* Status of water resources in India Our annual water demands for all purposes in 2050 are estimated at 970 –1450 km3 as against the utilizable quantity of 1122 km3 from all sources; thus a precarious balance is forecast between demand and the availability of water, if all the utilizable water is used properly, which may not be possible at our present level of awareness conscience and commitment for development of our society/nation. This, we have to confess, is a distressing fact and sad and regrettable commentary on motivation and purposefulness of our people both urban and rural. It is estimated that the utilizable quantum of water can be increased by 250 k m3 through inter-basin transfer of water. Our National water policy also calls for inter-basin transfer of water from surplus basins to deficit basins depending upon the water status of the basins. It is essential that this giant hydrological issue should be carefully assessed from all the facts before launching. India, with rural and agro-based socio-economic structure with more than two thirds of her population of 105 million depending upon agriculture, more than 86% (266 M ha) area being rural out of the total geographical area of 329 M ha, and with the densely populated urban areas reeling under severe shortage of drinking water; cannot afford to neglect development of water resources. Even though our country is said to have adequate water resources, their distribution in time and space does not coincide with water requirements for irrigation and domestic and industrial purposes. Of the 4,000 km3 of water that occurs as precipitation, snowmelt etc. 1890 km3 is estimated as available resource. According to Reddy (2003), in-basin utilizable resource, after accounting for flood flows and topographical constraints, is estimated as 690 km3 of surface flows and 450 km3 of dynamic groundwater. The balance of 750 km3 of water should not be allowed to drain into the sea in view of the severe water scarcity in the large regions in the country. Rao (1973) opined that except the Himalayan river zone of Brahmaputra, Indus and Ganga and the south-western zone, no other zone in India is self-sufficient in water resources, and hence suggested interlinking of rivers as the main strategy to strike the balance in water distribution in the country. But the hydrological project has since been shelved without any due consideration. So much water had flown through Ganga, since then, till the Constitutional Head, the President of India, Abdul Kalam gave a shot in the arm early in 2003 to the issue of linking of rivers by suggesting to the experts in the related disciplines to look into the feasibility of the huge hydrological issue for equitable distribution of water resources in time and space to meet the perennial problem of water scarcity regions. Reddy (2003) remarked that the year 2003, marked by the UNESCO as International Year of Fresh Water, could well be the year of river linking for India. The comment seems appropriate, as the year witnessed the rejuvenation of the project as many arguments have been put forward for and against the inter-basin transfer of water. Rivers and their tributaries are the main channels of drainage surface water supply and ground water sources at least up to 20 km width along the banks. India has 13 major and 45 medium river basins. The latter have a basin area of 2,000 -20,000 km2 occupying 8% of the total basin area. The rivers are supposed to be serving 80% of population and contributing to 85% of river discharge. The basin areas of major rivers and their water resource availability are shown in Table-1 (MOWR 1999). The data show that around 58% of the area is under perennial-river basins (Ganga, Brahmaputra, Indus and Mahanadi) with more than adequate water, at least a part of the excess of which can be diverted to the water-deficit basins constituting 42% of the total basin area, to support the agro-based economy of the respective regions, and hence of the country.
Posted on: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 08:17:38 +0000
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