WATER RESOURCE ENGINEERING

Introduction
Water, though commonly occurring in nature, is invaluable! It supports all forms of life in
conjunction with air. However, the demand of water for human use has been steadily
increasing over the past few decades due to increase in population. In contrast, the total
reserve of water cannot increase. Hence each nation, and especially those with rapidly
increasing population like India, has to think ahead for future such that there is equitable
water for all in the years to come. This is rather difficult to achieve as the water wealth varies
widely within acountry with vast geographical expanse, like India. Moreover, many rivers
originate in India and flow through other nations (Pakistan and Bangladesh) and the
demands of water in those counties have to be honored before taking up a project on such a
river. Similarly there are rivers which originate form other counties (Nepal, Bhutan and
China) and flow through India.
All these constraints have led to the formulation of the national water policy whichwas
drafted in 1987 keeping in mind national perspective on water resource planning,
development and management. The policy has been revised in 2002, keeping in mind latest
objectives. It is important to know the essentials of the national policy as it has significant
bearing on the technology or engineering that would be applied in developing and managing
water resources projects.

This section elucidates the broad guidelines laid own in the National Water Policy(2002)
which should be kept in mind while planning any water resource project inour country.

Water Resources Planning

Water resources development and management will have to be planned for a hydrological
unit such as a drainage basin as a whole or a sub-basin. Apart from traditional methods,
non-conventional methods for utilization of water should be considered, like
• Inter-basin transfer
• Artificial recharge of ground water
• Desalination of brackish sea water
• Roof-top rain water harvesting

The above options are described below in some detail:

Inter-basin transfer: Basically, it's the movement of surface water from one riverbasin into
another. The actual transfer is the amount of water not returned to its source basin. The
most typical situation occurs when a water system has an intake and wastewater discharge
in different basins. But other situations also cause transfers. One is where a system's service
 area covers more than one basin. Any water used up or consumed in a portion of the service
area outside of the source basin would be considered part of a transfer (e.g. watering your
yard).Transfers can also occur between interconnected systems, where a system in one
basin purchases water from a system in another basin.

Artificial recharge of ground water: Artificial recharge provides ground water users an
opportunity to increase the amount of water available during periods of high demand--
typically summer months. Past interest in artificial recharge has focused on aquifers that
have declined because of heavy use and from which existing users have been unable to
obtain sufficient water to satisfy their needs.

Desalination of brackish sea water: Water seems to be a superabundantnatural resource

on the planet earth. However, only 0.3 per cent of the world's total amount of water can be
used as clean drinking water. Man requires huge amounts of drinking water every day and
extracts it from nature for innumerable purposes. As natural fresh water resources are
limited, sea water plays animportant part as a source for drinking water as well. In order to
use this water, it has to be desalinated. Reverse osmosis and electro dialysis is the preferred
methods for desalination of brackish sea water.

Roof-top rain water harvesting: In urban areas, the roof top rain water can be conserved
and used for recharge of ground water. This approach requires connecting the outlets pipe
from roof top to divert the water to either existing well/tube wells/bore wells or specially
designed wells/ structures. The Urban housing complexes or institutional buildings have
large roof area and can be utilized for harvesting the roof top rain water to recharge aquifer
in urban areas.

One important concept useful in water resources planning is Conjunctive or combined use
of both surface and ground water for a region has to be planned for sustainable
development incorporating quantity and quality aspects as well as environmental
considerations. Since there would be many factors influencing the decision of projects
involving conjunctive use of surface and ground water, keeping in mind the underlying
constraints, the entire system dynamics should bestudied to as detail as practically possible.
The uncertainties of rainfall, the primary source of water, and its variability in space and
time has to be borne in mind while deciding upon the planning alternatives.

It is also important to pursue watershed management through the followingmethodologies:

• Soil conservation
This includes a variety of methods used to reduce soil erosion, to prevent depletion
 of soil nutrients and soil moisture, and to enrich the nutrient status of a soil.

• Catchment area treatment

Different methods like protection for degradation and treating thedegraded
areas of the catchment areas, forestation of catchment area.

• Construction of check-dams
Check-dams are small barriers built across the direction of water flow on shallow
rivers and streams for the purpose of water harvesting. The small dams retain excess
water flow during monsoon rains in a small catchment area behind the structure.
Pressure created in the catchment area helps force the impounded water into the
ground. The major environmental benefit is the replenishment of nearby
groundwater reserves and wells. The water entrapped by the dam, surface and
subsurface, is primarily intended for use in irrigation during the monsoon and
later during the dryseason, but can also be used for livestock and domestic needs.

