagar the source of flooding in SE Delli

Parts of Friends Colony, Maharani Bagh and New Friends Colony in southeast Delhi were inundated because of heavy rain over the weekend. But what made matters worse was water backflowing from drainage pipes at several places, and gushing into homes.

- Paras Singh

 

All the underground drainage pipelines in these colonies end up in what is supposed to be a 20-feet-wide drain abutting the Eastern Avenue Road. This drain, however, progressively gets narrower, reduced to a width of barely 4-5 feet near the slums of Taimoor Nagar due to accumulated filth and unchecked encroachments. This creates a massive chokepoint, resulting in water flowing back into the colonies from where it originated.

On Saturday and Sunday, the unusually high rainfall and lack of a proper outlet combined to create massive problems in the entire area -- so much so that pump operators could find no place to dump the water they were drawing out, officials aware of the matter said. When HT visited the spot on Monday, it found that the “outfall drain”, a lifeline for the drainage system of this part of Delhi, was covered with a thick layer of plastic bags, floating containers, food wrappers, and domestic waste bundled in bags – defying claims of monsoon preparedness and desilting. Then, there were encroachments along its sides, gradually impeding the flow of water.

But first, the lay of the land: A narrow lane off the arterial Eastern Avenue Road (parallel to Mathura Road) runs into Taimoor Nagar. Here, an open drain, Taimoor Nagar nullah, locally known as “nullah road”, runs parallel to Taimoor Nagar, which is made up of an urban village one side and two slum clusters on the other. All the smaller drains from across the planned colonies in the vicinity lead to the Taimoor Nagar nullah, and the water is then supposed to flow directly into the Yamuna.

On Monday, the impact of the mess cause by the blockage was visible across the entire basin.