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DECLARATION
I hereby declare that:
Except where reference has clearly been made to work by others, all the work presented in this report is my own work;
It has not previously been submitted for assessment; and I have not knowingly allowed any of it to be copied by another student.
I understand that deceiving or attempting to deceive examiners by passing off the work of another as my own is plagiarism. I also understand that plagiarising the work of another or knowingly allowing another student to plagiarise from my work is against the University regulations and that doing so will result in loss of marks and possible disciplinary proceedings against me.
Signed
Date
Table of Contents
Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 2 Background ............................................................................................................................................. 4 1 Global water concern ...................................................................................................................... 4 1.1 2 The United Nations ................................................................................................................. 5
An introduction to India .................................................................................................................. 6 2.1 2.2 Climate .................................................................................................................................... 7 Water use in India ................................................................................................................... 8
Literature Review .................................................................................................................................. 10 3 Review of literary sources ............................................................................................................. 10 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 4 5 6 Indian Non Governmental Organisations ............................................................................. 10 Online Literature ................................................................................................................... 11 Printed literature in engineering in developing countries .................................................... 12 Printed literature on engineering in general ........................................................................ 13
A short history of Traditional Rainwater harvesting in India ........................................................ 14 Water supply in the UK ................................................................................................................. 16 Traditional and contemporary techniques in India ...................................................................... 18 6.1 Accessing groundwater ......................................................................................................... 19 Baoris, Jhalaras.............................................................................................................. 19 Dug wells, Kuis/beris ..................................................................................................... 20 Drilled/bored wells........................................................................................................ 20
Artificial groundwater recharge ............................................................................................ 22 Talabs, Nadis and Khadins............................................................................................. 22 Check dams, contour bunds and trenches.................................................................... 23
Water storage ....................................................................................................................... 24 Spring protection .................................................................................................................. 24 Fuel efficient stoves .............................................................................................................. 25 Waste management .............................................................................................................. 26 Liquid waste .................................................................................................................. 26 Solid municipal waste ................................................................................................... 26 Latrines.......................................................................................................................... 26 i
Scope of work ....................................................................................................................................... 28 7 Watershed management .............................................................................................................. 28 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 What is a watershed ............................................................................................................. 28 Engineering project management ........................................................................................ 29 Ecological Capital .................................................................................................................. 29 Rural project management ................................................................................................... 29 Hydrological cycle ................................................................................................................. 30 Objective optimisation .......................................................................................................... 32 Aims............................................................................................................................... 32 Objectives...................................................................................................................... 32
7.6.1 7.6.2
Theory ................................................................................................................................................... 34 8 Water balance model.................................................................................................................... 34 8.1 Effective rainfall .................................................................................................................... 34 Rational Method ........................................................................................................... 34 NRCS Curve method ...................................................................................................... 34
8.3.1 8.4
Case study ............................................................................................................................................. 39 9 Case study partner ........................................................................................................................ 39 9.1 10 10.1 Foundation for Ecological Security ....................................................................................... 39 Analysis of the Rawach Watershed........................................................................................... 40 Graphically representing Rawach ......................................................................................... 40 GIS mapping .................................................................................................................. 40 Computer Aided Design ................................................................................................ 41
Daniel Smith 0634319 10.5 Coefficients and Curve Numbers .......................................................................................... 44 Peak flow rate ............................................................................................................... 45
Effective rainfall .................................................................................................................... 46 Evapotranspiration and crop water needs ........................................................................... 47 Human water consumption .................................................................................................. 49
Discussion.............................................................................................................................................. 51 11 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 Project proposal ........................................................................................................................ 51 Identified needs in Rawach ................................................................................................... 51 Intervention points ............................................................................................................... 51 Water requirements ............................................................................................................. 53 General approach.................................................................................................................. 53 Increase recharge and reduce erosion.......................................................................... 54 Reducing deforestation ................................................................................................. 55 Sanitation ...................................................................................................................... 55
Acknowledgements
It is a pleasure to thank those that have made this dissertation possible. Without my Mothers unending encouragement I would not have the opportunity to undertake this study. My supervisor, Dr Phil Vardon, has provided help, guidance and support at every stage prior to and including the investigation. I would not have been able to conduct this study without Prof Hywel Thomas initial belief in me. I thank Ms Natalia Popova for her flawless proof reading and obsession with referencing. Mr Anil Agarwal and Ms Sunita Narain deserve to be mentioned for their exhaustive research in to rainwater harvesting and for creating the Centre for Science and Environment where I learnt a huge amount about Indian environmental management prior to this thesis. I thank Dr Subodh Bishnoi for his patience whilst I was at the Indian Institute of Management and Mr Yash Shethia, of the Foundation for Ecological Security, for giving me the opportunity to work with him. Lastly I would like to thank all those at the Foundation for Ecological Security and those that conducted the in depth study of Rawach which this thesis takes as its case study.
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Abstract
This report is an investigation in to traditional methods of rainwater harvesting in India. Rainwater harvesting has been practiced all over India since antiquity but has largely been overlooked in favour of larger irrigation systems, which the Centre for Science and Environment say has led to the current water supply problems faced by the nation. It has been found that these traditional methods employ a systematic method of collecting water where it falls based on observed patterns of rainfall and that the principals that have been traditionally employed are very similar to those documented in contemporary development engineering literature. Therefore, the hypothesis of this investigation is that traditional rainwater management techniques can be applied using modern environmental and hydrological engineering principles To develop the idea a case study has been conducted of a rural area of the Aravalli Hill range in North West India, in partnership with the Foundation for Ecological Security. A three dimensional contour model of the area was created and used with land use data, supplied by FES, to analyse the potential that rainwater harvesting has in the area. Analysis of the area has shown that the water demand is approximately five hundred thousand cubic metres and that over a thirteen year period (1995 - 2008) the minimum volume of rainfall was a little over 4 million cubic metres. This rain usually falls through a three month period between July and September. Therefore to retain enough water for the community and agriculture rainwater harvesting will be needed. Suitable structures, based on traditional principles, can be designed using the hydrological analysis chosen to find peak flow from a storm of various durations.
Introduction
Water is an ever increasing issue for society due to a rapidly expanding population, industrialisation and changes in the climate system (UNESCO, 2010, P283). This relatively new increase in populace is mostly based in developing nations and it is doing something that has never happened before on a global scale; fifty percent of the worlds population now lives in urban areas and the World Bank estimates that this will increase to 60% by 2030 (World Bank, 2010). Many nations therefore face a huge challenge. They have to deliver water to their burgeoning cities they and have to deliver it in large amounts to agriculture as well as mitigating the environmental degradation that rapid industrialisation has brought. Therefore the environmental management of rural areas is essential for the sustainable development of the nation. This report will investigate water management techniques for rural areas of India. It will consider traditional technologies, their contemporary counterparts and how to implement them when considering an entire watershed. First of all the background will discuss water in a global context before introducing India in general. The literature review highlights the main sources of information for the report and gives a brief history of traditional methods of water management in India. The UKs water supply system is considered as a possible model for modern India before discussing traditional and contemporary water management techniques in more detail. A watershed must provide many things to a community and a watershed management plan will therefore have a number of objectives to meet. The investigation seeks to optimise the objectives that are defined in the scope of work section. The theory needed conduct a hydrological analysis of a watershed is then discussed before being applied to a case study in rural India. The case study for this report has been developed in partnership with the Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) in Udaipur. The study is based on data supplied by FES that has been created as part of their project in the area. This study is therefore intended to be used for comparison by FES. 2
Daniel Smith 0634319 If rainwater harvesting systems can be implemented in rural areas the outcome would be a reduction on the demand of supplied water, an increase in rural groundwater levels, an increase in local agricultural productivity and subsequently increase the local populations income; which would reduce the economic factors that drive people to migrate to cities. An increase in local groundwater would also allow the area to support further reforestation which would decrease erosion and sedimentation downstream; thus improving water quality of large rivers. It would also allow rural areas to supply water to urban areas if properly managed. Subsequent reforestation would increase the biomass content of the area which people still rely on as their primary source of fuel for cooking and would increase the local carbon sequestration. Research conducted by the Centre for Science and Environment concludes that rainwater harvesting must be considered over an entire watershed. (Agarwal et al, 1997 & 2001) The traditional Indian engineers lived closely with the natural environment so developed these technologies intuitively and there is still a large proportion of Indian society that relies on the ebb and flow of the seasons (Agarwal et al, 1997 & 2001). This local populace, therefore, must participate fully in the development and ultimate implementation of a watershed management plan. As will be discussed, if rainwater harvesting devices can be constructed at appropriate locations then the water can be sequestered to the groundwater or stored as surface water. This water can then be used to recharge wells as well as supporting agriculture and forestry. Therefore a systems approach is needed to understand the factors that are essential to the management of a watershed (Biswas, 1976; Agarwal et al, 2001). The hypothesis of this project is, therefore, that modern engineering tools can be used to develop an initial watershed management plan based on traditional Indian techniques. To explore this hypothesis the problems associated with water provision will be discussed before looking at the traditional and contemporary solutions.
