Transbasin transfer of river waters in Punjab for optimising benefits ; Transbasin water transfers

Abstract

Presented at the 2001 USCID water management conference, Transbasin water transfers on June 27-30, 2001 in Denver, Colorado. ; Includes bibliographical references. ; To utilise the waters of the rivers Sutlej, Beas and Ravi flowing through Punjab, and which come to the exclusive share of India, as per the Indus Waters Treaty-1960 between the Governments of India and Pakistan, a number of projects have been planned, constructed or are under construction on these rivers. These projects have helped in gainfully diverting the waters of river Beas in Sutlej and of river Ravi to Beas, in addition to providing multi-purpose benefits. The projects have brought an agricultural and industrial revolution to the states of Punjab, Haryana and the desert areas of Rajasthan and transformed them into granaries of India. The paper briefly describes the various projects and their salient features. The impacts of the projects on the economy, environment, health, tourism and recreation etc. have been highlighted. Since these projects have enabled the diversion of surplus waters of one river to another, studies for integrated operation and management of waters of these rivers have been carried out for deriving optimum benefits. The paper also describes the real time integrated operation techniques, factors necessitating their adoption, and computer models used for integrated operation of the Bhakra Beas system of reservoirs. It is recommended that for effective utilization of the available waters, and implementation of the real time integrated operation techniques, an automatic data collection and transmission system be installed.