MASTER PLAN FOR BASIN DEVELOPMENT

MASTER PLAN FOR BASIN DEVELOPMENT Dr. Bibhash Sarma Assam Engineering College E mail: bsghy@yahoo.co.in INTRODUCTION A Master Plan of a basin/sub-basin is a ready reference for integrated basin/sub-basin development. It helps in carrying different development activities and in taking policy decisions which may include activities and/or restrictions of uses. Goal of river basin Master Plans is to look into proper utilization of available land and water resources to improve the quality of life of people in a sustainable manner. As such preparation of Master Plans involves population, water resources as well as land resources. Formulation of River Basin Master Plan involves consideration of a large number of factors related to various disciplines like engineering, environmental management, sociology, economy connected to water resources. The documentation and data-base created in the Master Plans are valuable piece of information on which all future water resources development works in a region can be based upon. These documents can be used as base line information and implementation agency may take advantage of these documents for developing their projects. SIGNIFICANCE OF BASIN MASTER PLAN Water flows according to natural characteristics and does not respect administrative boundaries - therefore, from pure water resources point of view there might be much logic in managing water according to river basin boundaries. The river basin Master Plan is an action plan, a tool that describes the framework for management of the water and related land resources in the basin. The river basin plan is a tool that outlines how the concept of integrated water resources management is going to be implemented at the concrete (river basin) level. It typically addresses such aspects as: Physical description of the basin Land use inventories Current water availability and demands Pollution source inventories Aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem needs Vulnerability to floods or extreme meteorological events Identification of stakeholders Implications of changing land use Identification of priority issues (impact issues or user requirement issues) Short- and long-term goals for the river basin Water related development scenarios, future water demands Water allocation and water quality objectives Strategy, measures and action plan for achievement of goals Financing of water use and management Responsibility and schedule for implementation Mechanisms for monitoring and updating The formulation of a comprehensive and integrated Master Plan with the aim to revitalize a sound water cycle that is threatened in the process of urbanization and for the overall development of a basin is an extremely time and effort consuming process. In order to ensure a steady progress towards targets, it is vital for the process of actions to include, in addition to long-term objectives, short-term targets (e.g. to be achieved in a specific period of five years). Furthermore, it is imperative to define and adopt a set of measurable indicators to monitor the progress of implementing each individual action plan of the Master Plan. To ensure success and serve as a useful reference on steady implementations of integrated management and action plans, the first priority should be given to feasibility and involvement of all stakeholders from the early stages of the formulation and also during the implementation of the actions. CONTENT OF A BASIN MASTER PLAN The expected content of a Master Plan of a basin may be stated as: Objectives of the Master Plan Detail information about Basin River system Resources Problem: present and future Identification of needs Identification of alternatives to meet the objectives Evaluation of alternatives Technical feasibility study Economical feasibility study Social acceptability Environment impact assessment Financial feasibility study Political practicality Selection of best alternative/alternatives Project details Identification of implementing and financing agency Monitoring and evaluation mechanism STEPS IN PREPARING A MASTER PLAN The steps in preparing a Master Plan can be grouped under fourteen heads. Though each step is given a number, it is not necessary that each step has to be executed in sequence. Parallel executions of many steps are very often possible depending upon the conditions. Step1: Defining broad objectives of the Master Plan National and State water policies may be consulted while preparing the broad objectives of the Master Plan. The objectives may be of the types: Enhancement of national/regional economic development, Enhancement of quality of environment, Development of employment potential, Enhancement of food production, Hazard mitigation, To improve transportation, Development of tourism, etc. Step 2: Selection of basin When Master Plans for many basins/sub-basins are to be prepared, a selection is to be made for prioritizing the work. The factors that may help in selecting a basin/sub-basin are: Severity to risk (most vulnerable basin) Number of people to benefit from the plan Readiness of the community to participate Accessibility of the basin Security of the staff Basin which has acute shortage of drinking water Basin which needs attention for irrigation basin which has a preponderance of waste lands Basin which suffers acute land-slide problem Basin where actual wages are significantly lower than minimum wages. Step3: Risk and Capacity Assessment This is a process to identify the risks that the basin faces and the resources the basin possesses. The process involves hazard, vulnerability and capacity assessment. In doing the assessments, people’s perception of risk is very important. The capacity of the basin may include resources (water bodies, flood mitigation measures, rare species of plants and animals, etc.), community knowledge (indigenous techniques and methods), local NGOs, raw materials, etc. