Dams and reservoirs, paradoxically, increase the scarcity of water

The goal is simple: reservoirs store water in times of abundance of water and stabilize its level in the dry season.
An international team of scientists working on drought, reports that many dams and reservoirs can, paradoxically, contribute to the lack of water, they, on the contrary, is intended to solve.
A study published in Nature Sustainability.
A group of scientists under the supervision of Professor Giuliano Di Baldassarre (Giuliano Di Baldassarre) from Uppsala University (Sweden) in their work showed that the increase in storage capacity in the long term may lead to unintended effects and, paradoxically, increase water shortages.
The authors argue that the expansion or planning of reservoirs should take into account two contradictory phenomena: the cycle of supply and demand and reservoir effect.
The cycle of supply and demand describes the cases when an increase in supply leads to an increase in water demand that can quickly offset the initial benefit from the creation of reservoirs.
Moreover, prolonged periods of abundant water supported reservoirs can lead to greater dependence on water resources, which in turn increases the social vulnerability and economic damage as a result of a deficit will occur.
A new study has political implications.
Instead, they offer less reliance on large water infrastructure such as dams and reservoirs, and to work towards preserving water resources.
In other words, the scientists propose to deal with drought and water shortages by reducing water consumption, not increase supply.

Construction of dams imperative to address water scarcity issue: Pervaiz Khattak

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Defence Pervaiz Khattak on Wednesday said that construction of dams is imperative to address water scarcity issue in the country, ARY News reported.
According to a statement released from his office, the minister expressed these view talking to a group of students from Headstart School Islamabad, who called on him to present a cheque of Rs60,000 for the Prime Minister-Chief Justice Dam fund.
The minister appreciated the passion and dedication of the students and advised them to work devotedly for the bright future of the country.
About the dam fund The Diamer Bhasha and Mohmand Dam Fund 2018 was established by the federal government in pursuance of a Supreme Court order for raising funds for the construction of the two dams.
Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Mian Saqib Nisar was the first to donate money for the fund as on July 5, he deposited Rs1Million as donation in the account titled “DIAMER BASHA AND MOHMAND DAM FUND–2018′.
The fund, which was merged with PM’s fund by PM Imran Khan on September 7, can receive donations and contributions from both domestic and international donors, individuals and companies, and the general public has been requested to contribute generously.

Boil-water advisories

Beckley Water Company has issued a temporary outage from 9 to 11 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 17.
Area includes Ritter Drive from Sun Builders to Price Lane.
This includes Knoll Apartments, C & O Dam Road, Raleigh Trailer Court, Matherly Dirve, Lewis Drive and all side streets.
Once the water has been restored the affected areas will be under boil-water advisory.
Customers in these areas should boil their water for at least one full minute prior to use until further notice.

Water scarcity: Dams and regulatory policies needed

To avert the impending water crisis, the Supreme Court is pushing to start the Diamer-Bhasha dam, for which the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) has requested the nation to donate funds.
These days funding for Diamer-Bhasha Dam has divided the masses into two camps; one camp favours the building of the dam, whilst the other side opposes the project claiming that public financing is not viable option, what the government needs is a comprehensive strategy to make the dam.
Pakistan at the moment is in desperate need of the dam and the apprehension of the CJP about water crisis is also appropriate.
Archaic irrigation practices and uneven water distribution systems are the fundamental basis of this water-intensive economy Apart from the dearth of dams, many other factors also contribute to water scarcity; the extravagant use of water, contamination of the water, outmoded irrigation methods, climate changes, the rundown state of the sewage system, and the rapid growth of urbanisation are the primary causes behind water scarcity.
Along with this, the sewage system of Pakistan is also responsible for water scarcity.
Pakistan is ranked 7 on the index of countries suffering from climate change.
The Government of Pakistan also should transform the irrigation system into drip irrigation, by convincing landlords giving incentive to poor farmers.
Moreover, overhauling the defective sewage system is also inevitable, since leakage of water from pipes occur and it seeps into the surface of the earth, which causes water pollution and leads to scarcity.
Climate change effects water scarcity, so the government needs to regulate the emission of greenhouse gases as well as other gases that are responsible for climate change.
Only by making dams, the water crisis won’t be averted.