Background
1 Global water concern
Water is the single most important compound in order to sustain life on our planet. At the macro scale it is a major factor in the atmosphere and global weather systems. At the micro scale it makes up a large proportion of the human body and of ice or permanent snow cover facilitates the majority of biological processes in flora and fauna. Even though 71% of the earths surface is covered in water and there is about 1.4 billion km of water on earth, only ~2.5% of total volume (35 million km3) is fresh water (box 3.1). The World Health ~ 97% of all the freshwater that is potentially available for human use. Lakes and rivers contain 0.3% of the world's freshwater. Total usable freshwater supply for ecosystems and humans is ~200 000 km3 This is only 0.01% of all the water on Earth 30.8% (8 million km3 or) is stored underground as groundwater
Organisation states that safe water supplies, hygienic sanitation and good water management are fundamental to global health (WHO, 2008). Their research has shown that one tenth of the global disease burden could be prevented by increasing access to safe drinking water (box 3.2) and appropriate sanitation.
But there is also economic advantage to be gained from investment to improve drinking water. Every dollar invested in sanitation, hygiene and water resource management systems leads to up to eight dollars in benefits (WHO, 2011). The WHO estimates that $84 billion a year could be regained
Daniel Smith 0634319 from the yearly investment of $11.3 billion needed to meet the water and sanitation targets under the Millennium Development Goals. (WHO, 2008)
Box 3.2: Estimates for preventable disease by clean water provision (UNEP, 2008)
1.4 million child deaths from diarrhoea; 500,000 deaths from malaria 860,000 child deaths from malnutrition
At the turn of the century the United Nations set out 8 indicative goals for the world. It is their belief that these goals are the best and most achievable course of action to reduce global poverty. Table 3.1 describes how water is a central part in all of these goals. 1 Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger: A lack of water and sanitation leads to illness. This removes a persons capacity to work which decreases their financial security. Appropriate water management also increases agricultural yield and thus the financial and dietary income of a community. 2 Achieve universal primary education: Children often collect water, thus reducing the time at school. Inadequate water and sanitation at school reduces the amount of time children spend in class due to collection duties and/or ill health. 3Promote gender equality and empower women: Water carrying falls primarily to women thus reducing the freedom of the women and the opportunities for girls to receive an education. At puberty girls require adequate and private sanitary facilities. Washing and defecating outside makes women vulnerable to sexual abuse. 4: Reduce child mortality rates 5: Improve Clean water is required at all stages of natal and post-natal care. Babies
Daniel Smith 0634319 maternal health 6 Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases 7 Ensure environmental sustainability 8 Develop a global partnership for development require a high degree of sanitation because they are vulnerable to disease. 1.4 million people die of diarrhoea alone. Provision of clean water and proper sanitation would reduce faecal-oral transmission cycle. Water is essential for environmental sustainability.
Co-operation with other countries is essential to reduce the risk of conflict over the misuse of scarce water resources.
Table 1 How water is required for the MDGs (Mihelcic et al, 2009; Keirns, 2007)
The WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme Report 2010 (Water Supply and Sanitation: Progress on Sanitation and Drinking-water) stated that:
The world was on track to meet the MDG targets for water but that the global sanitation target would be missed by a billion people - most of them in rural areas of Africa and Asia. Seven out of 10 people without improved sanitation live in rural areas. 84% of the worlds population without an Figure 3-1 Source: WHO/UNICEF JMP Report (2010) Water improved drinking-water source live in Supply and Sanitation: Progress on Sanitation and Drinking-water. rural areas
Figure 3-1 shows the serious inequity between urban and rural access to water and sanitation caused by a lack of effective rural pro-poor strategies. Many of the MDGs cannot be achieved unless rural people are involved in the planning and delivery of affordable water and sanitation services so as to provide them with adequate access.
2 An introduction to India
India is a country of extremes with mega-cities such as Delhi and Mumbai (populations of 12.5 million and 13.8 million respectively) (Instituto del Tercer Muundo, 2004, P296) at one end of the scale and villages with around 1000 people at the other (Agarwal et al, 2001). It also has long history
Daniel Smith 0634319 of environmental degradation which stretches back to the British East India Company in the 18th-19th Centuries (Agarwal and Narain, 1997). Whilst large parts of the world were reeling from the economic crisis, Indias Gross Domestic Profit (GDP) was growing by 6.1% (World Bank, 2008, online) and in the last quarter of 2010 has been reported as growing at 8.8%. But even though the World Bank positions India as the 4th largest economy in the world, it also points out that the country has one third of the worlds poor. That is, out of just over one billion people in India, about 410 million live in chronic poverty on less than $1.25 a day (World Bank, 2008, online) (adjusted for purchasing power parity). Approximately 700 million people (Gapminder.org, 2011, online) (70% of the population) live in rural areas and 196 million (World Bank, 2008, online) rural people (28% of rural populace) live below the chronic poverty line. This equates to three times the population of the UK that rely entirely on a biomass economy (Agarwal and Narain, 2001) for subsistence. Therefore at least 20% of Indias total population definitely lives directly from produce obtained from nature. Considering that the World Bank (World Bank, 2008) claims 887 million people (approximately 89% total population) in India live in moderate poverty below $2 a day, a conservative assumption would be that a further 22% of the rural populace depend directly on agriculture as their main income. That would mean that over 500 million people rely directly the natural environment.
2.1 Climate
In the North West of India on the border with Pakistan is the Thar Desert, the most densely populated desert in the world. South East of this is the oldest mountain range in the world the Aravalli Hill range, where this report will take its case study from. The Aravalli Hills spread from North East from Gujarat all the way to Delhi. They provide the Thar Desert with a rain shadow as the monsoon sweep from South to North, but in doing so they also provide protection from the spread of the desert in to the fertile Indo-Gangetic Plains, which supports nearly 1 billion people from Pakistan across India and into Bangladesh (Metoffice, 2011, online). Therefore, ensuring the
Daniel Smith 0634319 geoenvironmental sustainability of the Aravallis is not only important for the local inhabitants and microclimate it is also imperative for ensuring the sustainable development of Northern India as a whole. (Instituto del Tercer Mundo, 2004, P295). If the precipitation is not withheld in the local system for a period of time then it will be lost to rivers as surface runoff. As there are no further rains after the monsoon that water has to be replaced by the national irrigation system which ultimately draws most of its water from that provided by the summer monsoons; leading to a vicious cycle of diminishing returns (Agarwal et al, 2001).
This decrease corresponds with the change in the political system in 1991 which reduced controls on industry and subsequently increased the industrial development (Instituto del Tercer Mundo, 2004, P297). Unfortunately gapminder.org does not have any comparative information for municipal or industrial water withdrawal. Even so, 86% in 2002 is still a convincing majority of the water supplied in India. Therefore any measures that could reduce agricultural demand for water would release more water for municipal consumption, hence increasing access to clean water and sanitation. As can be seen from the figure 4-2, the amount of renewable water available per person has almost halved between 1971 and 2002. There has been a corresponding increase in population from 0.8 billion to around 1 billion in this time (gapminder.org, 2011), showing an increased water demand per capita and decrease in the recharge rate of water resources.
