RESOLVING WATER
SUPPLY PROBLEMS OF VISAKHAPATNAM,CHENNAI AND BANGALORE
Prof.T.Shivaji Rao
Director, Center for
Environmental Studies,
GITAM University,
Visakhapatnam
A brief history of the
development of water supply systems for Visakhapatnam is perhaps desirable when
Visakhapatnam was a district head quarters, the authorities planned for a water
supply scheme and the Mudasarlova project was executed in 1902 with a capacity
of 4 lakh gallons per day (0.4 MGD) to
serve a ultimate population of 40,000 with the growth of industries and the
town. The Gosthani water supply scheme
of 4 MGD executed by the military in 1942 was taken over by the
Municipality. In order to make further
improvements the authorities executed
Gambhiram gedda scheme to supply 18 lakh gallons (1.8 MGD) , 1957 to
supply water during one season. To meet
the increasing water demand the authorities executed a scheme in 1967 to supply
10 MGD from the reservoir at Tatipudi under the irrigation department. Additionally 10 MGD was drawn by 1989 from a
new reservoir on Meghadrigedda to meet the increasing demand for water for
domestic and industrial needs. Another
15 MGD water supply scheme was started in 1995 by using the canals from Raiwada
and Yeleru reservoirs. Thus the design
capacity of water supply to Visakhapatnam comes to 40 MGD out of which half of
it is used for domestic purposes, while the other half is used by the
industries, other than the steel plant which has its own water supply through a
long canal from Yeleru reservoir which was constructed mainly to provide 5 TMC
of water flowing through Yeleru left main canal to the Kanithi balancing
reservoir of the Steel plant. At one
time the city was getting only 34 MGD out of which 19 MGD was used for domestic
purposes and 15 MGD for industries.
About 3000 public taps and 3000 bore wells are used for domestic water
supply. In most of the years
there is a shortage of water supply as the demand is 45 MGD as against supply
of 24 MGD and the shortage of 21 MGD is
made good by installing ground water pumping.
The right to life under the constitution is not only the right
to health but also the right to safe drinking water and some courts gave
finding that supplying safe water to its citizens becomes the first charge of a
civic body like a Municipality or a corporation. In the case of Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation some of
the suggestions to be considered for overcoming the present water crisis in the
immediate short term and long term action plans are detailed below.
For meeting the entire domestic consumption of about 13
lakhs of people of Visakhapatnam at the rate of 30 gpcd the city requires 39 MGD of water. The existing water sresources at Tatipudi,
Raiwada, Meghadrigedda, Gosthani and the water allocated to Visakhapatnam by
the state Government will be adequate in normal years. The municipal Corporation need not spend
extra funds to get water for domestic consumption from the proposed Godavari
industrial water supply project which is estimated to cost Rs.10,700 crores as
per the state Government website http://www.apsez/andhra/industrial_water.htm
1.Immediate Action Plan:
a) To sink borewells at suitable places in
the reservoirs and the stream beds and Thatipudi, Raiwada, Megadarigadda and
also the recently dried up storages at Mudasarlova, Gambhiram gedda and
Ghostani
b) To sink borewells in traditional areas
with springs such as East point colony , old vekogipalem, police grounds and
Hindustan Polymers area
c) the existing water under Raiwada and
Thatipudi must be completely reserved for providing drinking water to the city
by paying compensation to the farmers as an emergency measure for this year
only.
d) the industrial water consumption maybe
reasonably reduced by requesting them to reduce consumption by good house
keeping and also by recycling and reuse of waste water for atleast secondary
purposes like cooling, flushing, gardening, etc.
e) the muncipal water supply maybe rationed
to those houses which are already having alternate sources like well, hand
pumps and bore wells.
Reservoirs utilisation is based
on one and half times filling.State
Government is committed by G.O. to supply 5 TMC of Yeleru to the Steel Plant,
11MGD from Tatipudi, 27MGD from Raiwada, 2 MGD from Gambheeram, 10 MGD from
Meghadrigedda. But the Raiwada is giving
water to Visakhapatnam city by suppressing the proposed 6000 acres for cultivation. State Government may suppress irrigation for
this year under Tatipudi and Tandava also by compensating the farmers for
diverting water to the city.
