India’s Waters : Advances in Development and Management

This book examines the critical planning for better development and management of water resources, illustrated with respect to the world’s largest water system. The text addresses important issues including availability and distribution of water, environmental factors, and water sharing. It also provides insights into the supply-demand context (hydrological, social, political, and engineering) related to water resources. In addition to describing current policies and technologies, the author proposes new concepts in the development and management of water as well as novel technologies.

India’s Waters: Advances in Development and Management is a critical study of the development and management of India’s waters. Its central theme is that the current methods in use are an extension of the colonial-era system, which, despite vast growth, has remained essentially the same in terms of developmental concepts, technological activities, and performance. A revolution on several fronts is possible, and this book details the author’s own plans for these advancements.

First the book briefly addresses both the physiographic and hydrologic characteristics of India and its waters, and the current official proposals for their development. Next, the author presents new concepts and policies for development of India’s waters, followed by his proposed technological revolution. The author illustrates how India’s aforementioned unique characteristics enable use of some novel technologies that are unique globally. This fact is key to his proposed revolution, which asserts that water availability can be more than doubled. Even more importantly, water can be placed in the hands of the farmer. On the subject of hydroelectric development, the author explores a novel technology of interspatial intertemporal pumped storage development that would increase both hydroelectric potential and peaking power almost five times over.

On a related note, the book explains advances in water resource developmental planning in terms of a new societal environmental systems management that far surpasses the much vaunted integrated water resources development. The author also talks about the challenges of climate change, demonstrating how his revolutionary technological proposals could be applied to deal with this serious issue.