Amid allegations and counter-allegations over the Yamuna’s water level rising in Delhi due to release of water from Hathinikund barrage, Haryana Education Minister Kanwar Pal said that huge loss could have been caused by not releasing excess water from the barrage. The minister said, when there is a flood or heavy rains and we do not release the excess water from the barrage, there can be a huge loss as has been seen in Himachal Pradesh and also in our state in the last few days. There is no option but to leave the water. If we stop the water then the situation will be disastrous. Pal said that Hathinikund does not have a system to store a large amount of water like a reservoir. He said that if water is kept in the barrage after the permissible limit, then there can be a huge loss.
Water should be released from Hathinikund barrage at a limited speed
For information, let us tell you that a day earlier, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had written a letter to the Union Home Minister requesting him, if possible, to release water from Hathinikund Barrage in Haryana at a limited speed. He also pointed out that Delhi is going to host the G20 summit within a few weeks. Due to torrential rains, the water level in the swollen Yamuna in Delhi reached 208.48 meters today and water entered nearby roads, government and non-government structures/buildings and people living near the river had to move to safer places.
Section 144 applicable in flood prone areas
With the situation worsening every hour, Kejriwal appealed to the Center to intervene and the Delhi Police imposed Section 144 in flood-prone areas to prevent gatherings of four or more people. Meanwhile, officials said that at 10 am today, the water inflow from Hathinikund barrage in Yamunanagar in Haryana was 1.62 lakh cusecs, which is much less than the inflow on Tuesday morning. On Tuesday it was around 3.21 lakh cusecs.
Saw thousands of cusecs of water flowing
Explaining the technical aspect of the barrage, Ravi Mittal, Superintending Engineer of Hathinikund Barrage said, the main difference between a dam and a barrage is that water can be stored in a dam but it cannot be held in a barrage. It is a diversion of sorts where we have limited control. He said, there is no reservoir in the barrage and we do not have any system to hold the water here. Even if there is a few thousand cusecs of water in the barrage, it has to be released into the Yamuna river. After the recent heavy rains in Himachal Pradesh, we saw thousands of cusecs of water flowing.