Year
|
Population (in lakhs)
|
Water needed
(in MGD)
|
Present supply (in MGD)
|
Additional water (in MGD)
|
2102
|
18.65
|
61.60
|
42.50
|
19.60
|
2015
|
20.96
|
69.20
|
42.50
|
26.70
|
2020
|
23.28
|
76.80
|
42.50
|
34.30
|
2040
|
36.00
|
116.00
|
42.50
|
73.50
|
WATER RESOURCES – WATER
AVAILABILITY
Reservoir
|
Distance (in Km)
|
Water Supply (in MGD)
|
Godavari
|
156/212
|
15.20
|
Raiwada
|
67
|
15.60
|
Tatipudi
|
62
|
8.00
|
Mehadrigedda
|
20
|
8.50
|
Gosthani
|
30
|
5.10
|
Mudasarlova
|
10
|
0.50
|
Gambheeram (few months
|
20
|
0.40
|
MGR Filtration
|
25
|
1.20
|
WS Schemes (lift) (Villages)
|
3.00
|
|
Total Supply
|
57.50
|
FUTURE WATER
NEEDS
Year
|
Population
(lakhs)
|
Water Demand
Domestic Industrial
|
Total Demand
(MGD)
|
Present Supply
(MGD)
|
Deficit
(MGD)
|
|
2001
|
13
|
52
|
17
|
69
|
37
|
32
|
2010
|
17
|
68
|
27
|
95
|
37
|
58
|
2020
|
19
|
76
|
37
|
113
|
37
|
76
|
Future
demands of Water supply for domestic and Industrial needs by 2021 AD
Water Demand (MGD)
|
|||
2001
|
2011
|
2021
|
|
Domestic
Visakhapatnam city
|
53
|
66
|
84
|
Industrial
Existing Industries including Steel Plant
|
76
|
82
|
124
|
Special Economic Zone
|
37
|
37
|
|
Mega Industrial park
|
14
|
14
|
|
Other Industries
|
41
|
41
|
|
Total Industrial
|
174
|
216
|
|
Source:VUDA
2.SHORT TERM ACTION PLAN
Considering the minimal
water losses may help in ensuring
a more reliable source of water
supply. This may be examined from the
economical, technical and environmental angle.
a)
City can get
additional water supply from surplus flood flows from the rivers of North coastal Andhra like
Janjhawati and Nagavali to transported by a gravity canal to feed the Thatipudi
and Megadrigadda reservoirs
b)
The Janjhawati
reservoir maybe completed by closing the river section and construction of
spillway without facing any objections from the Orissa state .For this purpose
the height of storage of water maybe restricted to the extent agreeable to
Orissa government with a provision to extend to the full height after the inter
state dispute is settled. The overflow from the Janjhawati reservoir can be
discharged into a high level canal and taken to another reservoir to be
constructed near Ramabhadrapuram and the water thus stored can be fed by
gravity canal to Thatipudi reservoir. Hence Janjhawati may be completed on a
war footing. It is proposed to divert 4 TMC from Janjhawati during monsoon
months from August to December at a cost of Rs.50 crores in 1994 and about Rs.60
to 70 crores in 2001. Including the
improvements like raising the spillway of Tatipudi and strengthening its
embankments the total cost comes to about Rs.100 crores. The bed level at the Janjhawati off take
for the high level canal is 442.50ft. and its level at the point of diversion
to Tatipudi is +426.35ft and the FRL of Tatipudi is +299ft with the extension
canal length is being 78km.
c)
As an alternative to
the Janjhawati project with its high level canal a new reservoir scheme can be
taken up at Purnapadu on Nagavali where its rocky bed level is at +400ft above
mean sea level at Labesu.
d)
A reservoir of about
2.5 TMC can be constructed on the left bank of Nagavali at Purnapadu including
a diversion barrage at Labesu from where about 4 TMC of water can be
transferred into Tatipudi over a distance of 120km by gravity and this project
costs of about Rs.120 crores. The
drinking and irrigation requirements of the local people can be easily met by
the proposed Thotapalli barrage and the Janjhawati dam under construction.
e)
In order to increase
the water availability in Thandava reservoir some water can b diverted from an
upstream reservoir to be constructed on Sileru river. So that the water can be
fed into Yeleru canal to feed upto Visakhapatnam.
f)
In order to augment
annual rain fall by about 20% to 40% to improve the water storage in all the
concerned reservoirs in North coastal Andhra by warm cloud seeding and cold
cloud seeding experiments may be conducted by following the procedure adopted
in many countries like United States and Israel
3.LONG TERM ACTON PLAN:
a) As
part of the national water grid for linking Ganga with Cauvery river the
linking of Mahanadi with Godavari is under active consideration by the central
govt. and this component may be taken up immediately to satisfy the drinking,
industry and irrigation needs of not only Visakhapatnam. But the entire
northern coastal Andhra district. A
major reservoir is proposed to be constructed on Mahanadi in Orissa. From this reservoir about 400 TMC of water is
proposed to be used by allocating 120 TMC of water for irrigating the lands in
Orissa state to an extent of about 3.5 lakh ha.
and 20 TMC for irrigating 76,000 ha. in Srikakulam, 10,000ha. in
Vizianagaram and 15,500ha in Visakhapatnam.
About 30 TMC of water will be lost during transport and the remaining 230
TMC will be discharged into the Godavari river upstream of the cotton barrage
at Rajahmundry. The water utilisation
can be readjusted by the state Government to meet the drinking, industrial and
irrigation needs of the North coastal districts of the state. Since the cost of the project is estimated at
Rs.8000 crores and the length of the canal is about 930km. Since the share of the state for this project
will be very small. The state Government must request the Centre to take up
this project immediately.
b) Alternatively
if the scheme is going to be delayed the
state govt. may kindly request the central govt. to take up the construction of
Polavaram project by setting up a corporation like the one created for the
construction of Tehri and Narmada dams so that the necessary funds can be
provided by international funding agencies, non-resident Indians, foreign
countries, NABARD and beneficiaries under the project. If this project is to materialize the state
Government must take up simultaneously with the Central Government the
construction of a modified Inchampalli and multiple barrages Polavaram project so
that the Godavari waters can be used not only for power generation but also for
supply of drinking and irrigation water to the Telangana and Rayalaseema by
linking up Godavari, Krishna and Pennar rivers as suggested by NWDA during
1980s. For this purpose a state
Government may request the Central Government to take up this component as part
of the Southern water grid of the Ganga-Cauvery link proposed by the Central
Government.
CLOUD SEEDING TO
SOLVE WATER SCARCITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS
The
key role played by a good water supply as an engine of economic growth and as a
yard stick of public welfare and national prosperity has been well recognized
by the intellectuals of the developed countries like USA who aptly named water
as the “Blue Gold”. The more the water wealth of a nation the higher will be
the opportunities for achieving high
rates of progress in the fields of agriculture production and industrial growth
that help in promoting economic wealth, employment opportunities and higher
standards of living. Hence the advanced countries are constantly upgrading
their water resources by harnessing not only all the ground and surface waters
but also by tapping a renewable, virtually unlimited and unexploited sky water
resource in the atmosphere in the form of innumerable clouds. Enlightened
scientists, bureaucrats, industrialists and statesmen in about 50 countries are
frequently using cloud seeding operations for over 40 years for the following
purposes and for improving the environmental assets
1. Increase of annual
rainfall for drinking and agricultural purposes,
2. Increase of hydro-power
generation at the cheapest cost
3. Suppression of hail
storms to reduce damage to life, crops and properties
4. mitigation of
devastating impacts of recurring droughts
5. mitigation of damaging
impacts of global warming and summer temperatures
6. increase of annual rain
fall for improving the forests, wildlife and the environment
7. dispersal of fog in
airports and metropolitan city roads
8. augmenting river flows
to resolve interstate water sharing problems
9. augmenting snowfall in
Himalayas to arrest the receding snowline
Several
progressive countries like USA, Australia, China, Thailand, European states,
former states of USSR, Latin American states, Arab states, Indonesia and
Pakistan are getting highly benefited by employing the advanced cloud seeding
technologies for the above purposes.. Several Indian states interested in
promoting economic growth, agriculture development and public welfare are eager
to learn from the successful experiences of other countries like China and USA
and adopt those technologies by making necessary modifications to suit the
local meteorological, topographical, geographical and other environmental
conditions.
