Delhiites, who are reeling under intense heat wave as the temperature in the Capital hovered around 42.6 degrees Celsius, woke up to a long power cut on Saturday morning even as the issue of water scarcity begins to trickle in some parts of the city. The bad news is that the temperature is likely to go few notches up with no likelihood of rain in days to come.
“The temperature in the afternoon reached 42.6 degrees C along with strong heat waves. With no possibility of rain in the upcoming days, temperature is likely to shoot up and reach 43 degrees C by Monday,” said an official in the Met Department. People had to sweat it out as the maximum temperature was few degrees above normal, and humidity oscillated between 22 and 67 per cent.
Areas across East, West, North and South Delhi faced two to four hours outages in the early hours of the day. Okhla faced the maximum of four-hour-long power outage. Areas like Seelampur, Mustafabad, Jhilmil, Khajuri Khas, Yamuna Vihar and Bhajanpura in North-East Delhi also witnessed three to four hour long power cut. In East Delhi, Mayur Vihar and Preet Vihar faced two hour outages. Karol Bagh too faced two-hour-long power cuts.
“There is no power in our area for about two hours this morning. The problem has been persisting for about a few days now. It is an extremely difficult situation, as we have to face outage for long duration in this blistering heat,” said a resident of Mayur Vihar. MET department is predicting a clear sky in the days to come. While the minimum temperature is expected to be at 25 degrees C, the maximum temperature is likely to shoot up to 43 degrees Celsius.
“The mercury is inching higher by the day. It has become a havoc to step outside the house. Evenings are relatively cooler but in the afternoon it’s nearly impossible to travel from one place to another in this scorching heat. Moreover, it is just the beginning of summers, we still have to deal with the ordeal of June, July and August,” said Kishore, a resident of Saket. The outage had a domino effect which led to severe water shortage as well in many areas of the Capital. The technical snag has led to the city grappling with major water crisis. The residents waited for hours to get the water supply back as the sun shone bright keeping the humidity level at its peak.