(a) whether the Government has made any plan for water management in the States where rivers are in abundance;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) whether it is true that the rivers which remain filled with water during the monsoon day and immediately after the monsoon face shortage of water; and
(d) if so, whether the Government has quantified the extent of water that flows in vain in the water-surplus States during the monsoon days and if so, the details thereof?
THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR JAL SHAKTI & SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EMPOWERMENT
(SHRI RATTAN LAL KATARIA)
(a) & (b) Water Resources Projects are planned, funded, executed and maintained by the State Governments themselves as per their own resources and priority. In order to supplement their efforts, Government of India provides technical and financial assistance to State Governments to encourage sustainable development and efficient management of water resources through various schemes and programmes. Central Government has also identified certain surplus river basins for proper management of water with national perspective. Through the proposed interlinking of rivers programme as per National Perspective Plan (30 nos of identified links), it is proposed to divert about 166 BCM of water from surplus basins (viz., Brahmaputra, Ganga, Mahanadi, Godavari, Narmada, Par, Achankovil, Pamba, Damanganga, etc.,) to deficit basins for utilization for irrigation, domestic & industrial uses, hydropower, etc. in the country. The implementation of National Perspective Plan would give benefits of 25 million ha of irrigation from surface waters, 10 million ha by increased use of ground waters, raising the ultimate irrigation potential from 140 million ha to 175 million ha and generation of 34 million KW of power, apart from the incidental benefits of flood control, drought mitigation, navigation, water supply, fisheries, salinity and pollution control etc.
(c) & (d) The rivers in India are broadly classified into two categories namely (i) Perennial Rivers and (ii) Non-perennial / Intermittent / Ephemeral Rivers. In perennial rivers, the water remains available throughout the year. Non-Perennial rivers are rain-fed rivers in which water flows only during the rainfall / monsoon period, and as the monsoon withdraws, the water also recedes. Full quantum of water that is available during monsoon cannot be utilized for various reasons including limitations of sufficient dam storages, and the excess water flows to the sea. The extent of such water flowing into sea has not been quantified. However the Central Water Commission, which maintains hydrological observations of all important / major rivers in the country, has measured average annual flows at the terminal sites of the 13 important rivers. As per CWC records, the average annual flows at these 13 terminal sites during the last ten years (from 2009 to 2019) has been 976103 Million Cubic Meters (MCM), as per details given at Annexure.
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ANNEXURE-I
Annexure referred to in reply to parts (c) & (d) of Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. †2509 to be answered on 05.03.2020 on ‘Water Management Plan’.
S. No. Name of River Name of Last Discharge Observation Station Name of State Average Annual Flow of River for 10 Years (from 2009 to 2019) in MCM
1 Ganga Farakka West Bengal 295114
2 Brahmaputra Panchratna Assam 480798
3 Teesta Domohani West Bengal 21413
4 Krishna Wadenpally Andhra Pradesh 10848
5 Godavari Polavaram Andhra Pradesh 74015
6 Mahanadi Tikrapara Odisha 43867
7 Cauvery Musiri Tamilnadu 4573
8 Brahmani Jenapur Odisha 14254
9 Subernrekha Ghatshila Jharkhand 6812
10 Narmada Garudeshwar Gujarat 14759
11 Baitarni Anandpur Odisha 3974
12 Mahi Khanpur Gujarat 3784
13 Sabarmati Voutha Gujarat 1892
Total 976103
Note: Year has been taken as Water Year from June to May
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