NHP E-bulletin

Hon’ble Union Minister of Jal Shakti, Sh. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat inaugurated One day Consultation Session of participating agencies under National Hydrology Project on 30th July, 2019 at New Delhi. The main objective of this meeting was to get the feedback from the Implementing Agencies regarding challenges being experienced in implemention of the NHP activities and to brainstorm & overcome those challenges and to find out course corrections for expeditious and effective implementation of the project. Several Principal Secretaries/ Secretaries and Head of the Departments attended one-day session.

This occation was also graced by Sh. Rattanlal Kataria, Hon’ble Minister of State, Ministry of Jal Shakti and Sh U. P. Singh, Secretary, Deptt. Of Water Resources, RD & GR

During the Consultation Session, the first version of revamped Water Resources Information System (India WRIS) was launched by the Hon’ble Union Minister of Jal Shakti, Sh. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. On this occasion, Shri Ratanlal Kataria, Hon’ble Minister of State, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Shri U.P. Singh, Secretary, DoWR, RD & GR, Mr Arun Kumar Sinha, Chairman, Central Water Commission, Dr Anju Gaur, Senior Water Resources Specialist, World Bank, and Principal Secretaries/ Secretaries/ Head of the organizations of Central implementing agencies were also present. Hon’ble Minister hoped that water resources related data from the Centre as well as States will be seamlessly integrated into the system and will be made accessible to all the stakeholders.

In order to emphasize the need for Spring Rejuvenations, Sh. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat Hon’ble Minister of Jal Shakti and Mr. Rattanlal Kataria, Hon’ble Minister of State, Ministry of Jal Shakti jointly released the framework document for Spring Rejuvenation. The Document is available in NHP website -

The official web site for “2nd International Conference on Sustainable Water Management” under NHP scheduled to be held during 6-8 November 2019 at Pune Maharashtra was launched by the Hon’ble Minister of Jal Shakti, Sh. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat during the session.

The contract for providing Consulting Services for Decision Support System (Planning & Management) including Maintenance and Updating of DSS (PM) for a period of 7.5 years under the National Hydrology Project, was signed by National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee and DHI (India) Water & Environment Pvt. Ltd. on July 18, 2019. The objective of the consultancy is to equip DoWR, RD&GR, NIH, CWC, CGWB and states with a decision support platform/ tool having web-based dashboards for display of results including display of water balance in a basin and inter-sectoral water allocation. This will be achieved through the development and application of appropriate analytical tools after stakeholder (i.e. Central and State Government Agencies) consultation processes and validated in one selected pilot area in specified state. The spatio-temporal data would be provided by the states. The enhanced DSS(P) [hereinafter, enhanced DSS(P) version referred to as DSS(PM)] would integrate climatological, hydrological, and environmental data with water simulation models, economic growth models, cost benefit analysis, and multi-criteria analysis tools. The issues and expectations of states would be addressed to the extent possible to improve water resources management in the specific states.

Within the framework of cooperation between the Indian and the Australian Governments, the Australian Water Partnership is providing support in the organisational development of the recently established National Water Informatics Centre (NWIC). A high profile team of the Australian Water Partnership (AWP) which included the former head of the water unit of the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) Prof. Rob Vertessy visited Delhi from 8th to 12th July. The team has extensive discussions pertaining to the strategic objectives, the needs and the resources of NWIC with Shri. Sunil Garg, Director, NWIC & his team, NPMU-NHP, World Bank and the TAMC. The AWP team provided valuable insights into the history of the development of the Australian Water Resources Information System and the organisational aspects of its management. On the basis of the discussions held during the week, an outline of a Strategic Operating Plan (SOP) for the NWIC was developed and discussed. The team also met Secretary, WR, RD & GR. Further meetings are planned in the coming months with the objective to establish a SOP which will serve as a guideline for the organisational development of NWIC.

