ABOUT NHP UTTARAKHAND

 

Project Development Objective

To improve the extent, quality and accessibility of water resources information and to strengthen the capacity of targeted water resources management institutions in India.

 

Project Beneficiaries

The project has two groups of direct beneficiaries:

• Central and state implementing agencies (IAs) responsible for surface and/or groundwater planning and management, including river basin organizations; and
• Users of the WRIS across various sectors and around the World.

The ultimate beneficiaries will be the selected farm communities benefitted from pilot projects for water management; rural and urban water and power users, populations affected by floods and droughts, especially poor rural people, and farm families who may benefit from improved irrigation water supply and management; stakeholders across the energy, inland waterways, environment and agriculture ministries; research and educational institutions; students and researchers, NGOs, civil society organizations and the private sector.

 

Key Results Indicators

• Improving the extent, quality, and accessibility of water resources data: Number of new or upgraded Water Resources monitoring stations providing validated data online.
• Improving the accessibility of water resources information.
• Strengthening capacity: Number of Water Resources institutions achieving benchmark performance levels.

 

Project Description

• NHP will improve and expand hydrology data and information systems, strengthen water resources operation and planning systems, and enhance institutional capacity for water resources management. The project will thus strengthen the information base and institutional capacity for evidence-based decision making in water resources planning and operational management at the basin scale across India using the latest technology and tools. NHP will contribute to the GOI Digital India initiative by integrating water resources information across state and central agencies.
• NHP will span both states that benefitted from HP-I and HP-II investments and states that were not included in the earlier projects. In the new states, investments will be needed to move beyond existing basic infrastructure, following the approaches developed in the earlier projects. For HP-I and HP-II states, investment will focus on upgrading and completing networks. For all states, the focus will be on using the information generated for water planning and management.
• The expectation is that knowledge, open access and stronger institutional capacity will contribute to a shift towards integrated water resources management at the basin scale. The resulting improved water allocation and use efficiency and the improved management of drought and flood risks are expected to bring substantial socio-economic benefits

A Four Pronged Strategy

• (i) Modernizing monitoring The project will establish monitoring networks in new project states, with a focus on deploying new sensors, data storage and telemetry technologies across the whole country, to establish comprehensive, modern, automated, real-time monitoring systems for surface and groundwater. Enhanced use will be made of powerful earth observation systems to provide improved information on water resources. Comprehensive data management systems will be further developed and deployed nation-wide.
• (ii) Enhancing analytical tools The project will develop and demonstrate tools for water resources assessment, hydrologic and flood inundation forecasting, water infrastructure operations, groundwater modeling, and river basin and investment planning.
• (iii) Transforming knowledge access The project will build on the dramatic advances in cloud computing internet, mobile devices, social media and other communication tools to modernize access to and visualization of customized water information by different stakeholders.
• (iv) Modernizing institutions The project will complement technology investments with investments in people and institutional capacity. Support will be provided for developing centers of expertise, innovative learning approaches, collaboration with academia and research institutes and outreach programs. Office and equipment will be modernized to streamline workflows in order to effectively leverage the technology investments.