Haryana Chief Minister Manohar lal on Monday accorded administrative approval for implementation of Rs 50-crore national hydrology project to be set up in the State as a Central scheme with 100 per cent central assistance.
The project is aimed at improving the extent, quality and accessibility of information about water resources, and strengthening the capacity of water resource management institutions in the country.
The direct beneficiaries of the project include central and state implementing agencies responsible for surface and/or ground water planning and management, including river basin organisations and users of the Water Resource Information System across various sectors and around the world, said an official spokesman.
He said that the ultimate beneficiaries would be farm communities selected for pilot projects for water management, rural and urban water and power users, populations affected by floods and droughts, and such farm families as may benefit from improved irrigation water supply and management.
Besides, stakeholders across the energy, inland waterways, environment and agriculture ministries, research and educational institutions, students and researchers, non-governmental organisations, civil society organisations and the private sector would also stand to gain.
He said central assistance had been allotted to Haryana for implementation of the project in four components, namely improving water resources monitoring system, improving water resources information system, improving water resources management application and improving institutions and capacity building.
A memorandum of agreement and financial management under the National Hydrology Project has already been signed between Irrigation and Water Resources Department, Haryana and Union Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.
Giving further details, the spokesman said that the project would establish monitoring networks in Haryana, with a focus on deploying new sensors, data storage and telemetry technologies across the whole State, to establish comprehensive, modern and automated real-time monitoring systems for surface and ground water.
Under this, enhanced use would be made of powerful earth observation systems to provide improved information about water resources. Comprehensive data management systems would be further developed and deployed nation-wide. The project would also develop and demonstrate tools for water resources assessment, hydrologic and flood inundation forecasting, water infrastructure operations, groundwater modelling, and river basin and investment planning, said he.
He said that the project would also build on the dramatic advances in cloud computing, internet, mobile devices, social media and other communication tools to modernise access to and visualisation of customised water information by different stakeholders. The state and central implementing agencies would be required to have a dedicated Project Monitoring Unit (PMU). The State Project Monitoring Unit (SPMU) in the Haryana Irrigation and Water Resources Department would implement and monitor the activities relating to National Hydrology Project under the Technical Assistance and Management Consultancy constituted by the Central Government, said he.
Apart from this, state implementing agencies would also work in close coordination with the Union Ministry and central agencies to derive maximum benefits through design of hydro-met network, integration of data of the states and improving accessibility through NWIC, River Basin Models for flood forecasting, flash floods and inundation in the affected areas in greater detail, improved assessment of their basin-wise water resources and other works, added the spokesman.