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Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat assumed the charge of Ministry of Jal Shakti, a newly created ministry with the merger of erstwhile Ministry of Water Resources, RD & GR and Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation. Shri Ratan Lal Kataria, assumed the charge of State Minister in Ministry of Jal Shakti.

A National Level Conference on Flood Early Warning for Disaster Risk Reduction was organized jointly by the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), ISRO and the Central Water Commission, Ministry of Water Resources, RD & GR. The conference was held under the aegis of the National Hydrology Project during 30 – 31st May 2019 in Hyderabad.

The objective of the conference was to bring synergy among researchers, modellers and practitioners on the latest technological developments in the area of flood early warning and to discuss the methodological aspects, database requirements, scale, etc. for carrying out the activity at National level. Early warning is an important measure for disaster risk reduction to prevent the loss of life and reduce the economic and material damages in case of a disaster.

The Conference was inaugurated and addressed by the Chief Guest, Lt Gen N C Marwah (Retd), Member, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). The conference has created a lot of interest among scientists, researchers, engineers, academia, industry, Government Organisations and policy makers working in flood disaster management and associated sectors in the country. It has provided an excellent opportunity for brain storming on the challenges being faced and measures to be adopted for flood disaster damage mitigation. It has provided platform to decision-makers to deliberate on various technological solutions for preventing or reducing the losses due to disasters.

The sessions covered topics related to flood early warning, spatial flood early warning, trends in hydrological modelling, urban flood modelling, extreme rainfall and flood, and emergency preparedness.

After due presentations of conference papers and deliberations the following recommendations emerged:

• To provide a platform to all Agencies involved in Flood Early Warning
• Creation of integrated and Interoperable and shareable databases
• Capacity development of stakeholders/users
• Understanding and minimising forecast uncertainties
• Usage of emerging technologies both for data collection and Analysis by incorporation of futuristic capabilities such as AI, Virtual Reality, UAV, drones etc.
• Pinpoint the forecast for communities at risk. Outreach to communities using wide dissemination process
• To develop resilience towards flood based damages by reducing uncertainties in predictions

During the National Conference on Flood Early Warning for Disaster Risk Reduction in Hyderabad, a Manual on Rainfall Data Validation prepared by NHP Unit of Ministry of Water Resources, RD & GR was released on 30 May 2019.

The manual provides a comprehensive collection of methods for the analysis and validation of rainfall data. It can be downloaded from

url: https://nhp.mowr.gov.in/docs/NHP/MANUAL/GUIDELINES/MISCELLANEOUS/3013/Manual_Rainfall_Data_Validation.pdf

The technical audit of hydro-meteorological sites is an operational tool for controlling the operation of stations and maintaining an effective and reliable monitoring network. The primary purpose of an audit is to ensure that a monitoring site is delivering the intended information and, if not, to identify the necessary corrective actions. Under NHP it is planned to perform audits of 100 surface, groundwater and water quality monitoring sites per year during the project period, covering all project Implementing Agencies. An audit template for this purpose has been developed to ensure that all relevant topics are covered. The first batch of audits focuses on groundwater sites. The audit covers groundwater monitoring stations operated manually and stations equipped with Digital Water Level Recorders and Telemetry systems.

The following table shows details of the Implementing Agencies selected for the technical audit in first phase:

Visit Plan

A field visit for a technical audit of seven selected groundwater monitoring stations operated by the Uttar Pradesh Groundwater Department and Water Resources Department, Punjab has already been completed.

• The value of awarded contracts aggregates to Rs. 510 crore till May 2019
• Bids worth Rs. 467 crores have been floated till May 2019

Due to model code of conduct, the floating of bids and award of contracts were restricted.

Following is the list of major tenders floated & contracts awarded during May,2019

Major Tenders Floated

Major Tenders Awarded / LOA Issued

Rajasthan

Senior Joint Commissioner Shri Neeraj Kumar Manglik reviewed the progress of IA of Rajasthan during 2nd- 3rd May at Jaipur. During the meeting, status of procurement of various items as per AWP 2019-20 was reviewed. The preparation of ToR for several important studies and capacity building requirement were also discussed in detail. TAMC members Mr. Dipesh Desai (Procurement Expert) and Ms. Jaya Sood (Water Resources Management Expert) accompanied him.

Chhattisgarh

A team of NPMU and TAMC led by Shri Rakesh Kashyap, Senior Joint Commissioner, NPMU-NHP visited Chhattisgarh State during the period 1-3 May 2019 to provide implementation support to the Chhattisgarh Surface and Groundwater Implementing Agencies. The major focus was to solve some issues regarding the finalization of RTDAS and the construction of piezometer bid documents, as well as to apprise the IA regarding the details of the proposed study for developing rule curves for the reservoirs of the Mahanadi Complex.

