Cover slide option 1 Title Conjunctive Management of Water Resources –

Underground Taming of Floods for Irrigation

Jeremy Bird on behalf of

Paul PavelicInternational Water Management Institute

GEF International Waters Conference - 12 May 2016

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Water for a food-secure world

Current Situation – Wet Season

CONJUNCTIVE FLOOD AND DROUGHT MANAGEMENT

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Water for a food-secure world

Underground Taming of Floods for Irrigation (UTFI);

Wet season

CONJUNCTIVE FLOOD AND DROUGHT MANAGEMENT

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Water for a food-secure world

Underground Taming of Floods for Irrigation (UTFI);

Dry season

CONJUNCTIVE FLOOD AND DROUGHT MANAGEMENT

Rural Farmers

Urban Flood Managers

Surface Water

Opportunities

Impacts

Upstream Downstream

Groundwater

SOLVING MULTIPLE PROBLEMS WITH ONE SOLUTION…

Performance testing of basins designed to infiltrate floodwater are positive

Falling groundwater level trends are reversed and year-round rice/sugar production maintained

The Chao Phraya basin lies at the economic heart of Thailand. The basin is routinely affected by major floods downstream, yet farmers, cities & industry frequently run short of water.

KEY FINDINGS

• Significant volumes of floodwater (30%) can be harvested in wet years without major impacts on existing users or ecosystems

• $250 Mill./year of added revenue can be generated

• Payback time on capital investments could be just a few years

• UTFI would be far cheaper than conventional engineering approaches for flood mitigation

UTFI CONCEIVED & TESTED IN THAILAND

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Water for a food-secure world

IDENTIFYING SCOPE IN THE GANGES BASIN

• >60% of inner GB potentially suitable

• Prospects in others basins being explored

Example of village selection

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UTFI: Stakeholders Consultations

Consultation with Villagersutfi.iwmi.org

• State/District/Division level consultation – to inform UTFI activities and seek support

• Village level consultation - to understand willingness to support and maintenance

Consultation with District Officials

UTFI: Site Development

Pre implementation

Post implementation

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UTFI: Key Findings

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• Groundwater level improved by 0.5 m after UTFI implementation

• Water level in the piezometers dropped by 2 m after recharge indicating thedemand and use of groundwater

• Under ideal conditions, the recharge system can intercept 60,000 cum permonth, or 180,000 cum for a 3 month recharge season.

Large-scale Implementing Mechanism

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• To put UTFI in practice, integration with relevant ongoing government programmesis required.

• IWMP is one of the best approaches to harvest rainwater to improve livelihood by providing community managed simple low tech solutions and mitigate adverse climatic conditions such as floods.

• Convergence between IWMP and MNREGA is crucial and mutually beneficial.

• UTFI and IWMP or WDC-PMKSY are perfectly matched as both focused on clusters of micro-watershed level in a holistic manner.

TYPES OF RISKS & ISSUES

TECHNICAL RISKS SOCIAL/INSTITUTIONAL RISKS

- poor system design/ construction and/or site selection

- low recharge performance - new upstream developments

- insufficient incentive for land conversion

- poor or inadequate participation of local communities / institutions

- cumbersome or overly-complex implementation models

ECONOMIC RISKS ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS

- high investments or opportunity costs

- high maintenance/ operational costs

- polluted floodwater enters aquifers - waterlogging due to aquifer over-

filling- negative impacts downstream due to

interventions

ILLUSTRATIVE VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9au0ApUlxu8

WEBSITE:

http://utfi.iwmi.org/

FURTHER INFORMATION

Led by IWMI

Groundwater Solutions Initiative for Policy and Practice

A global partnership for sustainable groundwater management

…to strengthen, expand and connect current groundwater initiatives

…share experience on solutions and approaches to scaling up

… advance the agenda of sustainable groundwater management to achieve the SDGs