Visit to The Netherlands: Key Learnings under National

Hydrology ProjectDr. Amita Prasad, Joint Secretary, MoWR, RD & GR

2nd December, 2015

The Delegation

Indian Delegation (from Left to right)

R.R.Pawar - K Venugopal - Ms. Tinku Biswal - Dr. Amita Prasad – Dr. Anju GaurDr.Sanjay Jain – N.K. Manglik – Dr.C.S.Singh - Dr.Nandakumaran - Avanish Kant

Purpose of the Visit

• To understand the good water management practices specifically in the field of flood forecasting and early warning system, ground water management etc.

• Understanding river basin approach

• To explore the possibilities of its replication in India

• To explore avenues of information exchange, collaborative projects and training & capacity building with UNESCO-IHE

• To understand the UNESCO International Hydrological Programme and explore the possibility of India’s role in the programme

Organisations visitedNetherlands: (9th to 12th November, 2015)

Ministry of Environment, Deltares, WaterNET, River Basin Authorities, UNESCO-IHE

Spectrum of Government and private organisations, Universities, etc.

27 presentations made by various organisations

Field visits to STPs, Data Centres, Water Room, iD Lab

France: (13th November, 2015)

UNESCO, Ministry of Water Supply and Sanitation

Discussion with UNESCO on International Hydrology Programme and with Govt. of France on French Water Partnership

Water Resources Data and Crisis Management Centre

Hydrological Database

Meteorological Database

Environmental Database

Socio-economic Database

Oceanographic Database

iD LabDeltares

WATER ROOMNational Water Management

Centre

• National Hydrological Model is housed

• Real time update of data• Senior Water Experts

assembles to discuss and generate scenarios for water management.

• Decision Makers assemble to discuss the scenarios and take immediate action for management.

• If needed, the model is re-run to cross verify scenarios

Scenarios & Technical Advisory passed on to

Water Room

Visualization

Visualization

Flood Modeling Nodes

Satellite Data Nodes

River basin management, Surface Water –Ground Water Interaction & flood

forecasting• Deltares developed ‘water plans’ for the Rhine and other river basins in Egypt, Mongolia, Indonesia etc.

• Deltares also is the UNESCO’s modelling hub.

• RIBASIM and iMOD for basin planning, SW-GW studies are on open source platform -

• Flood Early Warning System (FEWS) used by Govt. of US, UK, Australia, Indonesia, Korea, and more than 35 other countries

Artificial Recharge, Amsterdam

• 23 River Basin Authorities

• Each River basin Authority has several municipalities, which are responsible for Waste Water treatment

• Require little space (Amsterdam – 12.5 Ha)

• smell free.

• Revenue generation through generation of power, biogas and filtering of phosphorus 

Waste Water treatment

UNESCO-IHE• UNESCO-IHE is the largest international graduate water education facility in the world.

• Short term, M.Sc. and PhD courses in water resources combined with natural sciences, social sciences and management and governance.

• More than 15,000 professionals from over 162 countries.

• Numerous research and capacity development projects

UNESCO – International Hydrology Programme

• Intergovernmental programme of the UN devoted to water resources management, education and capacity building

• New eight-year Medium-term Strategy of UNESCO (2014-2021) aims to improve water security in response to local, regional, and global challenges. 

• Suggested having a professional chair of UNESCO in India

Govt. of France – French Water Initiative• Management of water resources governed primarily by the French Water Law.

• Water management at the river basin scale by Basin Committees

• Drinking Water Directives of Europe (1975, 1980), Nitrates Directive (1991), Urban Waste Water Directive (1991), Europe Water Framework Directive (2000) and the Water and Aquatic Environment Act (2006) are the main water laws. 

Principle of “Polluter Pays”

Outcome of the Visit• A facility similar to iD-Lab and Water Room is very much needed. This can be the Hub for:

• National Water Informatics Centre (NWIC) • Linkages with all Central and State hydrological, meteorological, oceanographic, environment and socio-economic data bases

• (1) real-time response and disaster management

• (2) training, exercises and education • (3) collaborative research • (4) visualisation and demonstration to run the models from national scale to local scale.

• Follow a principle of ‘free data, free software and free knowledge’.

RecommendationsPossible Areas of Bilateral Cooperation between India & The Netherlands•Setting up NWIC in MoWR.•IWRM and setting up of RBOs•Development of early warning systems for Flood & drought forecasting, ground water modeling etc.•Municipal waste water treatment & urban sanitation•Training and Capacity building

Possible Areas of Bilateral Cooperation Between India & The UNESCO-IHE•Training and capacity building related to sustainable water resources development and management. •Short term and long term courses on water resources.

Recommendations

Possible Areas of Bilateral Cooperation Between India & The UNESCO•Partnership & networking with International Hydrology Programme (IHP) through UNESCO Centers and Chairs.•Establishment of UNESCO Chair in India for South East Asia

Possible Areas of Bilateral Cooperation Between India & France•Water governance at basin level – MOU between Indian and France.•Awareness creation and capacity building (through French Water Partnership)

Immediate Action Points

Deputation of two groups of middle level officers to NetherlandsOfficers from CWC, CGWB and NIH involved with NWIC activities to understand the functioning of “Water Information Centre and Water Room” Capacity BuildingCorrespond with UNESCO-IHE, Netherlands for long term capacity building in SW and GW Hydrology, Modelling, Water Quality, Water Management etc. UNESCO Chair, ParisCreation of “UNESCO Chair” at any of the IITs/ Universities in India. 

Thank You

Amsterdam Wastewater Treatment Plant