A recently held national workshop focused on integrated management of sediments in river basins and reservoirs for sustainable development
Recently, a one-day national workshop on "Integrated Management of Sediments in River Basins and Reservoirs for Sustainable Development" was held in New Delhi under the auspices of the Ministry of Jal Shakti. The goal of the workshop was to have discussions with stakeholders about creating long-term action plans for managing sediments in rivers, reservoirs, and other bodies of water.
The workshop was attended by about 200 representatives from various Central Ministries, States/UTs, Academic Institutes, and Implementing Agencies of the Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP). Most participants agreed that short- and long-term action plans, as well as steps to prevent silt buildup in the reservoir, should be created and implemented in stages.
Pankaj Kumar, Secretary of the Department of Water Resources, River Development, and Ganga Rejuvenation (DoWR), who opened the event, spoke to the audience and underlined the importance of assessing sedimentation rates in order to determine how they affect reservoirs' usable lives. He said that the states' development of an action plan for the management of sedimentation in reservoirs and rivers must be guided by the workshop's discussions. The Chairman of the CWC (Central Water Commission) highlighted specific problems that sedimentation poses for the nation's water infrastructure. The Special Secretary wanted to use the sediment state of the river basin as a tool to interpret sediment footprints there.
Subject matter experts gave presentations at the event on a variety of subjects, including the national framework on sediment management, sediment assessment studies, the use of geomorphological tools for assessing the morphological health of rivers, sedimentation management for national waterways, modelling tools for assessing sediment loads at the basin scale, etc. Through inputs on the topic, the states/UTs of Rajasthan, Kerala, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Odisha presented their experiences. Presentations on respective areas of expertise were made by central departments, agencies, and academic institutions, including CWC, the National Institute of Hydrology, IIT Kanpur, IIT Roorkee, CWPRS, NHPC, DVC, MoEF&CC, and NRSC.
Lead presentations on the National Framework for Sediment Management (NFSM), the Dam Safety Act-2021, and sedimentation in reservoirs served as the impetus for the discussions on the topic. The National Framework for Sediment Management (NFSM) is a comprehensive framework for managing sediments in rivers and reservoirs simultaneously, covering statutory aspects of sedimentation, its environmental impact, and various clearings. It was notified by DoWR & GR in 2023. It was stated again that the main requirements for restoring the nation's lost storage capacity are monitoring and measurements using standardised protocols, identification of sediment hotspots, modelling for integrated basin level sediment fluxes, assessment of sedimentation rates, and then adapting sediment management plans.
In order to handle sediment in the existing reservoirs, different sediment management techniques, such as watershed management, catchment area treatment to prevent sediment ingress from catchment, and providing large-sized deep outlets, need to be adopted. Projects in a basin's cascade require a coordinated and synchronised approach to reservoir operation and sediment management.
Additionally, Rajasthan and Kerala outlined the revenue-based approaches they are using to desilt their reservoirs. Additionally, extensive pre-desiltation investigations were reviewed and praised. Stakeholders need to adopt a standard operating procedure for desilting reservoirs.
IIT Roorkee and IIT Kanpur academic institutions discussed cutting-edge methods for estimating sedimentation rates, volumes, and reservoir capacity, including bathymetric surveys, satellite remote sensing, a hybrid method combining bathymetry and remote sensing, and differential global positioning systems (DGPS). Additionally, influences of sediment on river shape and the usage of geomorphological factors for quantifying sediment volume were presented and debated. A lot of focus was placed on the fundamental and applied studies required to forecast how rivers will react to sediment dredging and comprehend river morphology. For the assessment and management of sediment, thorough, in-depth research, modelling (2D numerical as well as 3D physical), and GIS approaches are all necessary.