Water allocation priorities

While planning and operation of water resource systems, water allocationpriorities should
be broadly as follows:
• Drinking water
• Irrigation
• Hydropower
• Ecology
• Industrial demand of water
• Navigation

The above demands of water to various sectors are explained in the following
paragraphs.

Drinking water: Adequate safe drinking water facilities should be provided to theentire
population both in urban and in rural areas. Irrigation and multipurpose projects should
invariably include a drinking water component, wherever there is no alternative source of
drinking water. Drinking water needs of human beings and animals should be the first
charge on any available water.

Irrigation: Irrigation is the application of water to soil to assist in the productionof crops.
Irrigation water is supplied to supplement the water available from rainfall and ground
water. In many areas of the world, the amount and timing of the rainfall are not adequate
to meet the moisture requirements of crops. The pressure for survival and the need for
additional food supplies are causing the rapid expansion of irrigation throughout the world.
Hydropower: Hydropower is a clean, renewable and reliable energy source that serves
national environmental and energy policy objectives. Hydropower converts kinetic energy
from falling water into electricity without consuming more water than is produced by
nature.

Ecology: The study of the factors that influence the distribution and abundanceof species.

Industrial demand of water: Industrial water consumption consists of a wide range of uses,
including product-processing and small-scale equipment cooling, sanitation, and air
conditioning. The presence of industries in or near the city has great impact on water
demand. The quantity of water required depends on the type of the industry. For a city with
moderate factories, a provision of 20 to 25 percent of per capita consumption may be made
for this purpose.
Navigation: Navigation is the type of transportation of men and goods from one place to
another place by means of water. The development of inland water transport or navigation
is of crucial importance from the point of energy conservation as well.

Planning strategies for a particular project

Water resource development projects should be planned and developed (as far as possible)
as multi-purpose projects . The study of likely impact of a project during construction and
later on human lives, settlements, socio-economic, environment, etc., has to be carried out
before hand. Planning of projects in the hilly areas should take into account the need to
provide assured drinking water, possibilities of hydropower development and irrigation in
such areas considering the physical features and constraints of the basin such as steep
slopes, rapid runoff and possibility of soil erosion.

As for ground water development there should be a periodical reassessment of the ground
water potential on a scientific basis, taking into consideration the quality of the water
available and economic viability of its extraction. Exploitation of ground water resources
should be so regulated as not to exceed the recharging possibilities, as also to ensure social
equity.

Planning at river basin level requires considering a complex large set of components and
their interrelationship. Mathematical modelling has become a widely used tool to handle
such complexities for which simulations and optimization techniques are employed. One
of the public domain software programs available for carrying out such tasks is provided
by the United States Geological Survey at the following web-site
http://water.usgs.gov/software/. The software packages in the web-site are arranged in the
following categories:
 • Ground Water
• Surface Water
• Geochemical
• General Use
• Statistics & Graphics

There are private companies who develop and sell software packages. Amongst these, the
DHI of Denmark and Delft Hydraulics of Netherlands provide comprehensive packages
for many water resources applications.

Note:
Multi-purpose projects: Many hydraulic projects can serve more than one of the basic
purposes-water supply, irrigation, hydroelectric power, navigation, flood control,
recreation, sanitation and wild life conservation. Multiple use of project of facilities may
increase benefits without a proportional increase in costs and thus enhance the economic
justification for the project. A project which is which is designed for single purpose but
which produces incidental benefits for other purposes should not, however, be considered
a multi-purpose project. Only thoseprojects which are designed and operated to serve two
or more purposes should be described as multi-purpose.

Guidelines for drinking and irrigation water projects

The general guidelines for water usage in different sectors are given below:

Drinking water

Adequate safe drinking water facilities should be provided to the entire populationboth in
urban and rural areas. Irrigation and multi purpose projects should invariably include a
drinking water component wherever there is no alternative source of drinking water.

Primarily, the water stored in a reservoir has to be extracted using a suitable pumping unit
and then conveyed to a water treatment plant where the physical and chemical impurities
are removed to the extent of human tolerance. The purified water is then pumped again
to the demand area, that is, the urban orrural habitation clusters. The source of water,
however, could as well be from ground water or directly from the river.

