South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People
(Feature Image: Yamuna river near ISBT, Delhi on Aug. 23, 2026. BS Rawat/SANDRP)
In the third month of the 2026 southwest monsoon season, we have been able to document rivers breaching their respective Highest Flood Levels (HFLs) at least at 10 Central Water Commission (CWC) flood monitoring sites. These sites are spread across five river basins and four states mainly in central and east India.
Continue reading “Rivers Crossing Highest Flood Levels in August 2026”(Feature Image: Screen shot of CWC’s FF website taken on June 11, 2026)
Fundamental problems continue to plague Central Water Commission’s (CWC) flood monitoring work. In the latest such incident, its main Flood Forecast (FF) website remained inaccessible for over a week, right at the beginning of the forecast season.
As per a CWC presentation at the annual flood preparedness conference on May 2, 2026, it has a network of 1543 hydrological observation stations & 360 flood forecasting stations including 201 level forecast & 159 inflow forecast stations covering 20 river basins in 27 states & UTs.
Continue reading “CWC Flood Forecast Website Failure at Start of 2026 Monsoon Season”(Feature Image: Screenshot of IMD River basin wise cumulative rainfall map dated 30.09.2025 showing the Yamuna basin)
This report presents monthly rainfall figures during South West (SW) monsoon season 2025 for 16 districts located in 4 states of Himachal Pradesh (3 districts), Uttarakhand (3 districts), Haryana (5 districts), Uttar Pradesh (5 districts) which forms parts of the upper Yamuna basin. The India Meteorological Département (IMD) has divided Delhi in 10 divisions which entirely comes in upper Yamuna basin and the report has rainfall figures for entire Delhi area.
Continue reading “2025 South West Monsoon in Upper Yamuna Basin”In Oct. 2025, we could find at least 06 flood monitoring sites of Central Water Commission (CWC), where rivers have crossed their Highest Flood Levels (HFL) after the end of South West Monsoon season 2025 on Sept 30 2025. Of the 6 sites, 2 each are in Brahmaputra basin in W Bengal and Ganga basin in Bihar. 1 site Anantharam on Musi river in Telangana is part of Krishna basin and 1 site Marella on Gundlakamma river in Andhra Pradesh is part of East Flowing Rivers between Mahandi and Pennar basin.
Continue reading “India’s Rivers in Extreme Floods in Oct 2025”(Feature Image: Ichari (Koti) Dam on Tons river in Dehradun in empty condition in first week of Sept. 25)
In the South West Monsoon 2025, the Yamuna river witnessed 3 flood spells in a span of two weeks between Aug. 17 and Sep 1. In the first and medium scale flood spell, hourly discharges crossed 1 lakh cusecs for 12 hours on Aug 17 and 1,78,996 cusecs flood was recorded at 16 hour at Hathnikund Barrage (HKB), in Yamuna Nagar, Haryana.
In the second and low scale flood spell, river received above 50,000 cusecs discharges for 21 hours on Aug. 29 with the peak volume of 83,774 cusecs at 16 hour. In the final and first high scale flood spell, hourly water volume in the river crossed 1 lakh cusecs for about 129 hours beginning at 4.00 hour on Sep 1 till 12:00 hour on Sep 5, and 3,29,313 lakh cusecs was recorded as peak flood volume at 9:00 hour on Sep 1.
Continue reading “Did Ichari, Vyasi Dams Influence Yamuna Floods in 2025?”This is the summary report of Highest Flood Levels (HFL) breach incidents which we could document from CWC’s flood monitoring website during South West Monsoon Season 2025. The monthly reports for HFL breach incident for July 2025, August 2025 and September 2025 can be seen by clicking the hyperlinks and the detailed final report can be seen here. SANDRP’s previous reports on the subject can be seen here: HFL breach incidents in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 (I), 2021 (II), 2022 (I), 2022 (II), 2023, and 2024.
Continue reading “Rivers in Extreme Floods During SW Monsoon 2025”(Feature Image: Yamuna river in severe flood at Mawi site in Kairana, UP on Sept. 02, 2025)
We have been able to observe river attaining new Highest Flood Level (HFL) at least at 18 flood monitoring sites of the Central Water Commission (CWC) in the last month of South West Monsoon 2025. These 18 sites are spread over 7 States & UT, including Jammu & Kashmir (6 sites), Maharashtra (4 sites), Uttar Pradesh (3 sites), Haryana (2 sites), Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka (1 each site) comprising 5 river basins including Indus (6), Ganga (6), Krishna (3), Tapi (2) and Godavari (1).
Continue reading “Rivers Flowing in Extreme Floods in September 2025”In the third month of South West Monsoon season 2025, we have been able to track at least 23 flood monitoring sites of the Central Water Commission (CWC) where the respective rivers have crossed their Highest Flood Level (HFL). These 23 sites are spread over 5 river basins -11 sites in Ganga basin, 9 sites in Indus basin & 1 each in Mahi, Godavari and Krishna basins.
Continue reading “Rivers Crossing the Highest Flood Levels in Aug 2025”(Feature Image: NDRF team gazing at flooded relief camps at Yamuna bazar, Delhi)
In first week of September 2025, Yamuna river in Delhi has again witnessed another unusual flood spell. This is happening two years after the river recorded unprecedent flood event in July 2023. This report compares the July 2023 flood with the one in Sept 2025 underlining the probable factors making these deluges uncommon and man-made flood disaster.
Continue reading “Sept 2025: Why did Yamuna Repeat July 2023 Like Flood Spell in Delhi?”(Feature Image: Formation of artificial lake in Bhagirathi river at Harshil, Uttarkashi)
After 11 days since the Dharali disaster unfolded in Bhagirathi valley Uttarakhand on August 5, 2025, an artificial lake formed on Bhagirathi river has been removed to some extent by the joint team of concerned departments on Aug 16, 2025 noon. The lake was formed after the Tel gaad partially blocked the Bhagirathi river at Harshil about 2.5 km downstream of Dharali.
Continue reading “Dharali Disaster: Bhagirathi River Blockage Partially Removed”
