Hydrology and Water Resources of

Indo-Gangetic basin
G K Ambili
IWMI, New Delhi

Surface water resources

Surface water resources

Surface water availability
Indus
Average annual flow 226 BCM
Monsoon season- 80%
Ganges
Average annual flow 424 BCM
Indian IGB 598 BCM, 88% in Ganges basin

Average annual discharge of Indus tributaries

Average annual discharge of Ganges tributaries

Hydrologic components

Precipitation
Altitudinal and seasonal variability
Indus- most of precipitation altitudes b/w 2500 m and
6000 m
Average annual precipitation
in Pak-Indus: 205 mm
in India-Indus: 200-1600 cm
Ganges - >70% from South-west monsoon
Annual precipitation increases eastward, 350 mm in
west to 1500mm in delta region

Hydrologic components

Evapotranspiration
Indus:
upper and north-eastern region ET01200-1300 mm
Lower, Southern Punjab and Sindh ET0 1700 2100 mm
Ganges
among the sub-basins, Karnali has highest evaporation
1833 mm/yr

Mean annual Runoff

Indus 100-1500 mm
Ganges - 174 mm 976 mm

Resource Utilization
Irrigation water use

Major irrigation projects

Indus Basin Irrigation system
Irrigating 17 Mha
130 BCM of water, 75% of annual flows in Indus
Bhakra-Nangal Project
Irrigating 1.46 Mha
design duty at head 0.19 l/s/ha

Major irrigation projects-Ganges

Sarda scheme, UP
CCA 2.55 Mha
Sone scheme, South west Bihar
CCA 0.21 Mha
Gandak scheme, North Bihar &
Nepal
CCA1.76 Mha
Ganges-Kobadak (G.K Project),
Bangladesh
CCA 1.98 Mha

Domestic water use, BCM

Pakistan
Indian-IGB
Nepal
Bangladesh

1.25
18.67
0.8
1.76

Groundwater Resources
Groundwater availability and use
Basin

Groundwater
Available
(BCM)

Annual Groundwater Draft (BCM)

Irrigation

Domestic,
Industrial & others

Total

Ganga basin
India
Nepal
Bangladesh
Total

168.7
11.5
64.6

94.4
0.8
25.2

8.2
0.3
4.1

102.4
1.1
29.3

61
10
45

244.8

120.4

12.6

132.8

54

Indus basin
India
Pakistan*
Total

30.2
55.1

36.4
46.2

1.6
5.1

38.0
51.3

126
93

85.3

82.6

6.7

89.3

105

* It is assumed that 90% of groundwater use is consumed by irrigation sector

Stage of GW
Development (%)

Tube-well development in Pakistan

600

No. of tubewells, x1000

500

No. of tubewells

100

Private-owned

99
98

400

97
96

300

95

200

94
93

100
0
1960

92
1970

1980
Year

1990

91
2000

Private owned wells, %of total

Salinity Control and Reclamation Project (SCARP)

719 88
88
19 89
89
19 90
90
19 91
91
19 92
92
19 93
93
19 94
94
19 95
95
19 96
96
19 97
97
19 98
9
19 8-9
99 9
20 200
00 0
-2
00
1

900000
800000
700000
600000
500000
400000
300000
200000
100000
0

Year

18000
16000
14000
12000
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
0

DeepTW

STW
DTW

19
8

Shallow TW

Tube-well Growth in Indian IG Basin

Changing profile of irrigation in South Asia

Key Indian states*

Pakistan Punjab
Sindh
Bangladesh
All areas

Net irrigated area under

surface irrigation

Net irrigated area served by

GW

199394

200001

Change
(%)

1993-94

2000-01

Change
(%)

15,633
4,240
2,300
537
22,709

11,035
3,740
1,960
480
17,215

-29.4
-11.8
-14.8
-10.7
-24.2

17,413
8,760
140
2,124
28,437

21,760
10,340
200
3,462
35,762

+25
+18
+42.9
+63
+25.8

Source: Shah et al., 2008

*Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar and Jharkhand, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Punjab,
Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal, West Bengal

Water related issues

Surface water
Inefficient surface water utilization in Gangetic basin
Improvement of infrastructure to store high runoff in eastern
Gangetic basin
solution to flooding problems
Need to promote conjunctive use

 Increasing stress on the resource from domestic and industrial sector

in urban areas of Gangetic basin
Flexible water allocation rules??
Strategies to combat reduced water availability for irrigationwhether water available will be enough to meet the food needs?
Accessibility of rural poor, livelihood concerns.
Consideration of environmental water requirements at reduced
water availability in future.

