Challenges and opportunities for coastal reservoir development in India

Sitharam, TG and Kolathayar, S (2020) Challenges and opportunities for coastal reservoir development in India. [Book Chapter]

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Abstract

In India, presently 320 million people remain in the water-starved parts of the country, and according to the United Nations, 840 million people are expected to be water-starved in India by 2050. Although there has been no significant change in India’s rainfall pattern, the number of areas under drought in India is increasing every year. Increase in population is one of the reasons for water scarcity, but inefficient management of the precipitation received stands as the major cause. Although extreme rainfall events are significantly increasing, there is a spatial nonuniformity in the rainfall events that occur. This makes it difficult to preplan large-scale water storage at different locations. Solution to India’s water problem lies in conserving the abundant monsoon water bounty by storing it in coastal reservoirs for future use. This paper focuses on the challenges and opportunities in India for storing river floodwaters in coastal reservoir. The paper also presents the concept of Sarovar Mala, a chain of coastal reservoirs, an innovative concept that has the potential to ensure water availability to India throughout the year.

Item Type:	Book Chapter
Publication:	Sustainable Water Resource Development Using Coastal Reservoirs
Publisher:	Elsevier
Additional Information:	The copyright for this article belongs to Elsevier.
Keywords:	Coastal reservoirs; Floodwater; India; Runoff; Storage per capita; Water resources
Department/Centre:	Division of Mechanical Sciences > Civil Engineering
Date Deposited:	07 Feb 2023 04:18
Last Modified:	07 Feb 2023 04:18
URI:	https://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/79974

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