Water balance and benefit sharing approach to reduce water deficit in an Indian river Basin

ABSTRACT

Using Mahanadi basin as a case, the study demonstrates benefit-sharing can improve water allocation among riparian states experiencing water stress. The results show the basin having a yearly average water deficit of 5429 million cubic metres (MCM) under business-as-usual which increases to 6781 MCM under high economic growth for 2011–2050. Even after various water supply augmentation and demand management interventions and climate change-induced increased runoff, the upper riparian state continues to have a water deficit. This can be reduced if the lower riparian state allows the upper one to divert 1500 MCM of additional water annually which will require a strong governance mechanism in place.

KEYWORDS:

• Mahanadi basin
• climate change
• water supply augmentation
• water demand management
• benefit sharing
• water allocation

Acknowledgements

The author would like to extend sincere thanks to Prof. Lucia De Stefano, Associate Professor, Faculty of Geological Sciences, Universidad Complutense de Madrid; and Dr. Guido Schmidt, Senior Policy Expert Water and Climate Adaptation, Fresh-Thoughts Consulting for their expert inputs and reviewing the earlier versions of the manuscript.

Authors’ contribution

The authors contributed equally to this work.

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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The type of data used and their sources are mentioned in the research paper.

Additional information

Funding

The authors have no funding to report.