Indian Water Supply or Development Agencies

NATIONAL WATER DEVELOPMENT AGENCY
National water development agent (NWDA) was set up in July, 1982 as Autonomous Society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 under Ministry of Water Resources to carry out the water balance and other studies on a scientific and realistic basic for optimum utilisation of Water Resources of the Peninsular Rivers System for preparation of feasibility reports for interbasin transfer of water and thus to give concrete shape to Peninsular rivers Development Component of National Perspective Plan envisage by the Ministry of Water Resources. In 1990 NWDA was also entrusted with the task of Himalayan Rivers Development Component of the National Perspective.

NWDA has so far identified and investigated 16 links for peninsular rivers and 14 for the Himalayan Rivers and has carried out pre-feasibility studies with respect to about 6 of them. The Supreme court of India, in response to a public interest litigation(PIL) against inordinate delay of rivers a task for which NWDA was created about two decades ago. The president of India an avowed scientist in his own right also lent his wisdom in favour of the grand scheme. In accordance with the directive of the Supreme Court , the Task Force has been set up with a time bound mandate of taking various steps towards the implementation of the project in a period of 10 years at a tentatively estimated cost of Rs.5,60,000 crore.

The Agency is headed by the Director General Executive Officer of the Society, responsible for the proper administration of the affairs and funds of the Society and for co-ordination and general supervision of the activities of the Society. The Head Quarter for the Agency is ay New Delhi. It has two field organisations, each headed by a Cheil Engineer, 5 circles each headed by a Superintending Engineer, 15 Divisions each headed by an Executive Engineer and 8 Sub-Divisions each headed by an Assistant Executive Engineer/Assistant Engineer.

OBJECTIVES OF NWDA
To promote scientific development for optimum utilisation of water resources in the country.
To carry out detailed surveys and investigations of possible reservoir sited and interconnecting links in order to establish feasibility of the proposal of Peninsular Fivers Development and Himalayan Rivers Development Components forming part of National Perspective for Water Resources Development prepared by the them Ministry of Irrigation ( now Ministry of Water Resources and Central Water Commission)
To carry out detailed studies about quantum of water in various Peninsular River Systems and Himalayan River Systems and which can be transferred to other basins/States after meeting reasonable needs of basin States in the foreseeable future.
To prepare feasibility reports of various components of the scheme relating to Peninsular Rivers Development and Himalayan Rivers Development.
To take such other actions the Society may consider necessary, incidental supplementary or conducive to the attainment of above objectives.

NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE FOR WATER RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT
The erstwhile ministry of irrigation (now ministry of water resources) and the Central Water Commission had formulated in 1980 a National Perspective Plan for optimum utilization of water resources in the country which envisages inter basin transfer of water from surplus to deficit areas. Apart from diverting water from rivers which are surplus in ultimate stage of development to deficit areas the plan enables flood moderation also. The National Perspective Plan comprises of two main components

Himalayan rivers Development
Peninsular rivers Development

Himalayan Component
NWDA has completed the pre-feasibility studies of fourteen links in the Himalayan component too. They are namely
Manas-Sankosh-Tista Ganga link,
Jogighopa-Tista-Farakka link,
Ganga-Damodar-Subernarekha link,
Subernarekha-Mahanadi link,
Farakka-Sunderbans link,
Gandak-Ganga link,
Ghaghara -Yamuna link,
Sarda-Yamuna link,
Yamuna-Rajasthan link,
Rajasthan-Sabarmati link,
Chunar-Sone Barrage link,
Sone Dam-Southern tributaries of Ganga link,
Kosi- Ghaghara link and
Kosi-Mechi link

Peninsular Components
In this component, NWDA studied in depth water balance studies of various major river basins including Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna, Pennar, Cauvery, Vaigai, West flowing rivers of Kerala, Karnataka, north of Bombay and south of Tapi and southern tributaries of Yamuna to establish water surplus and deficit regions. These studies indicate that while Mahanadi and Godavari basins are water surplus, other basins in Peninsular India such as Krishna, Pennar, Cauvery and Vaigai are water deficit. As a next step, pre-feasibility studies for 16 probable links were carried out, of which 7 feasibility studies have also been completed by NWDA. Also, these studies suggest that it is technically possible and economically viable to transfer water from the surplus river basins to the deficit ones. Each link, in this component is briefly described here. This information is tentative and likely to change at DPR stage.
Mahanadi-Godavari Link
Inchampalli-Nagarjunasagar Link
Inchampalli Low Dam-Nagarjunasagar Tail Pond Link
Polavaram -Vijayawada Link
Almatti-Pennar Link
Srisailam-Pennar Link
Nagarjunasagar-Somasila Link
Somasila-Grand Anicut Link
Kattalai-Vaigai-Gundar Link
Pamba-Achankovil-Vaippar Link
Bedti-Varada Link
Netravati-Hemavati Link
Damanganga-Pinjal Link
Par-Tapi-Narmada Link
Ken-Betwa Link
Parbati-Kalisindh-Chambal Link

BENEFITS FROM PENINSULAR AND HIMALAYAN RIVERS DEVELOPMENT :
On implementation of the proposed National Perspective Plan for inter-basin transfer of water, accrual of irrigation benefits would be to the extent of about 35 million ha (25 M-ha from surface waters and 10M-ha by increased use of ground water) which will be over and above the ultimate potential of 140 M-ha from major, medium and minor irrigation projects and generation of 34 MKW of hydropower apart from the benefits of flood control, navigation, water supply, fisheries, salinity ingress and pollution control.