National Hydrology Project

National Hydrology Project
x
Highlights

The Union Cabinet has given its approval for implementation of the National Hydrology Project (NHP).  It will be a central sector scheme with a total outlay of Rs 3,679.76 crore.

The Union Cabinet has given its approval for implementation of the National Hydrology Project (NHP). It will be a central sector scheme with a total outlay of Rs 3,679.76 crore. This includes Rs 3,640 crore for National Hydrology Project (NHP) and Rs 39.76 crore for National Water Informatics Centre (NWIC) to be taken up in two stages. It also provides for establishment of NWIC as an independent organization under the control of Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation (MoWR, RD&GR).

The NHP is intended for setting up of a system for timely and reliable water resources data acquisition, storage, collation and management. It will also provide tools/systems for informed decision making through Decision Support Systems (DSS) for water resources assessment, flood management, reservoir operations, drought management, etc. NHP also seeks to build capacity of the State and Central sector organisations in water resources management through the use of Information Systems and adoption of State-of-the-art technologies like Remote Sensing.

Hydrological Information System (HIS) is established in nine states, viz. Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa & Tamil Nadu and at six central agencies- Central Water Commission (CWC), Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), Central Water & Power Research Station (CWPRS), India Meteorological Department (IMD), Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR), National Institute of Hydrology (NIH).

The NHP will help in gathering hydro-meteorological data which will be stored and analysed on a real time basis and can be seamlessly accessed by any user at the State/District/village level. The project envisages to cover the entire country as the earlier hydrology projects covered only 13 States. The components of the proposal are: a)In Situ Hydromet Monitoring System and Hydromet Data Acquisition System; b)Setting up of National Water Informatics Centre (NWIC); c)Water Resources Operation and Management System; and d)Water Resources Institutions and Capacity Building.

The project envisages development of real time flood forecasting and reservoir operations in a manner that does not result in sudden opening of gates which inundates the area down below. It will facilitate integrated water resource management by adopting river basin approach through collation and management of hydro-meteorological data. This will also help in water resource assessment – as surface as well as ground water, for water resource planning, prioritize its allocations and its consumptive use for irrigation.

Show Full Article
Print Article
Next Story
More Stories
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENTS