Water allocation in the Krishna River Basin to improve water productivity in agriculture

• University of Melbourne, Australia
• Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, India

India's Krishna River Basin covers an area in excess of 250,000km, or around 8 per cent of India's land mass. The Basin is shared between three large central states, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Demand for water, driven by population growth, is increasing; agriculture represents 95 per cent of demand, while industry (2 per cent) and domestic use (3 per cent) account for the rest. Water allocations in the basin have been based on the rulings of the 1969 Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal. Since that time the Basin's water use has focused on crop irrigation in the semi-arid central region, diverting water from the Krishna Delta 'Rice Bowl'. River flows to the ocean have ceased, a situation that mirrors what has occurred in Australia's Murray Darling Basin. This similarity, along with questions of water consumption for agriculture as opposed to use for environmental flows, have been addressed in Australia.
The Indian Parliament has reconstituted the Krishna Basin Tribunal to negotiate the balance of flows and allocations for the next 4-5 years. The Tribunal's challenge is to provide the relevant information to ensure decision-making results in sustainability and caters to the needs of a growing population while not exceeding levels of likely supply. This project aimed to provide technical and economic information and decision support to the Central Water Commission and Ministry of Water Resources, as advisory agents to the Krishna Basin Tribunal, to help improve water productivity for agriculture in these three riparian states of the Krishna Basin.

By providing technical and economic information and decision support to the Central Water Commission and Ministry of Water Resources, as advisory agents to the Krishna Basin Tribunal, and to the riparian states water productivity in agriculture in the Krishna Basin will be improved.

Establish database of hydrologic and water use data and GIS mapping of the basin
Populate hydrologic and water use database to establish a complete water balance model of the basin
Determine minimum data requirements for a simple Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) representation of the entire basin and collate secondary data accordingly
Calibrate model and simulate alternate scenarios of future water demand and supply for the entire basin in diverse climatic situations
Determine the data requirements of the Resource Allocation Model (REALM), system configuration and input data processing
Calibrate model, simulate on trial basis, and integrate with economic model
Document the existing activity in the basin
Gather data on the costs and benefits of regulating water
Undertake benefit-cost modelling exercise and identify gainers and losers
Assess the basin water productivity and identify alternate cropping patterns
Integrate with the REALM model output
Hold discussions with key stakeholders on various options of changing the current allocation policies to achieve the performance improvement goals
Assessment of economic implications of the simulated scenarios