Necessity of transbasin water transfer - Indian scenario
Date
2001-06
Authors
Singh, Nirmal Jot, author
Khurana, A. K., author
U.S. Committee on Irrigation and Drainage, publisher
Journal Title
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Abstract
Transbasin water transfer is an important activity in the field of water resources development. Although a river basin is the basic hydrologic unit for water resources, the same may not work out to be a proposition for optimum utilisation in the case of surplus water. The assessment may bring out that some basins have surplus water whereas the others may have deficit supplies. The National Water Policy was adopted by the Government of lndia in the year 1987. The policy emphasises the transbasin transfer of water. The policy states "Water should be made available to water short areas by transfer from other areas including transfers from one river basin to another based on a national perspective, after taking into account the requirements of the areas/basins". For meeting the shortages, transbasin transfers of water may be necessary. The necessity of transbasin transfers will depend upon the future projections for the enhanced demand for irrigation, domestic, industrial requirements etc. Considering medium variant, the population of India in the year 2050 AD is expected to be 1640 million as per "Sustaining Water - An Update (1994)" by the United Nations. The food requirement has to be worked out on the same basis. At present, the annual food grain production in India is about 200 million tonnes. This annual requirement of food grain would increase to about 500 million tonnes by the year 2050 AD. Accordingly, it is imperative to have transbasin transfer of water so as to facilitate increased irrigation to meet the food grain production needs and other usages etc. It is considered that the population of the country may stabilise by that time. Transfer of water from surplus basins to the deficit basins will to some extent solve the problem of uneven spatial distribution of water resources in the country. For attaining this, it is envisaged to construct large reservoirs to store monsoon flows for diversion. The main issues are economics, time frame and environmental. The more important issue is the concurrence of States of a basin on its surplus and the extent of such surplus. Finally, the integrated planning at the basin level takes into account all demands, which will indicate the quantum of surplus or deficit.
Description
Presented at the 2001 USCID water management conference, Transbasin water transfers on June 27-30, 2001 in Denver, Colorado.