Cloud seeding is done to make some clouds to grow
and give rain, and some clouds which give only about 10% to 20% of their water
content as rainfall to increase the rainfall by seeding by 30 to 50% at a cost
benefit ratio of 1:20 by using aeroplanes and 1:60 by using ground generators.
Due to the heat from the Sun the water in the rivers, lakes and Oceans becomes
water vapour. As this hot moist water
vapour in the air rises into the sky
the temperature gets reduced at 7oC
per km height in the sky, the water vapour condenses over smoke and dust
particles to form cloud droplets of 20 microns in diameter [micron is a
millionth of a meter] A million cloud
droplets must join together to form a raindrop of 1mm size to fall over the
earth as rainfall or snowfall
Rain Formation:
If a warm cloud does not contain sufficient number of giant size water
drops or hygroscopic particles the cloud
cannot give 10% to 20% of its moisture as rainfall. In cold clouds whose tops
attain freezing level in the sky, insufficient number of ice-nuclei prevents
the clouds from giving more than 20% of
the water content as in the form of rainfall or snowfall.
How Cloud Seeding Helps?: If warm clouds have to
give more rain we have to inject into them chemicals like hygroscopic common
salt or Calcium powder into such clouds We have to inject Silver Iodide particles into cold clouds
which extend into freezing zone for about 15km into the sky. So the injection of seeding chemicals into the clouds causes them to
produce additional rainfall upto 25 %
Why Cloud Seeding Is
Unavoidable?: In Modern Times Urbanization,
industrialization and deforestation are increasing the environmental pollution
and global warming which are preventing the clouds from giving the normal
rainfall and consequently drinking water supply and agriculture production,
hydro power generation and employment opportunities are adversely
effected. Hence cloud seeding must be
undertaken to supply more water to correct the above man made problems.
What is scientific secret for
warm clouds to produce about 25%
additional rainfall?:
When hygroscopic chemicals like common salt are
sprinkled into the warm clouds the water molecules with their negative oxygen
ends interact with the positive sodium ions and the positive ends of hydrogen
surround the negative chloride ions.
Consequently the water molecules pull out sodium ions and chloride ions
one by one from the salt crystal and in the process Giant Condensation Nuclei
(GCN) of over 40 microns are formed.
These Giant nuclei help to transform lakhs of smaller cloud drops into
big rain drops of about 1 mm in size. Due
to the chemical reaction heat is liberated within the cloud and consequently
more moist air is sucked into the cloud that grows in its size and thereby
rainfall is also increased. Depending upon the
geographical, topographical and meteorological conditions the additional rain
varies from 10% to 25% in a given area.
Some warm clouds of about 1km height do not give rain and due to
insufficient number of giant size nuclei (GCN) some larger clouds give only10%
to 20% of their water content as rain while the remaining water content
dissipates as moisture into the atmosphere Hence we have to inject optimum number of chemical
nuclei to extract more water than what the clouds give in their natural course.
See the following figure.
Each ion of the solid
crystal becomes surrounded by water molecules, with the negative end [O-] of
the water molecules approaching closest to the positive sodium ions [Na+], and
the positive end[H+] of the water molecules surrounding the negative chloride
ions[Cl-]. The water molecules pull these ions, one by one, away from the rest
of the crystal and in the process Giant condensation nuclei[GCN] for Rain Drops
form Polar water molecules oriented in one way around sodium ions and another
way around chloride ions
What is scientific secret for
Cold clouds to produce by about 30% additional rainfall?:
At temperatures below freezing, the saturation
vapour pressure of ice is less than that over a droplet of water. Water
evaporates from droplet and deposits on ice.The water droplet droplet
dissipates while ice crystal grows into a snowflake. . Due to the chemical reaction heat is
liberated within the cloud and consequently more moist air is sucked into the
cloud that grows in its size and thereby rainfall is also increased. Depending upon the geographical,
topographical and meteorological conditions the additional rain varies from 15
to 30%. Due to insufficient number of
ice nuclei some cold clouds do not give rain and some larger clouds give
only10% to 20% of their water content as rain while the remaining water content
dissipates as moisture into the atmosphere. Hence we have to inject optimum
number of ice nuclei or their equivalent nuclei in the form of silver iodide to
extract more water than what the clouds give in their natural course.
Does cloud seeding promote the
stealing of one region’s water by people of another region?