Soroti Locals Face Water Scarcity as Road Company Depletes Local Dam

Follow @chimpreports Trouble is brewing in Arapai Sub County, Soroti district after residents blamed China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) for the declining water level of Arabaka valley dam on along Soroti-Moroto road.
CCCC was contracted by Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) to tarmac part of Soroti-Moroto road beginning from Soroti town up to Katakwi district bordering Karamoja region in Napak district.
But residents say their only source of water for domestic use, fishing and watering animals during prolonged drought seasons of water scarcity is drying as the construction firm uses most of the water to water the road during construction.
Michael Anoku, one of the residents in Akaikai village, says the road construction work has consumed large volumes of water from the dam using water boozers.
Mr Anoku claims that the water levels in the valley dam have drastically reduced since the road construction project started in June this year.
The LC III chairman Arapai sub county, Mr Simon Emetu, also raised concern over the matter, insisting that the dam is used for watering herds of animals by farmers.
“The water level has indeed gone down, our fear is that 2 months from now, there will be no water left,” he adds.
The LC one chairperson Akaikai village, Akaikai parish in Arapai Sub County, Mr Simon Erongu, said with the unpredictable sequence of rains, what is left in the valley dam can’t take them up to December.
When contacted, the coordinator of CCCC, Mr Charles Oriokot, said that they have requested the locals to file their complaint through the resident engineer.
Mr Oriokot added that once that is done, they will not object to the directive that will come from UNRA.

Dams construction critical to avoid looming water and food crisis

He urged people, especially the philanthropists, land-owners, industrialists and others, to come forward and contribute generously to the Supreme Court’s fund for the construction of the two dams.
He asked them to play a constructive role in making the country self-sufficient in the areas of energy, food and water.
Terming construction of big dams extremely vital, he voiced fear “Pakistan will face a drought-like situation if big dams like Diamer-Bhasha and Mohmand are not constructed by 2030.” Consequently, mass exodus from drought-stricken areas will start and migration from villages to urban areas will take place.
Mulk said construction of new dams would lead to the immense uplift of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa where thousands of hectares of land were standing uncultivated due to water scarcity.
“No development is possible with fast-depleting energy resources,” he said.
“Agriculture and industrial sectors are in dire need of water and energy to keep their wheels running.” “Approximately, 40,000 medium and large-sized dams had been constructed around the world in the 20th century,” he said.
“Of these, the US built 7,500, China 22,000 and India 4,600 dams while Pakistan constructed a limited number of reservoirs only.” He lamented that not a single dam was constructed after Tarbela in the country.
“The current water crisis would not have emerged had Diamer-Bhasha, Mohmand and Kalabagh dams been constructed timely,” he said.
All those who opposed the construction of Kalabagh dam were in fact misguided about the mega project besides lack of knowledge about the looming water crisis in the country, he said.
“But to our utter dismay, the country is generating only around 6,000 megawatts from hydel resources.”

Kunnar dam filled with slush in flood; Sabarimala may face water scarcity

Sabarimala: Kunnar dam which was the major source of drinking water in Sabarimala temple was filled by the floods and is dumped with rocks and soil.
Since rocks and soil got deposited in the dam and its catchment areas, its storage capacity was reduced and the water kept overflowing.
About 25 lakh litres of water per day has been brought to the temple premises from here.
Kunnar dam is located 7 km away from Sabarimala and has a storage capacity of 50 lakh litres.
The water was carried to the temple without using electric power.
The dam was found to have levelled when the Devaswom engineers inspected it on Sunday.
Labourers will be assigned soon to remove the soil dumped in the dam.
If the dam is not repaired on a war footing, the people have to face scarcity of fresh water in the temple during the pilgrimage season.
Water pumping from Pamba to the temple has been stopped since August 14 due to motor damage and power failures.

