Challenges of Water for Food, People and Environment–ICID’s1 Initiative on ‘Country Policy Support Programme’ (CPSP) - Water and Agriculture: Sustainability, Markets and Policies - page 154

allocation). The in stream environmental uses are not consumptive and can be
considered as one of the requirements competing with others. It remains un-consumed,
supporting aquatic ecosystems till it reaches the ocean.

4. Since large land use changes can also affect the natural supply, any other type of single

prescription based on quantity ceilings may not be desirable. Either a 'natural' land use,
which does not allow for human interventions through agriculture, or a 'pseudo-natural'
condition, where agriculture is allowed but irrigation is not, would have to be defined
for this purpose.

The proposed indicators depict the water situations in the basins in quantitative as
well as qualitative terms. Indicators 1 and 3 depict the level of withdrawals as fractions of
total water available in the surface and groundwater system, respectively. Indicators 2 and
4 depict the potential hazards to water quality in surface and groundwater systems
respectively. These indicators are subdivided into four categories each to represent the
degree of water stress (Table 2).

Table 2. Categories of surface and groundwater indicators

Indicator 1 -
surface water quantity

1. Very high stress - value of indicator more than 0.8
2. High stress - value of indicator between 0.4 and 0.8
3. Moderate stress - value of indicator between 0.2 and 0.4
4. Low stress - value of indicator less than 0.2

Indicator 2 -
surface water quality

1. Very high threat - value of indicator more than 0.8
2. High threat value - value of indicator between 0.2 to 0.8
3. Moderate threat - value of indicator between 0.05 and 0.2
4. Low or no threat - value of indicator less than 0.05

Indicator 3 -
groundwater withdrawals

1. Very high stress - value of indicator more than 0.8
2. High stress - value of indicator between 0.4 and 0.8
3. Moderate stress - value of indicator between 0.2 and 0.4
4. Low stress - value of indicator less than 0.2

Indicator 4 -
groundwater return flows (quality
indicator)

1. Very high threat - value of indicator more than 0.8
2. High threat - value of indicator between 0.4 and 0.8
3. Moderate threat - value of indicator between 0.2 and 0.4
4. Low threat - value of indicator less than 0.2

Assessment for India in general by an extrapolation of Sabarmati and Brahmani Basin
studies to understand water stress

The various rivers and river basins of India are seen in Annex 1.
After an assessment of indicators as above in respect of Sabarmati and Brahmani
Basins, an upscaling was attempted.
On an analogy, the results of the Sabarmati River basin (water stressed basin) could
be of relevance to the other Indian river basins of Pennar, Cauvery, Indus, Ganga,
Subarnarekha, Mahanadi and Tapi in regard to surface water.
In regard to groundwater quality, the problems of Indus, Ganga, Subarnarekha,
Krishna, Pennar and Cauvery could be similar to Sabarmati.