The aspect of water withdrawal for drinking and its subsequent purification and distribution
to households is dealt with under the course Water and Waste Water Engineering. The
following books may be useful to consult.
• Waster Water Engineering by B C Punmia and A K jain
• Water and waste water engineering by S P Garg

Irrigation

Irrigation planning either in an individual project or in a basin as whole shouldtake

into account the irrigability of land, cost of effective irrigation options possible from all
available sources of water and appropriate irrigation techniques for optimizing water use
efficiency. Irrigation intensity should be such as to extend the benefits of irrigation to as
large as number of farm families as possible, keeping in view the need to maximize
production.
 • Water allocation in an irrigation system should be done with due regardto equity
and social justice. Disparities in the availability of water between head-reach and
tail-end farms and (in respect of canal irrigation) between large and small farms
should be obviated by adoption of a rotational water distribution system and
supply of water on a volumetric basis subject to certain ceilings and rational water
pricing.

• Concerned efforts should be made to ensure that the irrigation potential created is
fully utilized. For this purpose, the command area development approach should
be adopted in all irrigation projects.

• Irrigation being the largest consumer of freshwater, the aim should be to get optimal
productivity per unit of water. Scientific water management, farm practices and
sprinkler and drip system of irrigation should beadopted wherever possible.

The engineering aspects of irrigation engineering have been discussed in Section 6.

Some terms defined in the above passages are explained below:

Water allocation: Research on institutional arrangements for water allocation covers three
major types of water allocation: public allocation, user-based allocation, and market
allocation. This work includes attention to water rights and to the organizations involved
in water allocation and management, as well as a comparative study of the consequences
of water reallocation from irrigation to other sectors. A key aspect of this research is the
identification of different stakeholders' interests, and the consequences of alternative
institutions for the livelihoods of the poor.

Rotational water distribution system: Water allocated to the forms one afterthe other
in a repeated manner.

Volumetric basis: Water allocated to each farm a specified volume based onthe area of
the farm, type of crop etc.

Irrigation Potential: Irrigation is the process by which water is diverted from a river or
pumped from a well and used for the purpose of agricultural production. Areas under
irrigation thus include areas equipped for full and partial control irrigation, spate irrigation
areas, equipped wetland and inland valley bottoms, irrespective of their size or
management type. It does not consider techniques related to on-farm water conservation
like water harvesting. The area which can potentially be irrigated depends on the physical
resources 'soil' and 'water',combined with the irrigation water requirements as determined
by the cropping patterns and climate. However, environmental and socioeconomic
constraints
also have to be taken into consideration in order to guarantee a sustainable use of the
available physical resources. This means that in most cases the possibilities for irrigation
development would be less than the physical irrigation potential.

Command area development: The command area development programme aims mainly
at reducing the gap between the potential created for irrigation to achieve higher agriculture
production thereof. This is to be achieved through the integrated development of irrigated
tracks to ensure efficient soil land use and water management for ensuring planned
increased productivity.

Sprinkler irrigation: Sprinkler irrigation offers a means of irrigating areas which are so
irregular that they prevent use of any surface irrigation methods. By using a low supply
rate, deep percolation or surface runoff and erosion can be minimized. Offsetting these
advantages is the relatively high cost of the sprinkling equipment and the permanent
installations necessary to supply water to the sprinkler lines. Very low delivery rates may
also result in fairly high evaporation from the spray and the wetted vegetation. It is
impossible to get completely uniform distribution of water around a sprinkler head and
spacing of the heads must be planned to overlap spray areas so that distribution is essentially
uniform.

Drip: The drip method of irrigation, also called trickle irrigation, originally developed in
Israel, is becoming popular in areas having water scarcity and salt problems. The method
is one of the most recent developments in irrigation. It involves slow and frequent
application of water to the plant root zone and enables the application of water and
fertilizer at optimum rates to the root system. It minimizes the loss of water by deep
percolation below the root zone orby evaporation from the soil surface. Drip irrigation
is not only economical inwater use but also gives higher yields with poor quality water.

Participatory approach to water resource management

Management of water resources for diverse uses should incorporate aparticipatory
approach; by involving not only the various government agenciesbut also the users and
other stakeholders in various aspects of planning, design, development and management
of the water resources schemes. Even private sector participation should be encouraged,
wherever feasible.

In fact, private participation has grown rapidly in many sectors in the recent yearsdue to
government encouragement. The concept of “Build-Own-Transfer (BOT)” has been
popularized and shown promising results. The same concept may be actively propagated
in water resources sector too. For example, in water scarce regions, recycling of waste
water or desalinization of brackish water, which are
more capital intensive (due to costly technological input), may be handed over to private
entrepreneurs on BOT basis.