Apart from meeting the officers of the SPMU, meetings were also held with the Secretary, WRD and the Engineer in Chief for seeking their support in the implementation of NHP activities. During the discussions, the issues related to inadequate staff particularly in the groundwater cell, need for early decision on using NIC e-procurement system, restructuring of Project Implementation Plan, use of eSWIS system, combination of both Implementing Agencies and use of GeM portal were deliberated upon.

West Bengal

The status of progress of various activities pertaining to Bengal GW was discussed at office of West Bengal GW Kolkata on 21th May 2019. The meeting was attended by Mr. Deepak Kumar, Senior Joint Commissioners from NPMU and representatives of the TAMC. Later on, discussion was also held with Principal Secretary, WB GW during which various aspects of implementation process was discussed. Some modification in the PIP of WB GW was also discussed.

A tripartite meeting was held On 22nd May 2019 at office of West Bengal SW, Kolkata which was attended by Survey of India, West Bengal SW and the NPMU in which the way forward concerning the requirement of West Bengal SW for developing a Digital Terrain Model with high and medium vertical accuracies was discussed. The possibility of SoI supporting the activity pertaining to connecting the RTDAS sites with SoI GTS benchmarks was also explored in the meeting. Further, the status of progress of various activities pertaining to Bengal SW was also discussed. The meeting was attended by Shri Rakesh Kashyap, SJC; Shri Deepak Kumar, SJC, NPMU-NHP and TAMC experts stationed at Kolkata.

Uttar Pradesh

A team from the NPMU headed by Shri Neeraj Manglik (Senior Joint Commissioner) along with the TAMC experts Shri Desh Raj and Piyush Dubey (Application Programmer) visited Lucknow on 7th - 8th May, 2019 to review the progress of work under NHP by Uttar Pradesh SW and Uttar Pradesh GW. During the visit the team met Shri T Venkatesh, Principal Secretary and Project Director to appraise him about the progress of the project in the State.

NPMU

A meeting of the Tender Evaluation Committee (TEC) for Studies of Narmada Basin under the National Hydrology Project (NHP) was held on 14th May 2019 at NPMU office.

3rd Water Talk was organised by Ministry of Water Resources, RD & GR on 24th May, 2019 at the Ambedkar Hall in New Delhi.

The first meeting of the Coordination Committee on Water Accounting+ was held on 16th May at the CWC office.

NHP reviewed by Hon’ble minister

Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Hon’ble Minister of newly formed Ministry of Jal Shakti & Shri Ratan Lal Kataria Hon’ble Minister of State, Ministry of Jal Shakti reviewed the various ongoing schemes under the ministry on 26th May 2019 at Shram Shakti Bhawan. The meeting was attended by Secretary, Water Resources RD & GR, Chairman Central Water Commission (CWC), Chairman of Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) and other senior officials. During the meeting National Hydrology Project (NHP) and its various activities were also discussed.

During 13th-15th May, NHP organized a three days training on ESRI suites in the NHP-TAMC project office. NWIC and TAMC IT members participated. The training aimed at providing the team with the new technology advancements and allowing the participants to get hands-on experience of using the ArcGIS API for JavaScript. The training was attended by GIS & remote sensing and software development experts. The training content was based on the systematic flow of information and functionalities from publishing in ArcGIS Desktop to the final development activity. The meeting also included the recently inducted RS & GIS experts for NWIC.

A three days’ workshop on Water Quality Awareness was organized on 2nd - 4th May by the Maharashtra Irrigation Department with the help of the Maharashtra Engineering Training Academy (META). The event was held in the meeting hall of the Maharashtra Irrigation Department in Nashik. About 35 officers and chemists from six water quality labs participated. This meeting was inaugurated with an inspirational and motivational speech by Shri R. E. Upasani, Chief Engineer and Nodal Officer, Maharashtra (SW), followed by Shri Y. K. Bhadane, Superintending Engineer and Controlling Officer, Maharashtra (SW) who explained the main objective of organizing the workshop. The workshop should make the staff working in water quality labs familiar with the results/test procedure in order to ensure that results from one lab are comparable with any other lab, in accordance with the standard operating procedure. The main issues deliberated were:

• Need of water quality monitoring under NHP
• Discussion of findings during inspection of labs
• Review of lab wise status, mandates of NABL and its application, and process of NABL
• Mandates of quality assurance, PT test, AQC, etc. and procedures
• Water quality data validation and techniques
• Laboratory safety and hazards

• One week Training Programme in Remote Sensing and GIS Balanagar at Hyderabad on 24th June to 28th June
• International Distance Learning Course in Hydrology - Basic Hydrologic Sciences for the Asian Region (2019) 17th June to 2nd Aug 2019 at Distance Learning Online(NWA Pune)
• Training Programme on "The World Bank Procurement Procedure and Contract Management & Arbitration " proposed at NWA Pune during 15-19 July 2019 under NHP