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E-Governance in water resources a segment: reservoir level and storage capacity monitoring
N. K Mehta
National Information Centre
Ministry of Information Technology
New Delhi- 110003
Tel.: 91-011-4362228,
Fax : 91-011-4362489
e-mail : nkm@hub.nic.in
Monitoring of reservoir level and its storage capacity has a significant importance in evaluation of water utilization, crop production, hydropower generation and an instrument in planning process. The parameter could be an early warning indicator to the crop production and Hydel power generation of the country. Any significant deviation from the norms could attract attention of the planner and administrator of the country. Covering this aspect under e-governance and dissemination of information over NICNET/Internet, is being discussed as an information technology component under the current prevailing technology of Internet.
Water is the key Element in social and economic development of the country, which is becoming a scares resource due to over-increasing demands of the growing population , Agriculture , Hydropower and Industrial Users. Thus emphasizing the need of monitoring and specific utilization of water resource with appropriate communication technology for it's availability, monitoring and management in the real / near-real-time environment. National Informatics Center , Ministry of Information Technology has been providing support to central water commission to monitor the reservoir over the NICNET through its district center and has been monitoring the reservoir and storage capacity of 63 to 70 reservoirs on a weekly/day-to-day basis over NICNET for the last more than 12 years and providing technical support to the various departments engaged in water resources planning including Union Ministry of Agriculture in the strategic crop planning process as an early warning indicator. The 63 reservoirs of which were being monitored initially consisted of live capacity at FRL of the order of 124.58 TMCM of the available capacity of the existing reservoir with installed Hydel power capacity 8555 MW and having a CCA of 10621 TH.Ha. Over the years empahsis has been laid to horizontally expand and cover more reservoirs , consequently, currently 70 reservoirs are being monitored under the CUG under NICNET with a total storage capacity of 135 TMCM comprising 78% of the total available storage, 11534 TH.Ha, Hydel power capacity of 8617 MW and covering the reservoir spread in more than 14 states and 12 major river basins. The system has also been transported from Cyber to NEC and finally to a Pentium System, which is operational at NIC-CWC node located at CWC, R.K.Puram, New Delhi. But, over the years the system had some administrative structural problems as the data is being fed in collaboration with NIC's support at district centres and the reservoirs are spread over a distance of 14 kms., to 240 kms., from NIC District nodes. One of the major shortcoming was that the State Govt.,were not able to participate in the management of the water of their own state. Over the period of time better effective technology has come and the model has been revised to provide the complete informatics and administrative control to the state govt. under the CUG of NICNET/Internet. With the current available technology of Internet and GUI environment, it has become possible under JAVA and DB2 environment as an Web-Enabled application to evolve a new version to provide support to the state govts., with complete administrative and management control . The information thus collated from the various states can be placed on Internet for general viewing of the various departments of Centre and state govt., and of Planning Commission. This will not only give the effective monitoring and planning to the state govts., as well as to CWC,MOAG., and Planning Commission (PC) for the consolidated national planning.
Prevailing Reservoir Monitoring System
A country's Water Resources development largely depends upon the supply and quality of its fresh water. The demands for the fresh water are increasing rapidly requiring holistic management of fresh water as a finite and vulnerable source. As we have already approached the 21st Century, there is a growing need for management and utilization of natural resources for its optimal beneficial use with the concurrent technologies. Thus the monitoring of the resources for the effective management and planning in the water sector has become most predominant aspect. After the severe draught of 1987, the MOA&C have set up a high level committee to constantly monitor the crop planning strategies required in national perspective . This committee also reviews the basic inputs such as water availability in irrigated agriculture sector. CWC assist this committee by compiling and forwarding the daily/weekly bulletin to MOA&C. The current login procedures for the RL&SCMS are explained below:
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