Govt okays NHP for water resources data acquisition, storage, management

For setting up of a system for timely and reliable water resources data acquisition, storage, collation and management, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the implementation of the National Hydrology Project (NHP), a central sector scheme, with a total outlay of Rs. 3679.7674 crore.

This includes Rs.3,640 crore for NHP and Rs. 39.7674 crore for National Water Informatics Centre (NWIC), to be taken up in two stages. Out of the total outlay, 50 percent of the amount, Rs.1839.8837 crore, would be World Bank loan, which would be repaid by the Central Government. The remaining 50% that is Rs. 1839.8837 crore would be Central Assistance from the budgetary support. The entire World Bank's loan component and Central assistance to the States and Central Organisations will be passed on to them as Grants.

It also provides for establishment of NWIC as an independent organisation under the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation (MoWR, RD&GR).

The NHP will help gather hydro-meteorological data, which 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 project envisages covering the entire country as the earlier hydrology projects covered only 13 states.

The NHP is intended for setting up of a system for timely and reliable water resources data acquisition, storage, collation and management. It will also provide tools/systems for informed decision making through Decision Support Systems (DSS) for water resources assessment, flood management, reservoir operations, drought management, etc.

The NHP also seeks to build capacity of the State and Central sector organisations in water resources management through the use of Information Systems and adoption of State-of-the-art technologies like Remote Sensing.

The MoWR, RD&GR has adopted a paradigm shift in the management of water resources of the country by adopting a river basin approach.

In order to efficiently use and manage water resources of the country; adequacy of data, resource assessment, decision support systems, etc. are a prerequisite for allocation and prioritisation of this fast depleting resource.