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and Participatory Learning and Actions’ (PLA) are growing families of methods and approaches to enable local people to express, emphasise, share and examine their knowledge of life and conditions to plan and to act. With little effort, instead of making the local community simply beneficiary, they can be made actors of the whole process starting from planning to monitoring. In our traditional approach, the role of technocrats is of experts, who make decisions for the community and while doing so generally physical vulnerabilities are considered without looking in the social factors. The perception of need and priority may be different for the community than that of technocrats as it is not always possible to perceive the ground realities without involving the community. To involve the community in assessment of need and for development options, the role of technocrats can be converted from experts to facilitators. By doing so, the community will feel empowered and responsible. The feeling of ownership by the community will help to sustain projects conceived involving the community. Step 4: Defining basin specific objectives After careful assessment of risk and capacity of basin involving the community, basin specific objectives may be framed. The objectives may be of the types: To develop a comprehensive and integrated approach to the development of water resources Control of water: flood mitigation, land drainage; Utilization of water: domestic water supply, irrigation, hydro-power, navigation, fishery, recreation, etc.; Quality management: water, soil and environment, afforestation; Watershed management: soil and water conservation, socio-economic development; etc. To identify and set priorities for promoting water resources development project To formulate a short-term action plan consistent with the financial allocations and priorities of Government action plan To contribute towards the formulation of a long term national master plan for water resources development Step 5: Inviting Project Proposals from Stake Holders Project proposals may be invited from different stake holders for the development and protection of the basin. The stake holders may include state and central government agencies, NGOs, academic institutes, Panchayats, individuals, etc. Some of the proposals may look wild and impracticable, but should not be discarded at this stage. Step 6: Collection of Necessary Information Before undertaking project planning, it is essential to collect sufficient field data and other information so that the needs of water, power and other inputs of the project may be correctly assessed. Prediction of future conditions is done using the collected information. The basic data can be grouped in the following categories: Hydrologic data to ascertain rainfall, surface and ground water availabilities (rainfall, stream flows, ground water potential and existing use, sediment load, water quality, tail water curves, etc. Climatic data like temperature, evaporation, wind velocity, sunshine hours, cloud cover, pressure, etc. Data to find water demands, like population (human and livestock), industrial water requirement, crop pattern, crop growing periods, crop water requirement, irrigation intensity and efficiency, water required to sustain life in the down stream of the project, seasonal navigational water requirement, etc. Geological data to determine the type of foundation available for locating dam site Topographical data to collect information of land use, land slopes, valleys, ridges, elevation-area-capacity relationship of the reservoir site. Legal data like existing policy decision affecting the project, water rights, etc. Environmental data like existing fish, wild life and plants to be affected, historical, archaeological and scenic sites to be submerged, potential of tourism and recreation, etc. Economic data for area benefited, crop data, land classification, market data, interest rate, etc. Step 7: Estimating Status of Basin as Water Surplus or Water Deficit The status of a basin as water surplus or water deficit is to be estimated by water balance study. An annual water balance study may mislead future decision makers with respect to inter basic water transfer, irrigation water requirement, flood storage requirement, etc.. A basin may be water surplus on annual basis, but it may be water deficit in some particular months or periods. A monthly water balance study is a better option to depict a clearer picture. Step 8: Project Formulation Project formulation is taken up once the basic data are collected and future conditions are predicted. This is a phase of planning where imagination and skill are required. First of all, a list of all the possible alternative proposals is compiled. Such a list should be made comprehensive and only the very competitive alternatives should be kept, and others rejected due to their high costs, general drawbacks or other boundary conditions. Following is a list of possible boundary conditions which may restrict a project: Physical limitation: one or more aspect of water development can be eliminated on the basis of physical limitations, e.g., navigation is not possible on torrential mountain streams. Site: certain problems may be fixed in location, e.g., flood mitigation for an existing city. Water scarcity: the available water may be limited or subject only to minor changes. Area constraint: maximum land areas usable for various purposes may be definable. Policy restriction: a policy decision may reserve certain lands