Hydrological Behaviour of Natural Water Springs and their Utilization for Drinking Water Supply in Garhwal Hills of Uttaranchal

摘要

Since generations, the people of hill region of Uttaranchal have been depending on the natural water springs and streams for meeting their water needs for drinking and domestic uses, irrigation, animal consumption etc. Today, most of the perennial springs and streams have become seasonal or have dried -up for want of recharge due to various environmental hazards. In the remote areas, the people, specially women , walk several kilometers to fetch a head load of water for drinking and domestic uses. In cities and towns, the Government agencies have provided the facility of drinking water at the cost of millions of rupees, but villages are still out of their reach, ignoring the potential of the existing natural water springs in the region. The changing scenario of water resources in the Himalaya has been causing considerable concern to the planners and policy makers. Keeping all these points in view, a study was conducted on two perennial natural water springs, namely, Hill Campus Spring and Fakua Spring, located at about 1900m above mean sea level in the Garhwal region of Uttaranchal state. The flow characteristics of these springs were studied with a view to assess the potential of these springs to mitigate the effect of water scarcity for the people of this region. The flow-duration and Flow-mass curves of these springs were compared, and the required storage to meet the monthly demand of the people was computed for both the springs. The mean monthly rate of flow of Hill Campus Spring and Fakua Spring varied from 4.46 to 144 m~3/day and 5.01 to 31.87 m~3/day, respectively. Based on the data, the minimum storage required was 685.8 m~3 and 1891.1 m~3 for Hill Campus and Fakua springs, respectively, to meet the variable demand rates of 5 to 10 m~3/day and 10 to 20 m~3/day, respectively. This study indicated that even the small out-flows from the perennial natural water springs can produce a huge storage of water, which can be effectively managed to solve the problem of drinking water and reduce the drudgery of hill women to a great extent.