New Delhi, (BLAZETRENDS) hundreds missing and thousands trapped.
The worst part of this devastation has been taken by the state of Himachal Pradesh, where at least 88 people have died since June 24 and another 16 remain missing, the regional disaster management authority reported Thursday.
Added to this are 100 injuries, as well as the loss of half a thousand head of cattle and the complete or partial destruction of more than 750 homes, according to a regional government report that estimates the cost of the damage at around $160,000.
Himachal Pradesh has recorded 271.20mm of daily rainfall since the beginning of July, almost triple the 94.5mm it received on average at this time of year marked by the arrival of the monsoon in India.
10,000 tourists trapped
This has caused landslides and floods that have damaged roads and cut off various points in this predominantly mountainous region, where “approximately 10,000 tourists remain trapped,” the region’s head of government, Sukhvinder Singh, announced on Twitter today.
In recent days, the authorities managed to rescue more than 60,000 people who had been stranded, even using army helicopters, Singh added.
Neighboring Punjab has also received twice as much rainfall so far in July, which has caused flooding and a dozen deaths in the state, the regional finance minister, Brahm Shankar Jimpa, told the Indian news agency ANI yesterday.
Added to this balance are 185 Israeli citizens who are missing in northern India and who do not respond to attempts to contact them by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Israel’s deputy ambassador to India, Ohad Naksh Kiner, went to Himachal Pradesh yesterday to tour the disaster area by helicopter and try to make progress in the search for the missing.
Water scarcity in New Delhi
Heavy rains have also thrown New Delhi into chaos, causing the Yamuna River that runs through it to overflow its banks and flood parts of the metropolis.
The level of the river reached 208.60 meters today, according to the head of the Government of the capital, Arvind Kejriwal, after yesterday exceeding the danger mark and the highest rise ever recorded for its waters in 1978, which was 207.49 meters. .
This has caused the closure of various water treatment plants and supply failures, which led the regional government to announce a rationing of drinking water for the inhabitants.
“Due to the rising water level in the Yamuna River, the Wazirabad, Chandrawal and Okhla water treatment plants have to be shut down. So there will be water problems in some areas of New Delhi,” Kejriwal told the media.
In addition, he announced the closure of “all schools, colleges and universities” in the capital until Sunday, and the obligation for all non-essential government employees to work from home until the situation improves.
The flooding of the river has led to the evacuation of 6,000 people from the lower areas of the city, although the waters have also reached other iconic points in the capital such as the Red Fort.
Despite the fact that this city of 22 million inhabitants has not suffered heavy rains in recent days, the water level continued to rise due to high levels of water being released by a dam in the neighboring state of Haryana.
The Meteorology Department (IMD) warned in its latest bulletin of extreme rains in the states of Uttarakhand (north), Meghalaya (northeast), Bengal (east), Sikkim (east), western Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh (north ), and in coastal Tamil Nadu (south).
Heavy rains cause significant personal and property damage in South Asian countries every year, especially during the monsoon period between May and September.