for specific purposes, e.g., parks and recreational areas or restrict some activities in an area, e.g., cutting of hills, etc. Storage constraint: possible sites for water storage may already be defined and their limiting capacities evaluated. Normal life: in some areas, supply of water may already be existed and has to be continued to maintain normal life. Legal constraints: judiciary may reserve certain lands or prohibit certain activities or actions. Now the remaining different alternative proposals should be thoroughly studied; their pros and cons fully discussed and debated. Preliminary cost estimates are now prepared for all these alternatives. Detailed estimates, at this stage are not needed, because a few of these alternatives will prove to be costly and undesirable, and ultimately discarded simply on the basis of preliminary estimates. However, all the preliminary estimates should be based on one particular cost index, so that they are comparable with each other. Step 9: Evaluation of Alternatives After defining the project alternatives, the data are to be analyzed in order to evaluate and select the best of the project alternatives. The following feasibility studies are generally done for this purpose: (i) Technical feasibility study, (ii) Economic feasibility study, (iii) Financial feasibility study, (iv) Social acceptability, (v) Environment impact assessment, and (vi) Political practicality. To reduce planning cost, the weakest aspect of the project is tested first, so that if the project is eliminated due to this aspect, the expense of studying all other aspect can be avoided. For economic feasibility study, it is first necessary to prepare money estimates of benefits and costs and then project these on the time stream of money using appropriate discount rate on a common time base and over the same period of analysis. This way we have a rational basis of comparing the economic efficiency of project alternatives. The comparison is done on monetary basis where it is possible to evaluate tangible benefits and on miscellaneous considerations in case of intangible benefits, since all benefits and costs of water project can not be measured in money terms. For the later, the social costs of say requiring people to move away from a reservoir site or the peace of mind gained by reduction of flood hazard or through enhancement of environmental quality can only be described in descriptive terms using subjective scale of values. The decision maker should weight the economic, environmental and social factors subjectively to reach a choice without ignoring public opinions. Step 10: Selection of Best Alternatives Various project alternatives are tested to see how they perform under the range of future conditions. An alternative which is robust enough to perform well regardless of the future assumed is likely to be the best alternative. Along with the tangible factors, intangible factors should also be given proper weightage. Step 11: Project details The details of design are examined carefully and the construction drawings and specifications are produced. All the feasible project alternatives are evaluated for comparison and final selection of the best alternative. It is essential that the final design considers any new important information which is received between the time interval of feasibility study and final study, e.g., an extreme low runoff season which may affect the critical dry year flow; or a flood of very high magnitude which may affect the design flood. Since a through study may reveal such information which could alter the feasibility of the project alternative selected earlier by the feasibility study, a decision on the implementation of the project should wait till the final design is got fully completed. Step 12: Identification of implementing agency The appropriate agencies should be identified for implementation of the recommended projects. Step 13: Monitoring and evaluation mechanism Monitoring is an inherent project activity for surveillance doing diagnostic studies, whereas evaluation is assessment of a project’s performance and impact on the area and target population. They help decision making and policy changes. The mechanism for monitoring and evaluation should be framed and indicators to be measured identified. Step14: Review of Draft Master Plan Copy of the Draft Master Plan so prepared should be sent to stake holders for their comments and suggestions. The final Master Plan should include any worthy suggestion put forward by the stake holders. The Final Master Plan should be updated periodically. CONCLUSION River basin planning is believed to be most successfully applied in circumstances where an appropriate institutional structure (e.g., river basin organisation) has been established. Conflict is a common feature for rivers and lakes - upstream-downstream, and conflicts in the same place among different users or over time between uses (e.g., fishing vs. recreation, biodiversity vs. commercial fishing, conservation storage vs. empty storage requirement for flood absorption in a reservoir, etc.). A river basin organisation may be the best choice to give the responsibility of preparing Master Plans under its domain. Their functions may vary from resolving conflicts among different users or affected parties, water allocation, resource management and planning, to education of basin communities, developing natural resources management strategies and programs of remediation of degraded lands and waterways. Ultimate goal of river basin planning is to improve the quality of life of the people. A Master Plan should reflect the hopes and aspirations of the people living in the basin. REFERENCES National Water Policy 2002, Ministry of Water Resources, Govt. of India