Knowing Water Resources in India

Submitted by: Ayush P Gupta on Oct 13, 2016

Abstract: India is blessed with plenty of water resources which reflects the great
potential underlying in them. Its 69 years sice independence but still we havent much
utilised the total potential. In the following study we'll have a look at the total benefit
that can be extracted and subsquently compare it with the current utilization.
Introduction: India has abundant water resources which comprises about 4% of
global availability serving about 17% population of the world. India has second
largest available area in the world which is about 165 Mha. At present 55% of the
population depends on agriculture.
Annual Precipitation: India recieves about 1150mm of the annual precipitation
which is quite high compared to world avg of 840mm. Even though Cherrapunji
which recieves the world's highest rainfall(11,000mm) is situated in india, we are still
not able to manage it and every year before the commencement of monsoon we face
water scarcity.
River Basins: India has about 20 basins out of which 12 major basins and rest minor
ones. The total catchment area comprising major basin is 20,000 sq km. Ganga river
is having the largest basin in the country.
Surface Water Resources: In 1991, The National Commission for Integrated Water
Resources Development Plan had assessed India's water rsources as 195.29 Mhm of
surface water. According to Central Water Commission, the utilizable water resource
is 69 Mhm which is about 35% which is equivalent to 76 Mha of cropped area.
National Water Development Agency (NWDA) has proposed inter basin transfer
which would add 20-25 Mhm of additional potential. Also 16 Mhm of water resource
can be added by artificially recharging ground water technique.
Ground Water Resources: India has about 43.20 Mhm of ground water out which
39.56 Mhm is utilizable that corresponds to 91% or equivalent of 64 Mha of cropped
area.
The total water resources in india (river flow plus ground water) is 238.49 Mhm and
the utilizable is 108.60 Mhm which is 45.53% of total resource.
Reservoirs: The total water in storages including tank, ponds is 42Mhm. Of the total
dams in the world, India shares only 9%. The storage capacity per person comes out
to be 9%.
Water Scarcity Limit: The 1000 cum per capita per year represents a general
scarcity of water by World Bank below which water supply begins to disturb

economic development and human well being. At present, this limit is 1500 in India.
Problems: The projected population of india in 2050 is about 1650 million and if we
consider the present water availability then the water scarcity limit is 680 cum which
is less then 1000. Hence India will face a severe water scarcity problem in future.
With the scarcity, the agriculture and hence food problem will arise.
Remedies: Hence if we want to have adequate supply of water then the government
must take steps to prevent the scarcity problem. For this GoI has setup NWDA
(National Water Development Agency) in 1982, whose main objective is to propose
the plan of interlinking of various river bodies to prevent wastage of resources. About
65% of the total water is wasted in the form of rivers draining into sea. Hence if we
could divert this water to water deficit areas then we can easily tackle the drought in
various parts of the country. NWDA has proposed three interlinking ptojects . First,
Ganga-Brahamaputra -Cauvery linking. The Second is Interlinking of Peninsular
Rivers and the third is diverting the west flowing rivers to the east. All these three
proposals are feasible and workable.