Water quality
The following points should be kept in mind regarding the quality of water:

1. Both surface water and ground water should be regularly monitored forquality.
2. Effluents should be treated to acceptable levels and standards before
discharging them into natural steams.
3. Minimum flow should be ensured in the perennial streams for maintainingecology
and social considerations.

Since each of these aspects form an important segment of water resources engineering, this
has been dealt separately in course under water and waste water engineering.

The technical aspects of water quality monitoring and remediation are dealt with in the
course of Water and Waste – Water Engineering. Knowledge of it is essential for the water
resources engineer to know the issues involved since, even polluted water returns to global
or national water content.

Monitoring of surface and ground water quality is routinely done by the Central and State
Pollution Control Boards. Normally the physical, chemical and biological parameters are
checked which gives an indication towards the acceptability of the water for drinking or
irrigation. Unacceptable pollutants may require remediation, provided it is cost effective.
Else, a separate source may have to be investigated. Even industrial water also require a
standard to be met, for example, in order to avoid scale formation within boilers in thermal
power projects hard water sources are avoided.

The requirement of effluent treatment lies with the users of water and they shouldensure
that the waste water discharged back to the natural streams should be within acceptable
limits. It must be remembered that the same river may act as source of drinking water for
the inhabitants located down the river. The following case study may provoke some soul
searching in terms of the peoples’ responsibility towards preserving the quality of water,
in our country:

Under the Ganga Action Plan (GAP) initiated by the government to clean the heavily
polluted river, number of Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) have been constructed all along
the river Ganga. The government is also laying the main sewer lines within towns that
discharge effluents into the river. It is up to the individual house holders to connect their
residence sewer lines up to the trunk
sewer, at some places with government subsidy. However, public apathy inmany
places has resulted in only a fraction of the houses being connected to the trunk sewer line
which has resulted in the STPs being run much below their capacity.

Lastly, it must be appreciated that a minimum flow in the rivers and streams,even
during the low rainfall periods is essential to maintain the ecology of theriver and its
surrounding as well as the demands of the inhabitants located on thedownstream. It is a
fact that excessive and indiscriminate withdrawal of waterhas been the cause of drying
up of many hill streams, as for example, in theMussourie area. It is essential that the
decision makers on water usage shouldensure that the present usage should not be at
the cost of a future sacrifice. Hence, the policy should be towards a sustainable water
resource development.

Management strategies for excess and deficit water

imbalances
Water is essential for life. However, if it is present in excess or deficit quantities than that
required for normal life sustenance, it may cause either flood ordrought. This section deals
with some issues related to the above imbalance of water, and strategies to mitigate
consequential implications. Much detailed discussions is presented in Lesson 6.2.

Flood control and management

• There should be a master plan for flood control and management for each flood
prone basin.
• Adequate flood-cushioning should be provided in water storage projects,wherever
feasible, to facilitate better flood management.
• While physical flood protection works like embankments and dykes will continue
to be necessary, increased emphasis should be laid on non- structural measures such
as flood forecasting and warning, flood plain zoning, and flood proofing for
minimization of losses and to reduce the recurring expenditure on flood relief.

Drought prone area development

• Drought-prone areas should be made less vulnerable to droughtassociated problems

through soil conservation measures, waterharvesting practices, minimization of
evaporation losses, and development of ground water potential including
recharging and transfer of surface water from surplus areas where feasible and
 appropriate.

Terms referred to above are explained below:

Flood cushioning: The reservoirs created behind dams may be emptied tosome
extent, depending on the forecast of impending flood, so that as and when the flood arrives,
some of the water gets stored in the reservoir, thus reducing theseverity of the flood.

Embankments and dykes: Embankments & dykes also known as levees are earthen banks
constructed parallel to the course of river to confine it to a fixed course and limited cross-
sectional width. The heights of levees will be higherthan the design flood level with
sufficient free board. The confinement of the riverto a fixed path frees large tracts of land
from inundation and consequent damage.

Flood forecast and warning: Forecasting of floods in advance enables a warning to be

given to the people likely to be affected and further enables civil- defence measures to be
organized. It thus forms a very important and relatively inexpensive nonstructural flood-
control measure. However, it must be realized that a flood warning is meaningful if it is
given sufficiently in advance. Also, erroneous warnings will cause the populace to loose
faith in the system. Thus thedual requirements of reliability and advance notice are the
essential ingredientsof a flood-forecasting system.