Daniel Smith 0634319 Bobba (1997) claims the lack of national water resource and budgeting strategy leads to famine ravaging the drier areas of the country whilst the wetter areas are flooded. Bobba estimates that the maximum national food production of India could be as much as 4572 million tons but at the moment it is only 170 million tons of water. The research presumes that the only limiting factor in food production is the availability of agricultural land, but that all this land is properly irrigated. If the main influx of water could be harvested where it fell, then food production could be massively increased as well as availability of clean water. Reports claim that groundwater sources are being massively over exploited because the state run water system does not supply sufficient water for municipal, industrial and agricultural use. In 1979 Agriculture Refinance and Development Corporation estimated that in some areas, such as Rajasthan, as much as 70% of groundwater potential was used which has presumably increased since then due to population growth. (Bobba, 1997; Agarwal and Narain, 1997 and 2001) The quality of groundwater is related to physiochemical characteristics of the rocks that the water circulates in (Bobba, 1997) and much of Indias deep groundwater has naturally high levels of contaminants, such as fluoride or arsenic, at levels much higher than the WHO guidelines because of this. Athavale (2001, P282) has conducted research that shows overexploiting groundwater without ensuring sufficient recharge leads to an increased intensity of contaminants in water drawn from the ground. This is because the heavily contaminated water is found in deep tube wells of over 25m depths. At this level the wells are accessing the water from the confined aquifers which, in general, have been present for longer and are harder to recharge. Water from unconfined aquifers at shallow depths does not contain such high levels of arsenic (Athavale , 2001). This section has highlighted the problems that are present in the India and the world today due to increased populations and historic environmental mismanagement. Thus the next section will discuss solutions that are suggested from traditional and contemporary sources.
Literature Review
This section will start by discussing the available literature used for this report. It will then go on to history of Indian rainwater harvesting. The suitability of water supply model similar to that in the UK will be discussed before comparing traditional and contemporary forms of water management systems.
Daniel Smith 0634319 proof the country. Dying Wisdom is a history of Indian rainwater harvesting which appears quite biased but their later work Making Water Everybodys business is a collection of articles written by various Indian academics, scientist and engineers such as Vaidyanthan, Ramaswamy Lyer and Athavale. Unfortunately these are the only two notable sources on traditional rainwater harvesting so have been referenced heavily. Keirns (2007) writes on behalf of Gram Vikas, a secular NGO that works in the rural areas of Orrisa, who is similarly critical of the Government of Indias Accelerated Rural Water Supply Scheme. She claims that water supply is often implemented by contractors; that the serviced community is not consulted and the surrounding hydrology is not considered. This leads to water shortages due to overstressed aquifers and broken equipment because the community do not have the capacity to maintain it unaided.
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Daniel Smith 0634319 The Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) has published various source books online such as the Source book for Soil and Water Conservation which is based on their extensive experience in developing rural areas based on technical expertise and local knowledge. Much of the technical aspects correlate with the NRCS (FES, 2008). FES defines the aim of watershed development as being the conservation of soil moisture and making this available to plants to maximize biomass production (FES, 2008). Whereas the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the USA has produced a handbook for Developing Watershed Plans to Restore and Protect our Waters which focuses on managing a watershed to ensure water quality in streams, rivers and lakes (EPA, 2008). This divergence of aims is due to the difference in priorities of the two organisations. In the USA there is an effective water supply system and the EPA works at a national level where the biggest threat to nature is pollution from industry or agriculture. Whereas FES works in rural areas of India where large industry is not such a threat and sustaining agricultural livelihoods is the priority.
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Daniel Smith 0634319 does mention that communities need to be involved in the projects but relies on engineering techniques for solutions. Whereas the newer work by Mihelcic et al (2009) focuses more on community involvement and social aspects which is similar to the Indian literature. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation has published the report Engineering, issues, challenges and opportunities for development (UNESCO, 2010) which attempts to define the disparity in engineering approaches between developed and developing nations. It cuts across all sectors of engineering to look at where the short falls are and concludes that engineering is an integral part of development that is not normally included in strategic policy.
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Daniel Smith 0634319 even comparing the cycles of the natural environment with those worshipped in Hindu or Buddhist religions. Biswas (1976) describes systems analysis as an analytical study that helps a decision maker to identify and select a preferred course of action. He describes five stages of on the analysis of water resources; identification of objectives; translation into measurable criteria; identification of alternative courses of action; determination of criteria and finally comparative evaluation. He also describes models as programming or descriptive. The first has the aim to optimise an objective and the latter attempts to predict future outcomes based on exogenous variables and policy alternatives. Biswas also states that natural resource management will always be a multi-objective process because humans require nature to provide resources for economic, environmental and social aspects of society.
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Daniel Smith 0634319 sustainable production so as not to kill the goose that laid the golden egg (Braudel, from Agarwal and Narain, 1997, P270). Under British Colonial rule land was seen as a commodity and produce from the land was taxed heavily; forests were seen as capital goods and harvested as such; the cotton industry based on individual weavers was overtaken by large factories using technology from the British Industrial revolution. The agricultural sector was rearranged to provide exports to Europe. The land which had previously been demarked sacred was now classified as waste land and categorised for its economic value. (Agarwal and Narain, 1997; Instituto del Tercer Mundo, 2004) The deterioration of traditional rainwater harvesting systems is often laid at the foot of the Government of India and as a consequence of the British Colonialists misunderstanding of the Indian ecology (Agarwal and Narain, 1997). The large increase in population, however, has led to encroachment on to marginalised lands and catchment areas. A large population demands large amounts of water and food which has put added pressure on the agricultural sector. As new technologies have been developed, such as deep well borers and diesel pumps, farmers have been quick to adopt them because they increase control over their irrigation
(Vaidyanathan, from Agarwal and Narain, 2001, P296). Rainwater harvesting has been neglected (Agarwal and Narain, 1997 & 2001; Mishra, 1997) and because of this its capacity has stagnated whilst the population has
District - Zilla Parishad (District Council) Development Block - Panchayat samiti Village Gram Panchayat
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Daniel Smith 0634319 increased. The emphasis has instead been put on the development of large irrigation canals and new technologies have been incentivised without considering the long term costs to the local environment or water resources (Agarwal and Narain, 1997 & 2001). Rainwater harvesting systems were managed by traditional hierarchal institutions (Agarwal and Narain, 1997) which have been weakened by urbanisation and increased central bureaucratic governance (Vaidyanathan, from Agarwal and Narain, 2001, P297). Modern management practices are geared towards large scale technology driven system (R Ramaswamy ler, 2001) rather than community based approaches but it is the opinion of many in India that modern technology can be used to redevelop traditional systems (Athavale, from Agarwal and Narain, 2001, P282) To change this direction Agarwal et al (2001) argue that rainwater harvesting must be reconsidered in a modern context. The power should be taken out of the hands of the public works department and put in those of the Panchayati Raj (Vaidyanathan, 2001)(see box 4.1) who should elect their own institutions to manage local resources based on community needs. To do this successfully the community needs to have a stake in the project so that they feel ownership of it (Kierns, 2007, P45; Vaidyanathan, 2001; Orr and Annis, 2009) and will maintain it, therefore reducing their reliance on centralised governance and increasing their capacity.
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Daniel Smith 0634319 The UK has a temperate climate with regular precipitation and an annual rainfall of around 1130mm per annum (1971-2000) (Metoffice, 2011) spread relatively evenly across the year which negates the use of irrigation on the scale that is needed in India due to its monsoon based climate. The majority of the investment needed to maintain this system comes from revenue generated from water bills. The UK unified its environmental protection strategy in 1990 with the Environmental Protection Act, which has since been developed to meet more developed EU legislation (Bell and McGillivray, 2006. P25). The Centre for Science and Environment argues that Annual turnover of 9.7 billion 668,000 km of water mains and sewers Supplies 55 million consumers At a rate of 150 litres of water per person per day Requiring 45,000 assets 22 companies
without strict regulatory legislation the construction of dams or reservoirs has a very detrimental impact on local communities and the environment in general (Agarwal and Narain, 2001). There is also the need for investment and as 92% of the population do not work in the formal economy this cannot come from the populace as these informally employed people dont pay tax (Agarwal et al, 2001). Furthermore, the disparity of wealth in the country ensures most people cannot afford to pay bills that reflect the real cost of piped water investment, as is the model in the UK. So the end result is a system that does not have the capacity to consistently supply water, meet demand or treat the intense urban sewage before releasing it in to the rivers; which only serves to compound the problem (Kierns, 2007; Agarwal et al 2001).
