Impacts
There have been wide-ranging impacts of both large-scale water management and micro water harvesting in improving the ecology of other rivers, reversing the trend of depleting water tables and tremendous growth in agricultural production.
Greening of other rivers
Narmada water has been released into the dry beds of Heran, Orsang, Karad, Dhadhar, Mahi, Saidak, Mohar, Shedhi, Watrak, Meshwo, Khari, Sabarmati and Saraswati rivers. The ecology and water quality of these rivers have improved dra- matically over the last few years. In addition to minor rivers, around 700 village tanks have also been filled up with Narmada water as part of drought manage- ment measures, which has substantially improved the water availability for irriga- tion purpose in these villages.
Increasing water tables
The average depletion of water levels in north Gujarat before the launch of this massive programme was around 3 m per year, which by now would have cumula- tively declined by almost 20–26 m, leading to sharp rise in electricity consumption for withdrawal of groundwater. But there has been a reported average water level rise of about 4 m during recent years (figure 1).
Figure 1: Ground water level fall/rise (Metres)
8
6
4
2
0
–2
–4
–6
Yearly water level difference in metre (May 1998 to May 2002)
Yearly water level difference in metre (May 2003 to May 2007)
Source: Narmada, Water Resources, Water Supply and Kalpsar Department, 2009
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