Flood plain zoning: One of the best ways to prevent trouble is to avoid it and one of the
best ways to avoid flood damage is to stay out of the flood plain of streams. One of the
forms of the zoning is to control the type, construction and use of buildings within their
limits by zoning ordinances. Similar ordinances might prescribe areas within which
structures which would suffer from floods may notbe built. An indirect form of zoning is
the creation of parks along streams where frequent flooding makes other uses
impracticable.

Flood proofing: In instances where only isolated units of high value are threatened by
flooding, they may sometimes by individually flood proofed. An industrial plant
comprising buildings, storage yards, roads, etc., may be protectedby a ring levee or flood
wall. Individual buildings sufficiently strong to resist the dynamic forces of the flood water
are sometimes protected by building the lower stories (below the expected high-water
mark) without windows and providing some means of watertight closure for the doors.
Thus, even though the building may be surrounded by water, the property within it is
protected from damage and many normal functions may be carried on.

Soil conservation measures: Soil conservation measures in the catchment when properly
planned and effected lead to an all-round improvement in the catchment characteristics
affecting abstractions. Increased infiltration, greaterevapotranspiration and reduced soil
erosion are some of its easily identifiable results. It is believed that while small and
medium floods are reduced by soil
conservation measures, the magnitude of extreme floods are unlikely to beaffected by these
measures.

Water harvesting practices: Technically speaking, water harvesting meanscapturing the

rain where it falls, or capturing the run-off in one’s own village or town. Experts suggest
various ways of harvesting water:

• Capturing run-off from rooftops;

• Capturing run-off from local catchments;
• Capturing seasonal flood water from local streams; and
• Conserving water through watershed management.

Apart from increasing the availability of water, local water harvesting systems developed
by local communities and households can reduce the pressure on the state to provide all
the financial resources needed for water supply. Also, involving people will give them a
sense of ownership and reduce the burden on government funds.

Minimization of evaporation losses: The rate of evaporation is dependent on the vapour

pressures at the water surface and air above, air and water temperatures, wind speed,
atmospheric pressure, quality of water, and size ofthe water body. Evaporation losses
can be minimized by constructing deepreservoirs, growing tall trees on the windward side
of the reservoir, plantation in the area adjoining the reservoir, removing weeds and water
plants from the reservoir periphery and surface, releasing warm water and spraying
chemicals orfatty acids over the water surface.

Development of groundwater potential: A precise quantitative inventory regarding the

ground-water reserves is not available. Organization such as the Geographical Survey of
India, the Central Ground-Water Board and the State Tube-Wells and the Ground-Water
Boards are engaged in this task. It has been estimated by the Central Ground-Water Board
that the total ground water reserves are on the order of 55,000,000 million cubic meters out
of which 425,740 million cubic meters have been assessed as the annual recharge from
rain and canal seepage. The Task Force on Ground-Water Reserves of the Planning
Commission has also endorsed these estimates. All recharge to the ground-water is not
available for withdrawal, since part of it is lost as sub-surface flow. After accounting from
these losses, the gross available ground-water recharge is about 269,960 million cubic
meters per annum. A part of this recharge (2,460 million cubic meters) is in the saline
regions of the country and isunsuitable for use in agriculture owing to its poor quality. The
net recharge available for ground-water development in India, therefore, is of the
magnitude ofabout 267,500 million cubic meters per annum. The Working Group of the
Planning Commission Task Force Ground-Water Reserves estimated that the usable
ground-water potential would be only 75 to 80 per cent of the net ground- water recharge
available and recommended a figure of 203,600 million cubic
meters per annum as the long-term potential for ground-water development in India.

Recharging: Artificial recharge provides ground water users an opportunity to increase the
amount of water available during periods of high demand--typically summer months. Past
interest in artificial recharge has focused on aquifers that have declined because of heavy
use and from which existing users have been unable to obtain sufficient water to satisfy
their needs.

Transfer of surface water: Basically, it's the movement of surface water from one river
basin into another. The actual transfer is the amount of water not returned to its source
basin. The most typical situation occurs when a water system has an intake and wastewater
discharge in different basins. But other situations also cause transfers. One is where a
system's service area covers more than one basin. Any water used up or consumed in a
portion of the service area outside of the source basin would be considered part of a transfer
(e.g. watering your yard). Transfers can also occur between interconnected systems, where
a system in one basin purchases water from a system in another basin.

