SHOAIB SHAIKH | NT
PANAJI: The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) has projected that the average flow of water in South Goa’s Uguem river during monsoon is likely to decrease from the current average of around 37.39 cubic metres per second (cumec) to 20.43 cumec by 2050.
In a dissemination workshop held recently, TERI Goa shared the preliminary findings of the project ‘Assessing the impacts of climate change on water availability in Uguem river sub-basin’ with the stakeholders.
Speaking to this daily, TERI Fellow and principal investigator of the project Ashwini Panandiker said, “Based on the discharge data of the river from 2010 to 2014, collected from water resources department, it is projected that the average flow during monsoon, which was around 37.39 cumec during the baseline period of 2010-14 is likely to decrease to 20.43 cumec by 2050.” She said that the output from the climate model precis was fed into a hydrological model known as soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) to make projections about the stream flow or the river discharge for future time period till 2050.
Stating that the flow duration curves and the dependable flow analysis were also studied for future time period, Panandiker said that it is observed that in future, the high flow rates are likely to gradually decrease thereby affecting the water availability.
“In the event of future development of the water resource in this watershed, these indices can come in handy for the planners and managers to maintain the minimum environmental flow required by the river to support the aquatic habitat. Further, it would also assist while giving out licences for surface water extractions and effluent discharge limit assessments,” she added.
Panandiker said that based on the feedback received from the stakeholders, the final report shall be refined and submitted to the funding agency, department of science, technology and Environment, Goa, by the end of this month.
Other speakers at the workshop included superintending engineer of water resource department S H Nagarajaiah, head of National Institute of Hydrology, Belgavi, Dr B Venkatesh and TERI’s Dr Fraddry D’Souza and Nehru Machineni.