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Daniel Smith 0634319 Time-limited so the community knows when it should be finished Specific this specificity should be explained and agreed upon by all members of the village Practical the community must agree that it can be accomplished
This is true for any water supply project which could include pumped water, gravity fed water supply systems, protected springs or rooftop rainwater harvesting.
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Daniel Smith 0634319 6.1.2 Dug wells, Kuis/beris This involves hand digging to reach the water table. The first metre of excavation can be accomplished using shovels and picks but changes drastically after this when a method of removing soil via a bucket will need to be implemented. The sides of the well need to be lined to prevent collape. Possible linings could be perforated concrete rings or a dry wall of mortar-less bricks (Gierke, 2009). The mouth of a kuis is very narrow and the diameter increases with depth to maximise the seepage area whilst minimising losses from evaporation. The wells are hand dug and lined with a mortar-less brick construction to ensure that the walls do not collapse (Mishra, 1997, P16 &P31). Inflow can be increased by increasing the open area but this relationship is not directly proportional because the openings experience less hydraulic gradient due to their position above the well bottom (Gierke, 2009). Therefore widening the well base would increase the seepage due to the inclined sides and increase the hydraulic gradient by moving the well side marginally closer to the source. To dig a well such as a kuis traditionally involved a man lowered down an unstable shaft (Mishra, 1997, P16). But the safety of this could be increased by excavating a larger hole, constructing the well lining and back filling the hole. It is recommended that excavated material be used for backfilling below the water table if large rocks are removed to ensure proper compaction of sand and soil grains. But clay or concrete should be used to cap the hole to ensure that surface contaminants do not percolate down (Gierke, 2009). 6.1.3 Drilled/bored wells This is a modern process similar to the dug method but the soil is broken up and removed by systematic process of hitting if using a percussion drill or grinding if using an auger. Mihelcic et al (2009) and Dangerfield (1983) detail construction methods which can be implemented either with diesel or hand power and specify that drilled wells do not need reinforcement like dug wells due to their narrower diameter.
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Daniel Smith 0634319 6.1.3.1 Driven wells A length of pipe can be driven by hammer blows in to unconsolidated ground. The depth of the pump is dependent on the nature of the ground hard ground will only allow shallow depths whereas soft ground will allow deeper wells. Additional lengths of pipe can be attached using a coupling and a sacrificial length of pipe should be used to ensure thread integrity (Gierke, 2009). 6.1.3.2 Well development All well types can be enhanced by well development which is the pumping out of the initial water at a rate that exceeds the normal rate of withdrawal. This is to remove suspended sediment that may have been left from well construction. Disinfectants such as chlorine can be added if it is deemed economically and environmentally appropriate (Gierke, 2009). Previous correspondence with Dr Subodh Bishnoi, of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmadabad, also revealed that some wells in India are improved by lateral boring to improve the flow in to the well by increasing the surface area exposed to seepage. 6.1.3.3 Hand pumps There are a variety of hand pumps which are used for drawing water for washing, cooking, drinking and irrigation. The water that is drawn is normally used directly rather than kept in a storage tank (Gierke, 2009). 6.1.3.4 Reciprocating pump These work by suction. A sealed piston with a check valve is pushed down on to a weighted check valve. As the piston is drawn back up the valve piston closes and the lower check valve opens to draw liquid up. The problem with this type of pump is that water is needed to prime the pump which may be of a questionable potable nature and it can only pump water from 6-7m depth due to maximum suction lift limitations (Gierke, 2009). 6.1.3.5 Downhole positive displacement pumps A very common and simply improvement is to move the reciprocating pump mechanism down the shaft to the water level. The water is then pushed up the shaft rather than sucked from the top so the maximum suction lift limitation is removed and deeper water can be accessed (Gierke, 2009). 21
Daniel Smith 0634319 6.1.3.6 Other pumps Mono pumps: use an Archimedes screw at the base of the shaft to pump water up. Diaphragm pump: works in the same way as a heart. As the diaphragm opens it sucks water up which is then expelled as the diaphragm is compressed (Gierke, 2009). Rope and washer pump: is a very simple positive displacement pump. Washers are attached to a loop of rope which then thread over a wheel, through a pipe and lowered in to the well. The wheel at the top is turned which moves the washers up the pipe bringing water with them (Gierke, 2009). 6.1.3.7 Mechanical pumps There are a variety of automated pumps from the diesel powered pump to wind or solar pumps and even those powered by animals which are semi-automated. Their selection and design depends on the availability of the energy sources and head of water that is needed to be drawn. These are normally used to draw water in to a storage tank for future rather than direct use. Diesel pumps are normally available with manufacturers pump characteristic curves and organisations such as Practical Action have developed design guides for wind and solar pumps. (Gierke, 2009)
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Daniel Smith 0634319 Nadis are smaller than talabs and are used for animals or washing. The catchment area does not need the same treatment and they are often built to take the overflow from a talab. Sometimes they are built in a sequence that allows runoff, flood or river water to enter a sedimentation tank before reaching the talab and then over flow to smaller nadis. This has been documented in Jodhpur, Chittor and Sringaverapura (Agarwal and Narain, 1997 P112, P156 and P15) Khadins are long bunds that are built on the almost flat plains of Rajasthan. They are designed to collect runoff at the lowest point in an area and increase the infiltration to soil moisture. The area behind the bund is used for agriculture and a well is constructed in front of the khadin. Due to the local water table being raised in front of the khadin salts are drawn up from deeper regions by capillary actions. This increases the salinity of the area between the khadin and the well which reduces plant growth and discourages animals that may contaminate the water in the well. (Agarwal and Narain, 1997, P135) 6.2.2 Check dams, contour bunds and trenches The Foundation for Ecological Security advocates the use of check dams and contour structures for catchment area management. Check dams are small dams built across small drainage lines to increase water depth behind the dam thus increase retention time, local hydraulic head and infiltration. When they are built from rocks it is recommend that they should not be higher than one metre (FES, 2008, P94). Contour bunds are built along the steep slopes where the elevation is constant. The principal is to slow the runoff on steep slopes, increase the time of concentration which increases infiltration and possibly divert the water to a channel so as to reduce slope erosion. They are soil structures so if the slope is steep and peak runoff flow found to be high, it is important to allow a waste weir lined with rocks to reduce overtopping and subsequent structural degradation (FES, 2008, P86).
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Daniel Smith 0634319 Contour trenches are constructed to allow more water to infiltrate the ground by retaining some water in the trench. It is advised to stagger their excavation to increase the chances that water that misses one trench will be collected by the next (FES, 2008, P81)
Daniel Smith 0634319 stand in the water when accessing a spring. To mitigate this a spring box can be constructed to protect the spring (Mihelcic et al, 2009, P278). To do this the spring is excavated until an impermeable layer is found. A box or concrete wall is constructed in front of the spring and coarse filter material (gravel/cobbles) packed behind it with an outlet at the point higher than the spring inlet. In front of this another box or wall with fine filter material (sand) packed between the walls and an outlet at the base of the wall. This then feeds a reservoir with an outlet at a higher level than the inlet (Mihelcic et al, 2009, P278). The secondary filtration stage is intended to remove sediment and not as a slow sand filter. But, the necessary plan area could be enlarged to enable slow filtration and the development of a Schmutzdecke which would provide some biological treatment as well. The extra cost and maintenance that this would require may not be worthwhile unless there is a definite source of biological pollution such as a pit latrine nearby because the water has already passed through a natural filtration process (Mihelcic et al, 2009, P278).
25
26
Daniel Smith 0634319 It is the belief of Gram Vikas that dry latrines are more appropriate for a rural Indian community than the more expensive bucket flush latrines due to their simple design, low construction and operation that does not require a large amount of scarce water.
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Scope of work
The previous sections of this report introduced the challenges of supplying clean water around the world. The following section will discuss the factors that affect sustainable management of a rural watershed in India. As a watershed has many factors the function will require multiple objectives (Biswas, 1976). These will need to be specific, measurable, appropriate, realistic and time bound.