 Prone to extreme climatic events, intensified by climate change

Shift in hydrologic cycles
further aggravate competition among sectors in urban sector
Shift in course of river
decrease GW recharge Western IGB
Degradation of surface water quality in Ganges
Improved sanitation, sewage network in urban cities
Polluters pay principle

Groundwater
Over-exploitation of dynamic GW resources and resultant water table
decline
Conjunctive use?
GW recharge measures to improve water table levels
Appropriate energy sector policies- rationalized tariff

Degradation of GW quality
Arsenic contamination
Flouride contamination in West Bengal and Haryana
High concentrations of iron and Mn in Bangladesh

 Water logging and secondary salinization

Saline GW use- impacts on livestock water productivity
esp. in Haryana and Punjab
Socio-economic impacts
Salinity management measures
Crop management, nutrient management, water management
Groundwater development in eastern IGB
Improving rural electrification, low cost pumping technologies
Suitable market mechanisms

Bhakra-Nangal Project

Climate change impacts- Extreme events

Floods

Droughts

Total estimated damages 45000

million US$
Glacial Lake outburst floods
(GLOF)
Eastern Gangetic plains-once in 2
years
Bangladesh every year

51 Mha drought prone area in

India
2002, Gangetic states, damages
of 910 Million US$
Pakistan 1998-2002, surface water
availability reduced by 30%

Plot of Qmaf vs. Qb in Gangetic plains

Surface water quality

Indus- relatively good for agriculture use

Length of river for BOD>6 mg/l (severely polluted): 70 km (1.7%)
Length of river for BOD 3-6 mg/l (moderately polluted): 132 km (3.2%)
Length of river for BOD< 3 mg/l (relatively clean): 3917 km (95.1%)

Surface water quality

Ganges- highly polluted, sewage and industrial wastewater

Length of river for BOD>6 mg/l (severely polluted): 1760 km (13.87%)
Length of river for BOD 3-6 mg/l (moderately polluted): 3612 km (28.46%)
Length of river for BOD< 3 mg/l (relatively clean): 7318 km (57.67%)

GW Over-extraction

Water table decline

Punjab and Haryana upto 1m/yr
In UP: Over-exploited and critical blocks 30 to 50 cm/yr
Madhya Pradesh: Fall upto 4 m observed in certain pockets

Groundwater quality

High concentrations of Iron and Manganese in

GW in Bangladesh
High flouride concentrations in Haryana
Salinity- Irrigation induced, in Haryana, Punjab

Increase in energy cost with declining GW levels, Rachna Doab

Groundwater quality

Arsenic concentrations recorded

510 ppb in Bangladesh
1,891 ppb in Bihar
2,629 ppb in Nepal
Gross Areas Where Arsenic-Polluted Groundwater Has Been Reported

Groundwater quality

Arsenic concentrations in GW
in Bangladesh

State
Bihar
Chattisgarh
Delhi
Haryana
Himachal Pradesh
Jammu&Kashmir
Jharkhand
Madhya Pradesh
Punjab
Rajasthan
Uttar Pradesh
Uttaranchal
West Bengal

Annual GW draft
Irrigation

Domestic

Total

Stage of GW
development

9.39
2.31
0.20
9.10
0.09
0.10
0.70
16.08
30.34
11.60
45.36
1.34
10.84

1.37
0.48
0.28
0.35
0.02
0.24
0.38
1.04
0.83
1.39
3.42
0.05
0.81

10.77
2.80
0.48
9.45
0.12
0.33
1.09
17.12
31.16
12.99
48.78
1.39
11.65

39.00
20.00
170.00
109.00
30.00
14.00
21.00
48.00
145.00
125.00
70.00
66.00
42.00

Spatial variability of ET0 in IBIS

(a)
(b)

Kharif

Rabi

Sub-basin

Precipitation
(mm)

Evaporation Mean annual

(mm)
runoff (mm)

Yamuna
Chambal
Betwa
Ramganga
Sone
Kamali
Gandak
Bagmati
Kosi

809
871
1138
1073
1308
2570
1241
1265
1670

520
697
787
500
714
1833
269
289
892

289
174
351
573
594
737
972
976
778

Mean annual runoff in Indus and tributaries

State

Annual replenishable
groundwater resources

Net
discharge

Net
groundwater
availability

Monsoon

NonTotal
monsoon recharge

Chandigarh
Haryana
Himachal Pradesh
Jammu&Kashmir
Punjab
Rajasthan

0.017
5.67
0.34
1.38
16.89
9.38

0.006
3.64
0.10
1.32
6.90
2.18

0.023
9.31
0.43
2.70
23.78
11.56

0.02
0.68
0.04
0.27
2.33
1.18

0.02
8.63
0.39
2.43
21.44
10.38

Total

33.68

14.15

47.80

4.52

43.29

State

Annual replenishable
groundwater resources

Net
discharge

Net
groundwater
availability

Monsoon

NonTotal
monsoon recharge

Bihar
Chattisgarh
Delhi
Jharkhand
Madhya Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttaranchal
West Bengal

23.41
12.51
0.19
4.4
31.55
50.58
1.64
20.06

5.78
2.43
0.11
1.18
5.64
25.78
0.63
10.3

29.19
14.93
0.3
5.58
37.19
76.35
2.27
30.36

1.77
1.25
0.02
0.33
1.86
6.17
0.17
2.9

27.42
13.68
0.28
5.25
35.33
70.18
2.1
27.46

Total

144.34

51.85

196.17

14.47

181.7

Parameters
Recharge Components
Rainfall recharge
Recharge from canal system
Return flow from irrigation
Domestic and industrial return flows
Other return flows
Recharge from rivers
Total

Punjab

Sindh

NWFP

Baluchistan

12.02
26.34
8.60
0.69
4.25
51.90

2.38
8.21
10.42
0.96
0.36
22.33

1.06
1.21
1.24
0.16
0.16
3.82

1.47
0.35
0.45
0.10
0.22
2.59