Delhi: Rains Claim Four Lives; Streets Waterlogged and Houses Collapse

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal claimed government agencies were unprepared for the monsoon due to their focus on containing the COVID-19 pandemic.

New Delhi: As the Indian capital’s first heavy rainfall on Sunday claimed four lives and resulted in the collapse of at least 10 houses, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal blamed the lack of preparation for the onset of monsoons on the government utilising all its resources to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

The monsoons had reached Delhi two days earlier than scheduled, on June 25. But, it had remained deficient. Until Saturday, the Indian Meteorological Department said that Delhi had recorded 56% less than normal rainfall. However, Sunday’s rainfall recorded over 74 mm in a few hours, which tilted Delhi into the surplus category for this month.

While traffic came to a standstill on waterlogged main roads, viral videos show terrifying visuals of houses collapses in a slum area in Anna Nagar, in central Delhi.

While no deaths were reported in the collapse, the video shows a deluge of water washing away entire houses.

A resident of one of those houses, Pushpa, told ANI that the flowing waters were rushing towards a low ditch, which led to severe erosion. “My house vanished as if it never existed,” she said.

Four deaths

Kundan Kumar, a 56-year-old resident of Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand, was driving a mini truck towards Connaught Place when his vehicle got stuck in the swirling waters under Minto Bridge. With his vehicle entirely submerged in the deluge, Kumar drowned and his body was found floating by an employee working at the nearby railyard.

Waterlogging at the colonial-era bridge is a perennial feature of Delhi monsoons, with photos of buses and smaller vehicles submerged being a regular in city pages of newspapers.

A senior official at Delhi government’s public works department (PWD) told the New Indian Express that the underpass under the bridge is located in a very low-lying area and that drains are unable to handle the load of frequent flooding.

“Pumps and drains in that area are very old, which makes it difficult to drain out rainwater even after desilting. Other major reasons for water logging at Minto Road or any other place is due to the non-separation of road drains and other residential, industrial drains,” he said.

The youngest victim of the rains was an eight-year-old boy who fell into a roadside ditch in southeast Delhi, PTI reported.

The third person killed was a 28-year-old man. As per police, the man fell into a pothole outside his scrap selling shop in south Delhi, where water was three feet high. He was rushed to the All India Institute for Medical Sciences but was declared brought dead.

Another 56-year-old man in north Delhi died after he slipped on the road and hit his head on an electric pole.

The New Delhi Traders Association posted photos and videos of water-logged shops in Connaught Place, one of the most expensive real estate in Delhi. “Is this smart city,” the association asked.

No unified plan

Delhi with its plethora of civic bodies, from the PWD to municipal corporation, had previously claimed to have achieved “100%” desilting by June end. As per the Times of India, the capital city has 11 civic agencies supervising the drainage system, which is over 3,738 kilometres long.

With jurisdictional issues, many drains are not de-silted due to a lack of a unified plan. “In some colonies, our smaller drains lead to larger drains managed by PWD and the irrigation and flood department and water is not getting an outfall point,” a senior official of South Corporation told the newspaper.

Further, highlighting the lack of implementation of Delhi Drainage Master Plan 2021, the Times of India reported that 50% of the drainage system is intermixed with sewerage lines.

Political blamegame

Meanwhile, former cricketer and East Delhi BJP MP Gautam Gambhir shared pictures of waterlogging and tweeted, “Heard that Delhi government is running rainwater harvesting scheme on London-Paris like roads. When will the advertisements be seen Kejriwal ji.”


Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta said Kejriwal had promised to make Delhi like London and Paris but in reality, people are unable to step out due to waterlogging.

Water-logging was also reported at the Youth Congress office on Raisina Road.

Delhi Congress president Anil Chaudhary said the rainfall “unmasked” the faulty working of both the ruling AAP and the BJP-ruled municipal corporations.

“The swelling water of drain at Anna Nagar near ITO swept many houses,” he said after visiting the affected families.

Kejriwal, however, said that this was not the time for any “blame-game over waterlogging” as all agencies have been busy combating the coronavirus.


“This year, all agencies, be it Delhi government or MCD, were busy containing COVID-19. They faced many difficulties due to the coronavirus. This is not the time to blame each other. All have to fulfil their responsibilities together. Wherever there is logging, we will try to pump out the water immediately,” he said on Twitter in Hindi.

In a statement, AAP spokesperson and Delhi Jal Board vice-chairperson Raghav Chadha claimed that the water-logging problem has been a “huge issue” but in the last 2-3 years, after the AAP government came to power, the situation has “drastically changed”.

(With PTI inputs)