The Ganges Water Machine

Revelle, Roger; Lakshminarayana, V.

doi:10.1126/science.188.4188.611

Cited by 56 publications

(35 citation statements)

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“…The GWM concept is similar to PDRP (Revelle and Lakshminarayana, 1975). The proposal of Chaturvedi and Srivastava (1979) to increase pumping along the perennial and non-perennial tributaries of the Ganges River, and in irrigation canals prior to the onset of the monsoon, resem-bles the earlier proposed GWM.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 75%

“…The Ganges Water Machine (GWM), proposed by Revelle and Lakshminarayana (1975), may be the most opportune solution to the severe water challenges in the Ganges River basin. The GWM entails (a) increasing infiltration by spreading flood water over the land area by constructing bunds and increasing seepage from irrigation canals by spreading the canal network, and (b) pumping and depleting groundwater from the aquifers during the pre-monsoon period to create sufficient subsurface storage (SSS) and subsequently recharging the SSS by natural or artificial means during the monsoon period.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reviving the Ganges Water Machine: potential

Amarasinghe

Muthuwatta

Surinaidu

et al. 2016

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. The Ganges River basin faces severe water challenges related to a mismatch between supply and demand. Although the basin has abundant surface water and groundwater resources, the seasonal monsoon causes a mismatch between supply and demand as well as flooding. Water availability and flood potential is high during the 3-4 months (June-September) of the monsoon season. Yet, the highest demands occur during the 8-9 months (October-May) of the non-monsoon period. Addressing this mismatch, which is likely to increase with increasing demand, requires substantial additional storage for both flood reduction and improvements in water supply. Due to hydrogeological, environmental, and social constraints, expansion of surface storage in the Ganges River basin is problematic. A range of interventions that focus more on the use of subsurface storage (SSS), and on the acceleration of surface-subsurface water exchange, has long been known as the Ganges Water Machine (GWM). The approach of the GWM for providing such SSS is through additional pumping and depleting of the groundwater resources prior to the onset of the monsoon season and recharging the SSS through monsoon surface runoff. An important condition for creating such SSS is the degree of unmet water demand. The paper shows that the potential unmet water demand ranging from 59 to 124 Bm 3 year −1 exists under two different irrigation water use scenarios: (i) to increase irrigation in the Rabi (November-March) and hot weather (AprilMay) seasons in India, and the Aman (July-November) and Boro (December-May) seasons in Bangladesh, to the entire irrigable area, and (ii) to provide irrigation to Rabi and the hot weather season in India and the Aman and Boro seasons in Bangladesh to the entire cropped area. However, the potential for realizing the unmet irrigation demand is high only in 7 sub-basins in the northern and eastern parts, is moderate to low in 11 sub-basins in the middle, and has little or no potential in 4 sub-basins in the western part of the Ganges basin. Overall, a revived GWM plan has the potential to meet 45-84 Bm 3 year −1 of unmet water demand.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 75%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reviving the Ganges Water Machine: potential

Amarasinghe

Muthuwatta

Surinaidu

et al. 2016

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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“…Thus, it is clear that there is already substantial unmet demand in the basin, which is increasing 2 and needs to be met as soon as possible. With the large intra-annual flow variation, increasing storage capacity is the usual water management The 'Ganges Water Machine' (GWM) is a concept introduced in the mid-1970s by Revelle and Lakshminarayana (1975) to enhance water storage. It is a departure from traditional methods of storing water in surface reservoirs and tanks.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reviving the Ganges water machine: potential and challenges to meet increasing water demand in the Ganges River Basin

Amarasinghe¹,

Muthuwatta²,

Smakhtin³

et al. 2016

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The publications in this series cover a wide range of subjects-from computer modeling to experience with water user associations-and vary in content from directly applicable research to more basic studies, on which applied work ultimately depends. Some research reports are narrowly focused, analytical and detailed empirical studies; others are wide-ranging and synthetic overviews of generic problems.Although most of the reports are published by IWMI staff and their collaborators, we welcome contributions from others. Each report is reviewed internally by IWMI staff, and by external reviewers. The reports are published and distributed both in hard copy and electronically (www.iwmi.org) and where possible all data and analyses will be available as separate downloadable files. Reports may be copied freely and cited with due acknowledgment. About IWMIIWMI's mission is to provide evidence-based solutions to sustainably manage water and land resources for food security, people's livelihoods and the environment. IWMI works in partnership with governments, civil society and the private sector to develop scalable agricultural water management solutions that have a tangible impact on poverty reduction, food security and ecosystem health.

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“…Out of the 1170 billion m 3 (billion cubic meters) of water entering the basin, around 500 billion m 3 become river flow, while the remainder is returned to the atmosphere through evapotranspiration (World Bank, 2015). The monsoon (between June and September) contributes about 80 % of total annual rainfall and about 80 % of the annual river flow (Revelle and Lakshminarayana, 1975). The rainfall during the rest of the year is low and the river flows, generated mainly through recharged groundwater and snowmelt, are barely sufficient to satisfy the water needs of all the sectors (Huda and Shamsul, 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The major causes of floods in the downstream areas are the shallow groundwater table and high monsoonal rainfall in these areas, and the large runoff generated in the upstream sub-basins. Previous studies (Revelle and Lakshminarayana, 1975;Sadoff et al, 2013) indicated that, due to the limitation of the construction of large surface reservoirs, recharging groundwater beyond the natural level is the best way to control floods downstream. Subsurface storage (SSS) also allows one to meet water requirements during the dry months.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reviving the “Ganges Water Machine”: where and how much?

Muthuwatta

Amarasinghe

Sood

et al. 2017

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Runoff generated in the monsoon months in the upstream parts of the Ganges River basin (GRB) contributes substantially to downstream floods, while water shortages in the dry months affect agricultural production in the basin. This paper examines the potential for subsurface storage (SSS) in the Ganges basin to mitigate floods in the downstream areas and increase the availability of water during drier months. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) is used to estimate "sub-basin" water availability. The water availability estimated is then compared with the sub-basinwise unmet water demand for agriculture. Hydrological analysis reveals that some of the unmet water demand in the subbasin can be met provided it is possible to capture the runoff in sub-surface storage during the monsoon season (June to September). Some of the groundwater recharge is returned to the stream as baseflow and has the potential to increase dry season river flows. To examine the impacts of groundwater recharge on flood inundation and flows in the dry season (October to May), two groundwater recharge scenarios are tested in the Ramganga sub-basin. Increasing groundwater recharge by 35 and 65 % of the current level would increase the baseflow during the dry season by 1.46 billion m 3 (34.5 % of the baseline) and 3.01 billion m 3 (71.3 % of the baseline), respectively. Analysis of pumping scenarios indicates that 80 000 to 112 000 ha of additional wheat area can be irrigated in the Ramganga sub-basin by additional SSS without reducing the current baseflow volumes. Augmenting SSS reduces the peak flow and flood inundated areas in Ramganga (by up to 13.0 % for the 65 % scenario compared to the baseline), indicating the effectiveness of SSS in reducing areas inundated under floods in the sub-basin. However, this may not be sufficient to effectively control the flood in the downstream areas of the GRB, such as in the state of Bihar (prone to floods), which receives a total flow of 277 billion m 3 from upstream sub-basins.

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The Ganges Water Machine

Cited by 56 publications

References 1 publication

Reviving the Ganges Water Machine: potential

Reviving the Ganges Water Machine: potential

Reviving the Ganges water machine: potential and challenges to meet increasing water demand in the Ganges River Basin

Reviving the “Ganges Water Machine”: where and how much?

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