Implementation of water resources projects

Water being a state subject, the state governments has primary responsibility for use and
control of this resource. The administrative control and responsibility for development of
water rests with the various state departments and corporations. Major and medium
irrigation is handled by the irrigation / water resources departments. Minor irrigation is
looked after partly by water resources department, minor irrigation corporations and zilla
parishads / panchayats and byother departments such as agriculture. Urban water supply is
generally theresponsibility of public health departments and panchayatas take care of rural
water supply. Government tube-wells are constructed and managed by the irrigation/water
resources department or by the tube-well corporations set up for the purpose. Hydropower
is the responsibility of the state electricity boards.

Due to the shared responsibilities, as mentioned above, for the development ofwater
resources projects there have been instances of conflicting interests amongst various state
holders.

Constitutional provisionsfor water resources development

India is a union of states. The Constitutional provisions in respect of allocation of
responsibilities between the State and Center fall into three categories: the UnionList (List-
I), the State List (List-II) and the Concurrent List (List-III). Article 246 of the Constitution
deals with subject matter of laws to be made by the Parliament and by Legislature of the
States. As most of the rivers in the country are inter- State, the regulation and development
of waters of these rivers is a source of inter-State differences and disputes. In the
Constitution, water is a matter included in entry 17 of List-II i.e., State List. This entry is
subject to provision of entry 56 of List-I i.e., Union List. The specific provisions in this
regard are as under:

• Article 246
Notwithstanding anything in clauses (2) and (3), Parliament has exclusive power to
make laws with respect to any of the matters enumerated in List-Iin the seventh
schedule (in this Constitution referred to as the “UnionList”).
1) Notwithstanding anything in clauses (3), Parliament, and, subject toclause
(1), the Legislature of any State also, have power to make laws with respect
to any of the matters enumerated in List-III in the seventh schedule (in this
Constitution referred to as the “ConcurrentList”).
2) Subject to clauses (1) and (2), the Legislature of any state has exclusive
power to make laws for such state or any part thereof withrespect to any of
the matters enumerated in List-II in the seventh schedule (in this
Constitution referred to as the “State List”).
3) Parliament has power to make laws with respect to any matter for any part
of the territory of India not included in a State notwithstanding that such
matter is a matter enumerated in the StateList.

• Article 262
In case of disputes relating to waters, article 262 provides:
1) Parliament may by law provide for the adjudication of any dispute or
complaint with respect to the use, distribution or control of the watersof, or
in, any inter-State river or river-valley.
2) Notwithstanding anything in this Constitution, Parliament may, by law
provide that neither the Supreme Court nor any other Court shall exercise
jurisdiction in respect of any such dispute or complaint as is referred to in
clause (1).

• Entry 56 of list I of seventh schedule

Entry 56 of List I of seventh schedule provides that “Regulation anddevelopment
of inter-State rivers and river valleys to the extent to which
such regulation and development under the control of the Union are declared by
Parliament by law to be expedient in the public interest”.
 • Entry 17 under list II of seventh schedule
Entry 17 under List II of seventh schedule provides that “Water, that is to say, water
supplies, irrigation and canals, drainage and embankments, water storage and
water power subjects to the provisions of entry 56 ofList I”.
As such, the Central Government is conferred with powers to regulate and develop
inter-State rivers under entry 56 of List I of seventh schedule to the extent declared
by the Parliament by law to be expedient in the public interest.
It also has the power to make laws for the adjudication of any dispute relating to
waters of Inter-State River or river valley under article 262 ofthe Constitution.

Central agencies in water resources sector

Some of the important offices working under the Ministry of Water Resources,
Government of India (website of the ministry: http://wrmin.nic.in) which plays key role in
assessing, planning and developing the water resources of the country areas follows:

• Central Water Commission (CWC)

• Central Ground Water Board (CGWB)
• National Water Development Agency (NWDA)
• Brahmaputra Board
• Central Water and Power Research Station (CWPRS)
• Central Soil and Materials Research Station (CSMRS)
• National Institute of Hydrology (NIH)
• Ganga Flood Control Commission (GFCC)
• Water and Power Consultancy Services (India) ltd (WAPCOS)
• National Projects Construction Corporation ltd (NPCC)

Detailed activities of the above departments may be obtained from the Ministry ofWater
Resources web-site.

Although not directly under the ministry of water resources, the National Hydropower
Corporation (NHPC) as well as Rail India Technical Engineers Services (RITES) also
actively participate in water resources development projects.