7 Watershed management
Watershed management is the rational utilisation of land and water resources to optimise production and minimise hazards to natural resources (FES, 2008). There are many physical factors that affect the development of a watershed but, as has been discussed, there are also socioeconomic factors that must be considered when developing a project in a developing country.
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Daniel Smith 0634319 Each watershed can be divided into sub-watersheds (10,000 to 50,000 ha.), milli-watersheds (1,000 to 10,000 ha.) and micro watersheds (up to 1,000 ha.). (FES, 2008)
Daniel Smith 0634319 Provide food and biomass Be a source of raw materials for construction Provide capital for economic exchange
Therefore the aims of a watershed management programme must seek to optimise the production of goods and services needed by a community whilst still have sufficient excess to allow the natural development of an area. To do this community institutions and a system of education must be developed to ensure sustainable operation of the interventions (Kierns, 2007, P42). The users of the resources, goods and services must be identified so that they can be consulted and included accordingly and all levels of society must be involved (Mihelcic et al 2009; Keirns 2007).
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Daniel Smith 0634319 Some water will seep downwards to the saturated zone and some water will be held at root zone where it will either evaporate or be taken up by plants (Figure 7-2). The plant will only use a small percentage of it; the rest of it will be lost via transpiration which is evaporation via the stomata of the plants. This is the water needs of the plants (Brouwer and Heibloeam, 1986).
Figure 7-2 Flow chart of water flow through a watershed (EPA, 2008; Mihelcic et al, 2009; Biswas, 1976)
Once the surface layer of soil has become saturated, subsequent rainfall will run-off the surface (Figure 7-2) from high to low elevations until it reaches a drain such as a river (Haan et al, 1994). In general the volume of rainfall that reaches a drain depends on the infiltration of the soil and the topography of the land. Steeper gradients will increase the velocity of the water and reduce the time it has to infiltrate a static area of soil (FES, 2008).
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Capture sufficient water for agriculture - As evapotranspiration is a function of water vapour pressure gradient, reducing the wind speed and direct solar radiation that crops receive can reduce their water consumption (Brouwer and Heibloem, 1986).
Equation 7-2
Reduce erosion - Erosion is a function of the kinetic energy of the rainwater, velocity of runoff and the cohesiveness of soil particles (Awathanarayana, 1995). The kinetic energy of the rainwater can be decreased by increasing canopy cover to decrease size and velocity of raindrops that hit the ground. Runoff velocity can be reduced by ridge area treatment (FES, 2008) and bioengineering (NRCS, 2009) can increase the strength of soils.
Ensure sufficient amounts of potable drinking water - Clean water can be maximised by reducing contamination and increasing protected sources.
Equation 7-3
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Daniel Smith 0634319 Ensure water supply and sanitation at schools to reduce the risk of children becoming ill from contaminated water supply and of contaminating water sources (Mihelcic et al, 2009). Include all levels of the community to harvest enough water during short intense rainfall requires the co-operation of all levels of the community (Argawal et al, 2001). Empower vulnerable sectors of society as women collect the majority of water they must be involved in planning and maintaining water resources otherwise they may not use them due to being unsuitable (Keirns, 2007; Mihelcic et al, 2009) Ensure ownership of the system a community must maintain their water supply system and, therefore, must have ownership of it. This can be accomplished through village institutions and ensuring that the community pays for the system (Keirns, 2007). Make appropriate sanitation available this is essential to ensure that clean water is not contaminated and maintain the health of the population (Mihelcic et al, 2009) Ensure capital investment is appropriate and affordable the cost must be appropriate to the location (Mihelcic et al, 2009; Keirns, 2007).
Equation 7-4
Implement measures to reduce deforestation wood is a common fuel source for cooking electricity or gas is not supplied. Therefore, if fuel efficient cooking stoves are implemented there will be less demand for fuel wood.
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Theory
8 Water balance model
Continuity dictates that the input to a system must equal the output minus losses. In a watershed this can be used to calculate the balance of water using equation 8-1 (Figure 80-1). (Biswas, 1967; Haan et al, 1994; Watkins, 2009; FES, 2010) Therefore each factor in this equation needs to be estimated. Equation 8-1 Where S is change in surface storage, P is precipitation, I in infiltration, ET is evapotranspiration and R is runoff Figure 8-0-1 Water Balance
Daniel Smith 0634319 Resource Conservation Service has developed a method of calculating runoff which considers this (Figure 8-3). The curve number, CN, is related to the hydrological soil type (A, B, C or D) and land cover. It ranges from 30-100 (low-high runoff) and is applied based on the 24-hr distribution of rainfall that is represented by 4 S shaped type curves (IA, I, II and III) (figure 11-5). Equation 8-3 Figure 8-3 NRSC Curve Number formula
8.2 Infiltration
Infiltration is the major abstraction from a storm (Haan, et al, 1994). During a storm the rain will wet the surface layer of soil which will have a certain water holding
Where Q is accumulated runoff (mm), Ia is the initial abstraction and P is accumulated precipitation (mm)
capacity. Some of this water will seep downwards but as the layers of soil below the surface increase in compaction with depth, this seepage will reduce. Therefore lighter rains will be absorbed but heavier rains will saturate the soil. Once the soil has reached its water holding capacity, any subsequent rainfall will run off along the surface. Bare soils and heavy rain tends to reduce infiltration rates. As the rain drops hit the soil surface the energy of the falling drops breaks up aggregate and transports it into soil pores. Large rain drops increase this tendency (Haan, et al, 1994; Aswathanarayana, 1995). Figure 8-4 Time of Concentration, Tc
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Daniel Smith 0634319 Haan, et al, (1994) describes a T-year event as an event of such magnitude that over a long period of time (much longer than T years), the average time Equation 8-5 between events having a magnitude greater than the T-year event is T years. He suggests four types of probability plotting based on the general relationship where P is the plotting position, m is the rank and n is number of years of data. Where F is the frequency in years and K,b, n & x are constants. Figure 8-5 Intensity
In other words, an event of this magnitude can be expected every T years. Therefore the expected number of occurrences of an event in N years is N/T. Thus the probability that a T year event will happen in any year (when N=1) is 1/T. 8.3.1 Intensity Runoff increases with intensity for two reasons. First of all an intense storm will saturate the ground quickly so any further rainfall will form runoff. Secondly, an intense storm generally has larger rain drops which have more energy. When this energy is transferred to the soil aggregate it breaks them down and washes them in to the soil pores, which reduces infiltration and increases runoff. The constants K, b, n and x in Equation 8-5 (Figure 8-5) are site specific and can be taken from tables supplied by Government meteorological departments. They are estimated by using IntensityDuration-Frequency (IDF) or Depth-Duration-Frequency (DDF) data based on historic rainfall. To use this equation, then, requires reliable meteorological data that has operated for a significant amount of time and an organisation that has the capacity to analyse it.
8.4 Evapotranspiration
Evapotranspiration (ET) is the combination of evaporation of and transpiration. Evaporation is the vaporisation of water from a surface such as soil, river or lake.
