1. Indian Water Resources – An Overview
Dr. K.V. Devi Prasad
Embassy of India,
Berlin

2. India -facts
Has many types of ecosystems – from deserts to tropical evergreen to alpine ecosystems
Total area >3.3M sq. km.
Population >1.1 billion
Population is young and growing
=> Demand for food and water increasing

3. India Projected growth
Economy expected grow rapidly
More than 7% p.a. in the last decade and a half
Population expected to grow to ~1.6 billion by
roughly 50% increase
Per capita growth rates are high

4. India – water resources at a glance

5. Indian Monsoon The largest weather phenomenon in the world
Creates a distinct “rainy season”
The rainfall is asymmetrically distributed
Creates periods of excess and periods of shortage in water availability
Even the rainiest place on earth can have water shortage for a short period!!

6. Rainfall in India from Rakesh Kumar, singh &Sharma 2005

7. Water – what the future holds!
Gross per capita water availability will decline from ~ 1820 m3 /yr in 2001 to ~ 1140 m3 /yr in 2050.
It was more than 5000 m3/yr in 1950!!
Total water requirement of the country for various activities around the year 2050 ~ 1450 k m3 /yr.
current estimate of utilizable water resource potential (1122 km3/yr)

8. The decline in water availability
From Mall et al

10. India – the land of Rivers
Rivers are the basis of everything
Rivers do not “drain” their catchments ; but they irrigate their deltas!!
Most food production depends on river water irrigation – especially peninsular India

11. Major River Basins of India

12. Anticipated water requirements sectorwise
[from Gupta & Deshpande, 2005]

13. Water Availability in Indian river Basins

14. What can be done?
Problem is complex and there can be no simple solution
Agriculture would still be the largest demand segment
Changes in Agriculture practice may help
Conventional rice farming requires ~1m per hectare per crop; Alternate wet & dry methods can save around 30%; SRI methods can save upto 50%

15. The way forward …. Conservation and reuse of waste water
Most of non-agricultural use degrades the quality of water
Poses the double problems of waste and pollution
Conservation is key success
Another area would be augmenting sources

16. Ground water recharge
Rain water harvesting and ground water recharge are now recognised as important
Mandatory in some urban areas
3 year deficient rainfall in Chennai in 2001,02 and 03 caused major problems
But it has downside
Water flow and sediment transport is important to oceans as well!!

17. Large dams??!! Would dams impounding water help/
Many criticisms of this approach
Interference to hydrogeology
Loss of biodiversity
Catastrophic failure
Sediment transport issues
Some deltas of the world are sinking!!
Rising seas and sinking deltas => human misery

18. Can we engineer on large scale
Some river basins have some water to spare
Can we transport water across the basins?
Costs?
Environmental consequences?

20. From Mishra et al. 2007

21. THANK YOU