Bengaluru, June 17 (Karnataka Information): National Hydrology Project(NHP), a world Bank supported Central Sector Scheme, is being implemented by Department of water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation (DOWR,RD&GR) on pan India basis. The objective of the project is to improve the extent, quality, and accessibility of water resources information and to strengthen the capacity of targeted water resources professionals and management institutions in India joint Secretary (Admin., IC&GW) & CVO of Department of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation, Government of India Subodh Yadav said.
Mr.Subhodh Yadav was speaking today at the inauguration of “5th world Bank Mission for Implementation Support “held at hotel Lalit Ashok in Bengaluru. said “In line with defined objective, NHP is striving hard to bring transformation in the water resources sector as whole. Moving away from the current system of decision making based on experience and judgments, improved water management is being attempted through introduction of informed decision making, relying on a host of modern analytical tools and loads of data from automated sensors on each component of water cycle in real-time or near real-time. The same is being done in a collaborative mode by involvement of Central and State Government Organizations to ensure proper capacity building is there and the sense of ownership prevails among the Organizations referred as implementing Agencies (IAs) of NHP. There are 48 IAs which are taking forward this initiative spanned over a period of 8 years (from 2016-17 to 2023-24). Water Resources Department, Karnataka is one of the implementing Agencies under NHP.
For reviewing the progress of implementation of NHP and to provide support to the implementing Agencies, Missions are being organized regularly at various locations in the country. For review of Southern Implementing Agencies, Bengaluru, Karnataka has been selected to be the venue. The mission is being held on 17 – and 18 June 2022 in which 16 implementing agencies representing 8 states and 4 Central agencies are participating.
During the course of mission, apart from review of implementation process, the implementing agencies would be showcasing a few initiatives taken under NHP which are supporting the states in better water resources management such as establishment of Real Time Hydro met Data acquisition system, Supervisory control and Data Acquisition system (SCADA), development of Decision Support System for planning and management of water resources, etc. All these activities are helping the various departments in extreme event management, better water resources planning and informed decision making for maximizing the benefits from the investments.
Under NHP, Karnataka has taken initiative in installation of 1594 number of stations for real time data acquisition for Surface and ground water, assessment of latest capacity of 7 numbers of reservoirs which has reduced on account of siltation. Apart from this, NHP has helped the Government of Karnataka in infrastructure strengthening in water quality monitoring through water quality labs.
The Task Team Leader, World Bank, Dr. Anju Gaur, Senior Joint Commissioner NPMU,NHP Rakesh Kashyap, Senior Joint Commissioner, NPMU, NHP Dr. D Gnanasundar, Nodal officer/Chief Engineer Water Resources Development organization, National Hydrology Project Arvind Devanna Kanagila, Seretary WRD, Krishnamurthy B Kulakarni were present.