36
Daniel Smith 0634319 Transpiration is the vaporisation of water from with a plant leaf mainly through the stomata. It is equal to the water needs of the plant. The energy required to vaporise water is provided by direct solar radiation and the process is driven by the water vapour pressure gradient between the evaporating surface and the surrounding air. Factors that influence the level of evapotranspiration are solar radiation; wind speed, air humidity and temperature. The ability that the soil has to conduct water to the roots or the surface will also affect the level of ET. Throughout the year the amount of water that evaporates or tranpirates will change. When a crop is young the main loss will be through evaporation, but as the crop grows and the leaf area increases the tranpiration rate will increase. Figure 8-7 Blaney-Criddle method
Figure 8-6 Evapotranspiration ET0 = Climate + grass reference crop ET0 x Kc = ETc ETc x Ks = ETadj
Equation 8-6
Tmean is monthly mean temperature, p is mean daily percentage of annual daytime hours
8.4.1 Penman-Monteith method The Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (Allen et al, 1998) recommend using the Penman-Monteith equation to calculate ET0. The idea is to calculate the rate of ET for an area based on an idealised crop, such as grass, that is excellently managed and irrigated, ET0. The equation requires parameters such as aerodynamic resistance, soil heat flux, humidity and wind speed. This is then altered based on a cropping factor, Kc, to give an ET under standard conditions, ETc. This is then adjusted for local conditions to give ETadj. The Allen (et al, 1998) states that to obtain sensible field data for the initial calculation requires expensive equipment used by experienced researchers. The Allen does provide an example of how to use the Penman-Monteith equation but not a resource of country specific data. It is possible that
37
Daniel Smith 0634319 this could be obtained from them or from the Indian Governments Department of Agriculture and Co-operation but it was not available for this investigation. 8.4.2 Blaney-Criddle method Brouwer and Heibloem (1986) suggest two other methods of calculating ET0 by measurement from pan evaporation or using the Blaney-Cridle (Box 10.7, Eq 10.7) method if no data is available. It should be noted that this will only provide an estimate within an order of magnitude in hot windy conditions the estimate may be 60% low and in cool calm conditions it may be 40% high. To calculate a crops water needs the crop factors at each stage of growth cycle need to be considered, see Table 8-1. Initial Barley/Oats/Wheat Kc Days Lentils/pulses Kc Days Small grains Kc Growth 0.35 15 0.45 20 0.35 20 Dev 0.75 30 0.75 30 0.75 30 Mid 1.15 65 1.1 60 1.1 60 Late 0.45 40 0.5 40 0.65 40
Table 8-1 Crop factors per growing stage (Brouwer and Heibloem, 1986)
Hygiene Not possible Hand washing and some basic food All basic personal and food All needs should be met
No access Basic
Table 8-2 Service levels of water access (Howard and Bartram, 2003)
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Case study
9 Case study partner
Total area Villages Khakhra K Kya Ka K Munda Ka Rawach Milli W/S 7-1 7-2 7-8 1300 Ha 4 146 Ha 81Ha 308 Ha 715 Ha 3 367 Ha 487 Ha 447Ha To develop the proposals discussed in section 7.6 a case study of the Rawach Watershed has been chosen. The Foundation for Ecological Security is currently developing a watershed management plan for the area. A previous visit to the office of FES Udaipur culminated in the invitation to develop a plan for their comparison. The local data for this case study has, therefore, been supplied by the FES Udaipur office and analysed in the UK.
Table 9-0-1 Rawach watershed statistics calculated using GIS data supplied by FES
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Topsoil loss 0% to 25% 25% to 75% 75% to 100% Shallow gullies n/a
Table 10-1 Extent of erosion and soil developed from Water & Soil Conservation source book and GIS data, both supplied by FES
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Daniel Smith 0634319 user friendly but appeared to have a bug when georeferencing raster images such as scanned topographic maps if using it on the Microsoft Windows operating system. Therefore ArcGIS (ESRI.com, 2011) and MapInfo (Mapinfo.co.uk, 2011) were investigated. These are both proprietary software which cost around 1500. It was found that ArcGIS was appropriate for this case study (Figure 10-10) as it is widely used (Watkins, 2009) and is universally available on the Cardiff University system. Thus ArcGIS was used to create and analyse the maps for this case study. It was discovered, however, that licenses for three dimensional analysis extensions were not available. 10.1.2 Computer Aided Design A three dimensional (3D) contour model (Figure 10-7) was created using Autodesks AutoCAD software (autodesk.co.uk). This was accomplished by tracing contour lines from an appropriately scaled scanned topographic map provided by FES and sourced from the Government of India circa 1969. The official reference of the map is: 1:50,000, Sheet 45H/5, First Edition. The contour lines were given x, y and z ordinates which allowed cross sections to be taken as shown in Figure 10-8 . The cross sections created from the 3D contour map allowed the general incline to be calculated at specific areas and were combined with the land use data supplied by FES. This allowed the time of concentration, run-off coefficient, curve number, effective rainfall and peak flow to be estimated using the methods previously discussed as outlined by Haan et al (1994).
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10.2 Precipitation
Supplied rainfall data was measured at the Gogunda meteorological station which is approximately 23km south east of Rawach and 13 years of data was made available via FES. These were plotted as shown in Figure 10-1 and Figure 10-2. This shows the total rainfall per annum between 1995 and 2008. Apart from 2006 there appears a trend where there is high rainfall every 2 to 3 years. The most rain falls in July, August and September as would be expected for in a monsoon based climate. 10.2.1 Frequency analysis As was discussed Haan et al (1994) suggests four types of probability plotting from the
Depth in mm
Californian State Department, The Hazen relationship, the Natural Environmental Research Council of the United Kingdom and the Weibull relationship. These have been plotted for the rainfall data supplied in Figure 10-3 and show that all of the relationships show the same general trend giving return periods as shown in Table 10-2.
Wettest month Wettest day Year Depth Year Depth 324 1999 77 2002 594 1996 207 2007 724 2005 362 2005 1670 2006 1006 2006
30 51 149 205
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1000
100 3.00 30.00 Probability of event per annum California State Dept Hazen UK Natural Environmental Research Council Weibull
.
Figure 10-3 Probability plot of total rainfall per annum
10.3 Intensity
To plot intensity duration graphs requires four geographically specific constant (Figure 8-5) which have been developed by meteorological services who analyse historic meteorological data. Figure 10-4 has been plotted using constants provided in the Water and Soil Conservation source book (FES, 2008) for the Northern Zone of India. Tables were also plotted using constants for Jaipur and Jodhpur but the Northern Zone constants were used for calculations because it is believed that the Aravalli Hills experience a different intensity of rainfall than the Thar Desert as the hills provide a rain shadow to the desert, as was discussed in the climate section.
Figure 10-4 Intensity depth frequency plot for the Northern Zone, developed using constants from the SWC source (FES, 2008, P40)
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Daniel Smith 0634319 Soil type CL, SltL Clay or silty loam 0.50 0.60 0.72 0.30 0.36 0.42 0.30 0.35 0.50 0.30 0.36 0.42
FES code Slope A-C 0-15% D 5-10% E-H 10-30% A-C 0-15% D 5-10% E-H 10-30% A-C 0-15% D 5-10% E-H 10-30% A-C 0-15% D 5-10% E-H 10-30%
SL Sandy Loam 0.30 0.40 0.52 0.10 0.16 0.22 0.10 0.25 0.30 0.10 0.16 0.22
C Stiff Clay 0.60 0.70 0.82 0.40 0.55 0.60 0.40 0.50 0.60 0.40 0.55 0.60
Equation 10-1
Where CT is modified coefficient, Ci is individual coefficient, Ai is individual area and AT is total area
Table 10-4 Runoff coefficients for Rational Method developed using SWC source book (2008, P43) and FES data (Shethia, 2010)
Soil depth Very shallow Shallow Moderate deep Deep Very deep
Table 10-5 Developed using the SWC source book (2008, P49-50) and FES data (Shethia, 2010)
Table 10-6 NRCS Hydrological soil classification taken from (Haan et al, 1994, P63 Table 3.15)
10.5.1 Peak flow rate Equation 8-2, as discussed in section 8.1.1 (Figure 8-2), was applied to find peak flow velocity using the cross sections, GIS land use and the IDF data. The results are shown in Table 10-7. These runoff flow rates have been calculated by using constants for Jaipur, Jodhpur and the Northern zone then taking the average because the Northern Zone constants cover a large area but the Jaipur and Jodhpur constants are for desert regions but they are the geographically closest to Gogunda.
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Watershed X-section a X-section b X-section c X-section d X-section e X-section f X-section d X-section e X-section f X-section a X-section b
T=1 1.58 0.93 4.35 1.99 0.71 2.48 3.05 1.89 2.77 2.81 1.08
Run-off (m^3/sec) T=2 T=10 T=25 1.74 2.18 2.48 1.02 1.29 1.46 4.80 6.02 6.86 2.20 2.76 3.14 0.78 0.98 1.11 2.73 3.43 3.90 3.37 4.23 4.82 2.08 2.62 2.98 3.05 3.83 4.37 3.10 3.89 4.43 1.19 1.49 1.70
7-2
7-8
7-1
It was decided to not calculate flow rates for cross sections 7-8A, 7-8B or 7-8C because these are along the drainage line rather than the catchment. Due to the alignment of the contour lines it was not possible to calculate a catchment gradient at these areas and only drainage line gradient was calculated.
