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Business News/ Industry / Agriculture/  Rs3,679 crore National Hydrology Project gets cabinet clearance
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Rs3,679 crore National Hydrology Project gets cabinet clearance

The project will inform the public about how much water is available and assist farmers in planning their crops and other farm-related activities

Photo: Indranil Bhoumik/MintPremium
Photo: Indranil Bhoumik/Mint

New Delhi: The cabinet on Wednesday cleared the 3,679-crore National Hydrology Project (NHP) that aims to collect hydro-metrological data across India and use it for efficient water management in the country. The scheme will help address the water crisis in the country. The project will inform the public about how much water is available and assist farmers in planning their crops and other farm-related activities.

Data would be collected using various information systems and technologies, including remote sensing. Briefing reporters on the cabinet decision, telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the decision was taken to collect and store national hydro-metrological data on real time and digitize it for proper forecasting of water availability. The project has been approved keeping long-term prospects in mind, the minister said. The water resource assessment will inform farmers about the ground water position to plan their crops and promote efficient use of groundwater at the village level.

It will also help develop a real-time flood forecasting model so that it does not result in sudden opening of gates which inundates the downstream area. It will also integrate water resource management by adopting a river basin approach through collation and management of hydro-meteorological data.

The government plans to use the data to increase the lead time in flood forecasting from one to at least three days, map flood inundation areas and assess surface and ground water resources in a river basin for better planning and allocation for Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) and other government schemes.

Half of the total NHP project outlay would come from a World Bank loan and would be repaid by the central government, while the remaining 50% would be in the form of budgetary support from the centre. The central funds would be passed on as grants to states and central organizations undertaking it.

A water ministry official said on condition of anonymity that it is not a new project and is the third phase of ongoing World Bank Hydrology Project. The difference in this phase is that now it has been extended from 13 states to across the country making it a national project.

“The idea behind it is to integrate all information about water in the country be it rivers, dams, reservoirs, surface water or ground water and then plan its management and usage. However, the problem is that water and rivers are a state subject. However, at central level what we can do is that based on these projections issue advisories to various states on usage of water in their respective territories. He added that under Phase II of this program which were conducted in various states like Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Kerala, Karnataka and other states it turned out to be successful and that is why it has been decided to expand the project to pan-India level.

However, water expert Himanshu Thakkar of South Asian Network on Dams, Rivers and People, a public advocacy collective of various organizations and individuals working in water sector says in India the problem is not of collecting data but its about governance issue.

No doubt, the NHP scheme is good, but none of the targets which the government is aiming at under it can be achieved because the decisions related to water are taken in a non-transparent way, with just a handful of officials involved in the decision-making process.

For example, if there are heavy rains and floodgates of the dam need to be opened, the specific dam committee would take the arbitrary decision. There are no standard operation procedures that they need to follow and its the public which bears the brunt. Himanshu pointed out that water budgeting has to be a multi-stakeholder decision involving the public only then the water management scenario can improve in India.

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Published: 07 Apr 2016, 02:20 AM IST
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