Drinking water scarcity in Sangareddy

The residents of district headquarters are experiencing peak summer in the rainy season.
The residents who were used to getting drinking water supplied daily are now facing a shortage with water being supplied once in two days and some places it is more irregular, due to the main source of drinking water for Sangareddy and Hyderabad — Manjeera Dam — going dry.
The Manjeera reservoir has to get water from Singoor which has not yet received any inflows due to lack of sufficient rains in Karnataka, which was the catchment area for the project.
To add to the woes, existing water in Singoor was diverted to Mid Manair project in Karimnagar district to save the standing crops there.
The scarcity of water in Singoor is adversely impacting the needs both drinking water and irrigation.
As on Saturday, Singoor has 517.22 m of water against the full reservoir capacity of 523.6 m. As on Saturday the reservoir had 7.591 tmcft against the full reservoir capacity of 29.917 tmcft.
“Manjeera has already dried up and hence we are supplying water once in two days.
The officials have informed us that they were making efforts to supply water from Mission Bagiratha to the district headquarters by providing a connection from Singoor reservoir.
Prasada Rao told The Hindu .
While there are heavy rains across the State here the situation is quite contrasting,” said an officer in Irrigation Department.

Drinking water scarcity in Sangareddy

The residents of district headquarters are experiencing peak summer in the rainy season.
The residents who were used to getting drinking water supplied daily are now facing a shortage with water being supplied once in two days and some places it is more irregular, due to the main source of drinking water for Sangareddy and Hyderabad — Manjeera Dam — going dry.
The Manjeera reservoir has to get water from Singoor which has not yet received any inflows due to lack of sufficient rains in Karnataka, which was the catchment area for the project.
To add to the woes, existing water in Singoor was diverted to Mid Manair project in Karimnagar district to save the standing crops there.
The scarcity of water in Singoor is adversely impacting the needs both drinking water and irrigation.
As on Saturday, Singoor has 517.22 m of water against the full reservoir capacity of 523.6 m. As on Saturday the reservoir had 7.591 tmcft against the full reservoir capacity of 29.917 tmcft.
“Manjeera has already dried up and hence we are supplying water once in two days.
The officials have informed us that they were making efforts to supply water from Mission Bagiratha to the district headquarters by providing a connection from Singoor reservoir.
Prasada Rao told The Hindu.
While there are heavy rains across the State here the situation is quite contrasting,” said an officer in Irrigation Department.

Outflow from Sardar Sarovar Dam reduced, Gujarat stares at water crisis, says official

Meanwhile, police have been deployed along the Kutch Branch Canal (KBC) and scores of pipelines installed by farmers to draw water from the canal have been removed as the SSNNL is trying to fill up the Tappar dam to meet drinking water requirements of the arid Kutch district.
“If the situation continues this way with less rain in the neighbouring state and increasing demand in the rain deficit districts here in Gujarat, we are looking at the possibility of a drinking water crisis in the coming days.
As far as the Kutch Branch Canal (KBC) is concerned, it was after orders from the state government, the SSNNL started discharging water in the KBC from August 4 and officers said that as of Friday, 30 million cubic feet (mcft) water had already been released the Tappar dam near Anjar in Kutch.
SSNNL officers said that therefore they had to take precautionary measures to ensure that water reaches the Tappar dam for drinking purpose.
“While we hope that it will rain in the coming days, we are releasing water in Tappar dam to ensure enough supply of drinking water in Kutch.
Rapar and Lakhpat talukas have received almost no rain so far while Abdasa, Bhachau, Mundra and Nakhatrana have recorded around one inch rain so far.
The district as a whole has received merely 11 per cent of its average rainfall so far.
South Gujarat, which saw maximum rainfall this monsoon, has reported a sowing deficit of 21 per cent and less rainfall by 26 per cent.
Kutch has been worst-affect district in Gujarat, receiving just 11.08 per cent of its average annual rainfall.
This summer, Gujarat went through a severe water crisis when the water level in the Narmada dam reservoir fell below 110 metres – the live storage level, forcing the government to draw dead water through the Irrigation By-Pass Tunnel (IBPT) in February to meet drinking water needs.