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Daniel Smith 0634319 Each milli-watershed was treated individually to find an area weighted curve number (Equation 10-1; Figure 10-5). Using the depth of the wettest day (Table 10-2) the effective rainfall was calculated for one, two, ten and twenty five year storms, as shown in Table 10-8, for three, six and eight hour storms.
Figure 10-6 NRCS Type II 24hr rainfall distribution ordinates from Haan et al (1994, P48)
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Storm
8hr
Watershed 7-2 Watershed 7-8 3hr 6hr 8hr 3hr 6hr Effective depth D and volume V D (mm) D (mm) D (mm) D (mm) D (mm) V (m3) V (m3) V (m3) V (m3) V (m3) V (m3)
8hr
D (mm)
D (mm)
D (mm)
D (mm) 9 10.18
V (m3)
V (m3)
7,618
2,667
1 15.97
10,62
23,93
41,59
77,81
22,35
20363
9,174
16,39
16,87
27,71
33,53
13,83
23,62
T= 10 132,205 202,321 188,556 252,200 283,497 172,261 231,208 36.03 48.83 55.14 38.70 51.76 58.19 38.53 51.71 58.19 149mm T = 25 62.28 205mm CN S Area 260,179 48 462,536 179151
228,233
299,795
334,476
318,838
414,650
461,175
319,159
415,695
81.71
91.16
65.44
85.11
94.66
65.51
85.32
Table 10-8 Effective depth of rainfall and total runoff volume for Rawach watershed calculated using NRCS Type II curve, AMC II curve numbers
Mean daily percentage of annual daytime hours Mean Daily temp Reference crop ET
Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb 0.26 0.25 0.24 0.24 0.26 29 5.55 25 4.88 21.5 4.29 20 4.13 22.5 4.77
Barley/oats/wheat Cumulative (mm) Lentils/pulses Cumulative (mm) Small grains Cumulative (mm) White maize Cumulative Average rainfall month
Water needs mm / month / m^2 October November December January February March 95.71 140.89 153.07 103.82 53.67 n/a 95.71 236.60 389.66 493.48 547.16 n/a 95.71 128.46 146.41 108.57 35.78 n/a 95.71 224.17 370.58 479.14 514.93 n/a 84.61 128.46 146.41 116.62 46.52 n/a 84.61 213.07 359.48 476.10 522.61 n/a 68.80 68.80 20.07 117.00 185.80 0.21 133.10 318.90 1.43 147.16 466.06 2.43 133.59 122.39 599.65 722.04 10.00 0.29
94.94
51mm
28,92
T= 2 2.50
4.47
7 5.55
3.46
2 5.69
9 6.88
0 3.09
4 5.28
9 6.47
30mm
45,50
2 6.52
8 1.56
8.54
6 0.60
V (m3)
Daniel Smith 0634319 Cumulative mm 20.07 20.29 21.71 24.14 34.14 34.43
Table 10-10 Unit area water needs for various crops, calculated using the Blaney-Criddle method (BROUWER AND HEIBLOEM, 1986, 2011)
Using this information the crop water needs per watershed have been calculated if all areas designated as cropped were planted with only one crop (Table 10-11).
Watershed 7-1 Watershed 7-2 Watershed 7-8 Need Required Required Required 2 3 2 3 2 mm/yr Area m water m Area m water m Area m water m3 547.16 336,800 184,283.488 14,100 7,714.956 226,400 123,877.024 514.93 336,800 173,428.424 14,100 7,260.513 226,400 116,580.152 522.61 336,800 176,015.048 14,100 7,368.801 226,400 118,318.904 722.04 336,800 243,183.072 14,100 10,180.764 226,400 163,469.856
Table 10-11 Water requirements for various crops using the Blaney-Criddle method (Brouwer and Heibloem, 1986)
Table 10-12 shows the probability that rain will fall in any given year over the entire 1300 Ha watershed. As FES survey data has stated that White Maize will be grown on the majority of agricultural land the water needs for this crop have been compared to the total rainfall volume for each frequency. Frequency Depth Volume m3 mm 324 T=1 4,212,000 T=2 594 7,722,000 T=10 724 9,412,000 T=25 1670 21,710,000 Crop Maize Maize Maize Maize Required Excess m3 3 m 416,834 3,795,166 416,834 7,305,166 416,834 8,995,166 416,83 21,293,166
Table 10-12 Total volume of rainfall compared to total crop water needs
No. village 4
T1 rainfall 3 m 3 4,212x10
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Figure 10-8 Examples of cross sections from milli-watershed 7-1, created using three dimensional contour map (figure 10-9)
Figure 10-9 Recharge potential of the Rawach watershed. Red is low, yellow moderate and green high (Provided by FES from a geohydrological survey).
Figure 10-10 GIS map data supplied by FES. Each polygon shown is associated with relevant data.
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Discussion
11 Project proposal
Based on the needs identified (section 11.1) by the Foundation for Ecological Security and the hydrological analysis discussed (section 10) it is proposed that traditional rainwater harvesting structures will increase the availability of water. To meet all of the objectives outlined (section 7.6) will require further measures will be such as an education programme and techniques based on contemporary solutions outlined in section 6; such as protecting natural springs and waste disposal.
The productivity of agriculture subsequently decreased This has forced temporary economic migration to urban areas
Based on this the following needs have been identified: Increase in surface water availability and groundwater recharge Better water management for agricultural and potable requirements Increase in agricultural productivity Decrease in quantity of wood used for fuel Education about water and sanitation
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Figure 11-1 Flow diagram showing the flow from source of stress to impact on the community (based on method used by the EPA, 2008)
As shown the problem is very complex and has many problems that are circular in nature. The sources of the stresses cannot be changed because they are climatic and historic. It is proposed that interventions at the stressor level will have the biggest impact on the watershed and will be measurable as follows: Level of groundwater and useful aquifer recharge can be monitored by measuring the level of water in wells over a year. Soil quality can be measured quantitatively by laboratory analysis or can be deduced qualitatively by inspection and agricultural yield per unit area. Sedimentation will be the hardest to measure by erosion can be qualitatively assessed by inspection over one year periods. 52
Daniel Smith 0634319 Successful reforestation can be calculated by comparing the number of trees planted to the number of trees that survive.
In addition to this sanitation, education, community participation and financial sustainability must also be included.
