New Delhi : Union Minister for Jal Shakti, Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today said that The ‘River Basin Atlas of India’ is an outcome of joint project ‘Generation of Database and implementation of Web Enabled Water Resources Information System (India-WRIS) in the country’, was published in 2012 by the Central Water Commission (CWC) and Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). This is a comprehensive publication which gives detailed information of major water resources projects along with the location of all hydrological observation sites including major dams, barrages etc. in all the river basins of India.
‘Watershed Atlas of India’, published in 2014 is one of the outcomes under India-WRIS project using large scale drainage network, Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and other ancillary data. It depicts distribution of water-sheds in basins and sub-basins of the country along with its major water resource assets, hydrological observatories, terrain characteristics, rainfall variability and land use / land cover. These atlases are available at website: https://indiawris.gov.in/wris/#/atlas.
CWC with support from National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), Hyderabad, has carried out the study namely ‘Reassessment of Water Availability in India Using Space Inputs’ in 2019 utilizing the latest space based inputs like Land Use Land Cover maps from NRSC and Precipitation & Temperature datasets from Indian Meteorological Department (IMD).
Further, National Water Informatics Centre (NWIC) was set up by the Government in March, 2018 to be the central repository of water resources data of the country. In-line with its mandate, NWIC is maintaining spatial, non-spatial, time-series and static hydro-meteorological data like rainfall, river water levels & discharge, ground water level, water quality, soil moisture, climatic, geological and other geomorphological data.
Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) has taken up the National Aquifer Mapping and Management (NAQUIM) Programme for studying and mapping of aquifers and preparation of management plans. A National Inter-departmental Steering Committee (NISC) has been constituted for providing guidance in implementation of NAQUIM programme. In addition, a Central Level Expert Group (CLEG), chaired by Chairman, CGWB and having Joint Secretary Level Officers from relevant Ministries/Departments of Central Government, Secretaries from State Governments/UTs, as well as academicians/ professionals from IITs and other expert organizations involved in ground water sector has been constituted by Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation for overall coordination of the assessment of ground water resources of the country by the CGWB jointly with the State/UT Departments.
Comments are closed.