Mitigating Floods for Managing Droughts through Aquifer Storage : An Examination of Two Complementary Approaches

Interventions that are robust, cost effective, and scalable are in critical demand throughout South Asia to offset growing water scarcity and avert increasingly frequent water-related disasters. This case study presents two complementary forms of i...

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Main Author: Pavelic, Paul
Format: Brief
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/145301579805233641/Mitigating-Floods-for-Managing-Droughts-through-Aquifer-Storage-An-Examination-of-Two-ComplementaryApproaches
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33244
id okr-10986-33244
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-332442021-09-17T05:11:48Z Mitigating Floods for Managing Droughts through Aquifer Storage : An Examination of Two Complementary Approaches Pavelic, Paul FLOODS DROUGHT AQUIFER WATER SCARCITY GROUNDWATER IRRIGATION ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT Interventions that are robust, cost effective, and scalable are in critical demand throughout South Asia to offset growing water scarcity and avert increasingly frequent water-related disasters. This case study presents two complementary forms of intervention that transform water hazards (floodwater) into a resource (groundwater) to boost agricultural productivity and enhance livelihoods. The first intervention, holiya, is simple and operated by individual farmers at the plot/farm scale to control local flooding in semiarid climates. The second is the underground transfer of floods for irrigation (UTFI) and operates at the village scale to offset seasonal floods from upstream in humid climates. Rapid assessments indicate that holiyas have been established at more than 300 sites across two districts in North Gujarat since the 1990s, extending the crop growing season and improving water quality. UTFI knowledge and experience has grown rapidly since implementation of a pilot trial in western Uttar Pradesh in 2015 and is now embedded within government programs with commitments for modest scaling up. Both approaches can help farmers redress the multiple impacts associated with floods, droughts, and groundwater overexploitation at a range of scales from farm plot to the river basin. The potential for wider uptake across South Asia depends on setting up demonstration sites beyond India and overcoming gaps in technical knowledge and institutional capacity. 2020-01-27T19:26:35Z 2020-01-27T19:26:35Z 2020-01 Brief http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/145301579805233641/Mitigating-Floods-for-Managing-Droughts-through-Aquifer-Storage-An-Examination-of-Two-ComplementaryApproaches W19071 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33244 English Water Knowledge Note; CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research :: Brief Publications & Research South Asia South Asia Bangladesh Bhutan India Pakistan
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic FLOODS
DROUGHT
AQUIFER
WATER SCARCITY
GROUNDWATER
IRRIGATION
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
spellingShingle FLOODS
DROUGHT
AQUIFER
WATER SCARCITY
GROUNDWATER
IRRIGATION
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
Pavelic, Paul
Mitigating Floods for Managing Droughts through Aquifer Storage : An Examination of Two Complementary Approaches
geographic_facet South Asia
South Asia
Bangladesh
Bhutan
India
Pakistan
relation Water Knowledge Note;
description Interventions that are robust, cost effective, and scalable are in critical demand throughout South Asia to offset growing water scarcity and avert increasingly frequent water-related disasters. This case study presents two complementary forms of intervention that transform water hazards (floodwater) into a resource (groundwater) to boost agricultural productivity and enhance livelihoods. The first intervention, holiya, is simple and operated by individual farmers at the plot/farm scale to control local flooding in semiarid climates. The second is the underground transfer of floods for irrigation (UTFI) and operates at the village scale to offset seasonal floods from upstream in humid climates. Rapid assessments indicate that holiyas have been established at more than 300 sites across two districts in North Gujarat since the 1990s, extending the crop growing season and improving water quality. UTFI knowledge and experience has grown rapidly since implementation of a pilot trial in western Uttar Pradesh in 2015 and is now embedded within government programs with commitments for modest scaling up. Both approaches can help farmers redress the multiple impacts associated with floods, droughts, and groundwater overexploitation at a range of scales from farm plot to the river basin. The potential for wider uptake across South Asia depends on setting up demonstration sites beyond India and overcoming gaps in technical knowledge and institutional capacity.
format Brief
author Pavelic, Paul
author_facet Pavelic, Paul
author_sort Pavelic, Paul
title Mitigating Floods for Managing Droughts through Aquifer Storage : An Examination of Two Complementary Approaches
title_short Mitigating Floods for Managing Droughts through Aquifer Storage : An Examination of Two Complementary Approaches
title_full Mitigating Floods for Managing Droughts through Aquifer Storage : An Examination of Two Complementary Approaches
title_fullStr Mitigating Floods for Managing Droughts through Aquifer Storage : An Examination of Two Complementary Approaches
title_full_unstemmed Mitigating Floods for Managing Droughts through Aquifer Storage : An Examination of Two Complementary Approaches
title_sort mitigating floods for managing droughts through aquifer storage : an examination of two complementary approaches
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2020
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/145301579805233641/Mitigating-Floods-for-Managing-Droughts-through-Aquifer-Storage-An-Examination-of-Two-ComplementaryApproaches
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33244
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