Chandigarh: Haryana government sounded alert in several adjoining low-lying areas in the state after the water-flow of the Yamuna river swelled close to high-flood mark of 2.5 lakh cusecs due to the heavy rains in the region on Saturday.
According to information, the downpour in Himachal Pradesh and Haryana during the past 24 hours caused a rapid uptick in the river – from Saturday’s 87.17 thousand cusecs to 2.4 lakh cusecs at Hathnikund barrage in Haryana’s Yamunanagar district on Saturday morning.
The cusec water level criteria
For the record, the water-flow from 70,000 cusecs to 1.5 lakh cusecs is considered "low flood", from 1.5 lakh cusecs to 2.5 lakh cusecs to "medium flood" and crossing this mark is considered as "high-flood" situation.
According to official information, even though all the gates of the barrage were opened as per the guidelines of the Central Water Commission, it was a possibility that the flow of the water might recede in later hours in the wake of let-up in the rains.
The Hathnikund barrage
Nonetheless, the water discharged from Hathnikund barrage would reach Haryana's Karnal district on Sunday and would take around 72 hours to reach Delhi.
Pertinently, it is the second wave of the rapid increase in Yamuna river in less than a fortnight’s time as the water flow had reached 3.59 lakh cusecs on July 11, the highest of this year so far, thus flooding more than 60 villages of Karnal and Panipat districts and several other low-lying areas besides lower parts of Delhi.
Haryana Government issues alert
Meanwhile, the authorities have also sounded alert in the low-lying areas of the state.
Elaborating upon the rainfall, the weather department officials said Haryana’s Panchkula district recorded the maximum 71.5 mm rainfall till Saturday morning while Ambala district received 14.4 mm of rains till morning while Rohtak received 14.2 mm and Kurukshetra district recorded 12 mm rainfall till Saturday morning, weather department officials said.
Likewise, in Punjab, Rupnagar received a maximum of 34 mm rainfall followed by 32.6 mm at Amritsar, 32.8 mm at Gurdaspur and 25.5 mm in Fatehgarh Sahib while Chandigarh received 53 mm rainfall.
