Management tools for water resource planning

The following management strategies are important for water resources planning:

•         Water related allocation/re-allocation agreements between planning units sharing common water resource.

•         Subsidies on water use

•         Planning of releases from reservoirs over time

•         Planning of withdrawal of ground water with time.

•         Planning of cropping patterns of agricultural fields to optimize the water availability from rain and irrigation (using surface and/or ground water sources) as a function of time

•         Creating public awareness to reduce wastage of water, especially filtered drinking water and to inculcate the habit of recycling waste water for purposes like gardening.

•         Research in water management: Well established technological inputs are in verge in water resources engineering which were mostly evolved over the last century. Since, then not much of innovations have been put forward. However, it is equally known that quite a few of these technologies run below optimum desired efficiency. Research in this field is essential for optimizing such structure to make most of water resource utilization.

An example for this is the seepage loss in canals and loss of water during application of water in irrigating the fields. As an indication, it may be pointed out that in India, of the water that is diverted through irrigation canals up to the crop growing fields, only about half is actually utilized for plant growth. This example is also glaring since agriculture sector takes most of the water for its assumption from the developed project on water resources.

A good thrust in research is needed to increase the water application efficiently which, in turn, will help optimizing the system.