Delhi has been stricken by flooded streets for days.
The first town plan for Delhi after Independence, first drawn up in the 1960s, had a fatal flaw, one that has only been exacerbated over the years in the run-up to the crisis today when much of the city finds itself flooded, an expert town planner has told NDTV.
In an interview with NDTV, AK Jain, the former Commissioner of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), said that "Delhi's first master plan after Independence was drawn up in 1962" and it made a "mistake" by treating the flood-prone Yamuna region as an "empty lot."
"Delhi has been built and rebuilt many times over the last 1,000 years," said Mr Jain, but in its development, the city has faced a long-standing geographical challenge: "There's a river on one side and a ridge on the other. Delhi has always been settled between them."
British architect Edward Lutyens recognised the flood risk of the Yamuna banks when the British decided to make Delhi the capital. Despite his concerns that the site was "flood-prone and susceptible to malaria outbreaks," construction proceeded because "King George V had already laid the foundation stone."
In the following years, numerous infrastructural projects were built in this vulnerable area, including a ring road, power stations, and buildings like the Indira Gandhi indoor stadium, the Delhi secretariat, a Delhi Transport Corporation Depot, and landfills. "That's why you see the ring road was flooded this time," Mr Jain explained.
The area was eventually classified as Zone O, an area of about 100 sq km, that was to be preserved with no further construction allowed. Despite this, "nearly 100 unauthorized colonies have come up" in this zone, expanding Delhi's footprint into these risky areas, the former DDA commissioner said.
Mr Jain said that recent developments in the city's master plan have further exacerbated the problem. The new plan suggests that the Yamuna region will be regulated to 63 sq km, and the rest of the area, where unauthorized colonies have emerged, will be regularized, reducing the area of the river by 40 per cent.
"This will make floods like this more intense," warned Mr Jain, also stating that the drainage system of Delhi has to be entirely revised. "The water is not receding because a lot of drains are experiencing backflow because the water level in the river has risen," he explained.
The city's present drainage system, designed in the 70s for a population of 30-35 lakh, is now overwhelmed by today's population of 2 crores. Mr Jain underscored the urgency of expanding the drainage system and reimagining rainwater as an asset that should be allowed to seep into the ground. "For this, the built-up area has to be kept at a minimum," he said.
For nearly a week, large swathes of Delhi have been inundated because of the highest river levels in 45 years following unusually heavy rainfall, much of it flowing in from the neighbouring state of Haryana.
This has led to evacuations, swamping historical monuments, inundating roadways, and causing at least three reported deaths due to drowning. Authorities and relief personnel battled over the last two days to open jammed floodgates and repair broken drain regulators to manage the water levels.