According to one expert ,the amount of moisture that
falls "naturally" as rain at any point in the world is a very, very
small fraction of the total amount of water (actually water vapor) that is
moving over that point at any time. So if you cause more rain to fall from a
thunderstorm through weather modification than what would fall normally, the
additional amount
of water vapor it removes would be insignificant and hard to detect. The churning
in the atmosphere that occurs as the winds push it along would quickly
replenish the water vapor that was removed. Thus there would be little or no
discernable difference in available water vapor downwind from where the
precipitation fell out. Also, you need to realize that the extra rain caused by
cloud seeding is not removed from the system but rather moves back into the
atmosphere through evaporation or transpiration from plants, and is then
available to help produce more clouds down wind. This is part of the
hydrological cycle, which is what drives most of the weather on this planet.
China Is World Leader In Cloud
Seeding: In China 37,000 technicians are employed to
produce additional annual rainfall of
about 60 billion cubic meters or about 1800 TMC (Thousand Million Cubic ft) which is
equivalent to the annual river flow in Krishna River in South India. The cost
benefit ratio is estimated at 1:29.
Cloud seeding is done in more than 40 countries like
United States, Japan, China, Thailand, South Africa, Canada, Australia,
Pakistan, Indonesia, Latin America, Arabian States, Russia etc., during the last 50 years. India must take
up cloud seeding to fight the recurring droughts and also to resolve the interstate
water disputes in the Cauvery, Krishna and other rivers and also to fight the
damaging impacts of global warming.
Although several doubts have been raised by scientists in USA and other
countries Chinese Meteorologists have researched and established that cloud seeding is not
only highly scientific but is also a proven technology, if done on scientific
lines.
Presently cloud seeding operations are proposed to
be conducted by the state Governments of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh
and other states due to the prevailing large scale water scarcity. The hydro-power generation in Karnataka can
be increased by augmenting water availability by squeezing the sky water by
cloud seeding. The annual flows in all the
rivers like Cauvery, Krishna, Penna and their tributaries can be increased by
about 20% so that the additional rainfall can be used to resolve the inter
–state river water disputes in South India.
Precipitation in
India : The summer monsoon from the South West starts
from the equatorial belt and crosses over India in two distinct currents known
as the Arabian sea branch and theBay of Bengal branch. According to National
Commission of Agriculture, during the 4 rainy monsoon months of June to
September the Arabian branch carries moisture amounting to about 770 Mham (7700
BCM) and the Bay of Bengal branch, about 340 Mham (3400 BCM). Of the monsoon
moisture content about 25% to 30% precipitates in the form of rainfall. There
is a substantial amount of moisture over the country during the remaining 8
months, contributing a precipitation of about 100 Mham (1000 BCM) a small part
being snowfall. About 3000 rain gages are set up for recording the rainfall by
the Indian Meteorological Department and the state Governments. The national
annual average
rainfall of about 120 cm provide annual precipitation of about 390 to 400 Mham
(4000 BCM) including snowfall which is not yet fully recorded.
If you would like to learn more about scientific
cloud seeding operations being conducted in several countries all over the
world browse through the following web sites and their links :
(President’s commendation on
cloud seeding for Indians to take follow up action by IMD
As an
alternative to Polavaram dam project the Government of India proposed to augment water supplyto the Krishna
basin, Pennar basin and Cauvery river basins the Planning Commission suggested
to National Water Development Agency to prepare a project to transfer excess
flood water from Sabari river in Orissa by linking up with Indravati river from where water is lifted into Gadchiroli
project on Pranahita and send water of more than 500 TMC through tunnels by
crossing over Godavari river and then dropped into Srisailam reservoir through
tunnels. This additional water supply is proposed to be distributed for
irrigation purposes in Andhra Pradesh,Tamil Nadu and even Karnataka. So that Karnataka inturn can supply water
from Tungabhadra High Level Canal to the higher levels of drought prone
districts of Anantapur and Cuddaph to make Rayalaseema a fertile land for
growing paddy and other dry crops. The
following is the sketch containing the different interlinking projects from Kolab
river in Orissa to Pennar river in Tamil Nadu.
The surplus water join in Bay of Bengal from Godavari can be diverted
through the following several river links to permanently resolve water supply
problems being faced by the developing
cities and state capitals like Visakhapatnam, Chennai and Bangalore.