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Daniel Smith 0634319 11.4.1 Increase recharge and reduce erosion In section 10.6 it was shown that the effective rainfall depth is normally less than a third of total rainfall depth and only reaches half the total rainfall depth during a 25 year storm. Therefore it can be assumed the around two thirds of the rain infiltrates the soil. But Figure 10-9 shows that milliwatershed 7-1 has a medium recharge potential, 7-2 a medium to high recharge potential and 7-8 a low recharge potential. Therefore, due to the steep topography of the area this would suggest that a significant proportion of the water that is infiltrated during a storm moves through the ground and exits to a drainage channel at a lower point rather than entering the aquifer directly. The velocity that water flows through the ground is much lower than that which it travels over ground due to attenuation through soil pores. Therefore treatment of the steep slopes to increase infiltration will increase the amount of time that water is retained in the system. This can be accomplished by constructing contour bunds or trenches and by planting grasses or shrubs along the bunds or in front of the trenches. It can also be accomplished by constructing check dams along smaller streams at high elevations. It is believed that if the water table at high elevations is increased then the probability that natural springs will form will also increase. Due to the low velocities of groundwater movement it is not believed that this will happen within the first or even second year of the project. But it is proposed that a spring protection (section 6.4) programme is included in the final project plan and that the community is educated in how to construct additional spring protection facilities. Increasing the infiltration at higher elevations will also increase the period of time that water flows in to lower water harvesting structures. The velocity and volume of water flow over a year has not been modelled but as there is enough water entering the watershed system it is proposed that reducing the flow through the system in this way will provide enough water for the community. Drainage line treatment can also extend to bioengineering as suggested by the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS, 2009). If drainage lines are planted with grasses or larger shrubs, along 54
Daniel Smith 0634319 larger drainage paths, then the mannings roughness of the channel will increase. This will decrease the flow rate along the channel and increase the depth of flow. It will also increase the strength of the soil and reduce erosion. 11.4.2 Reducing deforestation There are two main elements to increase the forest cover of an area plant more trees and stop people cutting them down. People cut trees for fuel to cook with, therefore if a programme to provide education about fuel efficient stoves is developed then less tress will need to be cut. A programme about sustainable forestry could also be considered and trees that are capable of being coppiced (where the tree re-grows if it is only half cut) could be planted. Also it is believed that, all things being equal, a person will be less inclined to destroy something that provides an obvious benefit. Allen et al (1998) state that crop evapotranspiration (thus crop water needs) increases with wind speed and solar radiation. This is because the water vapour pressure gradient between the evaporating surface and the surrounding air increases as the wind removes the water vapour from around the plants. Therefore if fruit or nut trees were planted as a wind break around cropped areas they would: Reduce direct solar radiation and reduce wind speed (thus maintain the vapour pressure gradient) which would reduce evapotranspiration. Provide a rain cover which would reduce the size and velocity of rain drops thus reducing erosion. Provide food and/or cash crops for the farmer
11.4.3 Sanitation A sanitation programme must be inclusive of all people. The facilities provided must be of good quality and provide dignity to those that intend to use them. A low quality solution will not be used for long and people will return to defecating outside (Keirns, 2007). Therefore the whole community
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Daniel Smith 0634319 must be in agreement that a sanitation programme is necessary and educated about the importance of sanitation. The location of sanitary facilities is also important. If pit latrines are dug where the water table is high then the pit will contaminate the aquifer. Equally, sanitation facilities or washing facilities must not be located above catchment areas for clean water supply and drainage channels should be constructed to dispose of any brown (faecal) or grey (washing) water in an appropriate manner. Read beds or filtration systems can be constructed that host a microbial layer to attenuate contamination and allow dirty water to return to the watershed system without contaminating it. Sanitation can also provide an opportunity for agriculture and energy. If faeces (human or animal) are treated in an appropriate manner they can be biologically digested to produce compost, liquid fertilizer or methane which can be burned for cooking, lighting or power generation (Mihelcic et al, 2008, P478). Waste material needs to be considered as well. Indiscriminate dumping for waste material can produce leachate that, if left untreated, could contaminate clean water sources. Municipal was should be sorted, incinerated and disposed of in a sanitary manner. Whereas solid human or animal waste can decomposed to reduce their biological oxygen demand and returned to the system as fertilizer.
Daniel Smith 0634319 It is proposed that rainwater harvesting facilities that either uses the rooftop or a hard standing ground level area as the catchment are constructed at schools and centres of community. Sanitary facilities should also be constructed here. These areas can then be used to facilitate a programme of education about water, sanitation and the programme in general. In line with the Gram Panchayati system it is proposed that committees be elected to manage the operation of different aspects of the project that must be made up of at least 50% women. If this is not culturally suitable it is suggested that separate committees be formed with only women and facilitated by FES to ensure that the womens opinions carry equal weight to the men. However, it is proposed that a condition of the programme should be that women are involved equally as men in general and specifically in areas that they are responsible for such as the design and maintenance of clean water sources.
12 Discussion of investigation
This investigation would not have been possible without the assistance of the Foundation for Ecological security because, in general, geographic information about India is quite limited. If the investigation had been of watershed management in the United States then a large amount of geospatial data would have been freely available to download from the United States Geographic Survey. Investigation of online sources suggest that this information is being dealt with by various organisation in Indian and governmental departments. NASA has also made a large amount of remote sensing data available for download and Google provides 3D maps via Google Earth of anywhere on the planet. The level of detail required to implement the hydrological analysis was only possible due to the survey that the Foundation for Ecological Security conducted. They provided two thousand three hundred and sixty seven pieces of land use information in a GIS map that included, amongst other things, data on depth of soil, observed erosion, soil type, land cover, ownership and land slope. It is
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Daniel Smith 0634319 not known what the cost of the survey was or how it was conducted. But this is a cost that would need to be considered if this approach were to be taken by another organisation. Following a lengthy investigation it was decided that commercial software was more suitable for this investigation than open source software. The two pieces of software used retail at around fifteen hundred pounds each which is an additional cost that an organisation would need to consider. The open source software is of a high standard and given more time it is believed that it could be applied to a similar investigation. That being said, however, no alternative to AutoCAD was found that could be used for three dimensional modelling needed for to create cross sections. The NRCS curve method could be further developed to provide unit hydrographs and flow rates for each watershed. It would require each milli-watershed to be broken down in to additional catchment areas in a similar manner to that used for the Rational Method. Isochoric areas would need to be established across the catchment area. Then the time of concentration between each area and the point under analysis could be calculated. The Rational Method (or furthering the NRCS curve method) gives peak flow rates which are used in the design of retention structures and flood routing along drainage channels. As there are no dimensions or indications of channel construction (to assume roughness coefficients from) this analysis was not conducted. Such information would either require a field visit or additional surveying by the partner organisation at additional cost. Rainfall data is also quite sparse and streamflow data at any location was not available. Literature used gave examples that used point data for rainfall that was recorded over periods of hours or minutes. Again this may be something that is available from government bodies in India and it could be surveyed over time. Streamflow data could be used to indicate the time that the watershed would take to react to rainfall and, with channel dimensions, the volume of water that leaves the system at any point.
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Daniel Smith 0634319 FES provided a geohydrological study of Rawach which indicated the recharge potential of the area (Figure 10-9) and included pumping tests which could be used to estimate the velocity of groundwater flow. It is believed that further investigation to estimate information, such as general soil permeability coefficient, could be used to model groundwater flow in the area. The Food and Agricultural Organisation advise the use of the Penman-Monteith equation because it will give more accurate results than the Blaney-Criddle equation used; Brouwer and Heibloem (1986) state that the Blaney-Criddle equation will only give results to within an order of magnitude. The Penman-Monteith equation is complicated though and requires meteorological coefficients and additional local information. They gave an example with these coefficients and stated that they are available for various locations. It was believed, though, that the Blaney-Criddle method was accurate enough for this analysis as exact quantities of water for irrigation were not being calculated. If a large area were to be irrigated automatically then more accurate results would be needed but this investigation only sought to identify if enough water was available for further development of the area. It is the opinion of the author that an investigation should be pragmatic. Further surveys and ever more data could be obtained which would increase the accuracy of predictions. But the time and cost may make this prohibitive. As has been discussed these technologies are not new and the engineers that originally developed them did not have a computer or satellite imagery. Therefore a desk based investigation will never be sufficient to fully plan a project of this type and should only be used as an indicative appraisal of what could be possible. However, throughout the investigation no other examples that used hydrological analysis to estimate rainwater harvesting in arid or semi-arid regions were found. This investigation has shown that models usually used for flood risk analysis can be used to analyse rainwater harvesting potential and it is believed that further study could develop a general approach which would be applicable at any region of the world. 59
Conclusion
This report has investigated the use of modern engineering tools and principals to create a watershed management plan for a rural area of India. The concepts used have been based on traditional Indian rainwater harvesting technologies that have been in use on the sub-continent since at least 300BC but have lately been neglected in favour of large scale irrigation and water supply systems similar to those used in Europe. The report has reviewed the available literature pertaining to traditional Indian rainwater harvesting, environmental engineering in developing countries and hydrological analysis for flood risk management. It was found that the principals described are similar, therefore a mathematical procedure used to analyse flooding can also be used to analyse water retention if the objective of the function is altered. The hypothesis of the project has been explored by analysing a rural watershed in North-West India. Thirteen years of rainfall data have been analysed and compared to water consumption estimates. The total volume of rainfall per annum was found to be at least 4.2 million cubic metres which far exceeds the estimated water consumption of five hundred thousand cubic metres. Due to monsoon conditions rainwater harvesting structures are need and these can be designed using peak flow rates determined. This case study has been used to develop a project proposal for the area which includes sanitation, economic and social factors. It was found that evapotranspiration is the major source of water demand for arable areas. This is related to wind speed and direct solar radiation. Therefore it has been propose that creating wind breaks using fruit trees will reduce the arable water demand and provide extra food for the populace. The study did not find similar examples of analysis for rainwater harvesting and it is believed that this approach could be developed for any region of the world if sufficient data is available. 60
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