Technical audit of hydro-met sites on representative basis are mandated every year under NHP. However, as the project was passing through its initiation phase, no such audits could be taken up in the first year. Audits of 20 sites spread over the states of Assam, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi were planned during the month of July 2019. The technical audits for 6 GDSQ (gauge discharge sediment water quality) sites, 1 gauge site in Assam, 10 sites in West Bengal and 4 sites in Yamuna basin (UP, Haryana & Delhi) were completed during the month. Some of these stations maintain both telemetry and manual records. Audit was carried out to check the physical condition of sites, instruments condition and calibration, availability of records and conformity of the process of measurement and monitoring of surface water data like gauge data, discharge data, sediment data and water quality data. Reports of these audits are under preparation.

One week training program on “The World Bank Procurement Procedures, Contract Management & Arbitration” for all the State and Central Implementing Agencies of National Hydrology Project was organised during 15-19 July 2019 at NWA, Pune. The main objective of this program was to create awareness of the World Bank Procurement Guidelines & Procedures and Contract Management and Arbitration, for speeding up of the procurement and the execution of various contracts as well as in understanding the fund flow and accounting.

The Training Program comprised of class room sessions, hands on sessions, and Field Visit. The faculty for the program was drawn from Core Faculty of NWA, The World Bank, Ministry of Jal Shakti - NPMU Unit, TAMC, Central Water & Power Research Station, Pune and Expert Faculty viz Advocate Jatin Ramaiya from Goa covered the topics on Alternate Dispute Resolution.

Groundwater Hydrology Division of National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee organized a 3-day training program on “Groundwater issues of Punjab with special emphasis on groundwater salinity” during July 16 - 18, 2019 at Forest Complex, Mohali under NHP for the engineers, officers, hydrogeologists and scientists of Government of Punjab. A total of 34 participants attended this program. The training was inaugurated by Er. K.S. Takshi, Chief Engineer (Retired), Water Resources Department, Punjab. The other dignitaries present during the inauguration were Er. C.P. Kumar, Scientist G and Head, GWHD; Dr. Sanjay Jain, Scientist G and Head, WRSD, Nodal officer, NHP; Dr. Anil Kumar Lohani, Scientist G, SWHD and training coordinator, NHP; Sh. Rajesh Vashist, Joint Director, Agriculture; Prof. C.S.P. Ojha, Department of civil Engineering, IIT-Roorkee, Er. H.S. Arora, Chief Engineer, Water Resources Department, Punjab.

The sedimentation survey is one of the important aspects of planning storage of a reservoir. The storage capacity of a reserviour often compromised by the accumulation of sediment brought down by the rivers and their tributaries into it. The survey will help in determining the present capacity of the reservoirs and helpful in determining future water allocation to different consumers. Damodar Valley Organisation (DVC) initiated the survey on 19th july, 2019.

The first meeting of organising committee for the 2nd International Conference on Sustainable Water Management under NHP was held on 1-2nd July 2019 at MKVDC, Pune. The meeting was chaired by DG, MERI & Chairman, Organising Committee. The meeting was attended by representative of NPMU-NHP, World Bank, CBIP apart from other officials of Maharashtra Govt.

Sr. Joint Commissioner-I & TAMC Experts discussed the matters of PIP revision and progress of various activities with Nodal Officer, West Bengal Surface Water and his team on 23rd July,2019 and with Nodal officer, West Bengal ground Water on 24th July, 2019. Matters related to expenditures, the status of bids, revision of Annual Work Plan, criteria for engaging in the joint venture, progress in benchmark documents and status of construction of State Data Centre building were discussed in detail.

Construction work of Hydrology Data Centre of DVC is in full swing. The casting of ground floor is completed. Centering and shuttering of 1st floor roof slab is in progress. All the hydrological data of Damodar Catchment will be monitored from this Data Centre. All the data 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 data centre is expected to be ready by the end of this year.

Piezometers are small diameter bore wells drilled exclusively to monitor Ground Water levels and GW quality. Flushing of existing 500 piezometers was completed by TS-GW. Protection works of existing 200 Piezometers already initiated by the agency during this month.