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Reallocating water from canal irrigation for environmental flows: benefits forgone in the Upper Ganga Basin in India

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Abstract

This paper assesses the potential loss of irrigation benefits in reallocating water from irrigation to meet requirements for environmental flows (e-flows) in the Upper Ganga Basin (UGB) in northern India. The minimum requirement for e-flows in the UGB is 32 billion cubic meters (BCM), or 42 % of the mean annual runoff. The current runoff during the low-flow months falls below the minimum requirement for e-flows by 5.1 BCM. Depending on irrigation efficiency, reallocation of 41–51 % of the water from canal irrigation withdrawals can meet this deficit in minimum e-flows. The marginal productivity of canal irrigation consumptive water use (CWU), estimated from a panel regression with data from 32 districts from 1991 to 2004, assesses the potential loss of benefits in diverting water away from crop production. In the UGB, canal irrigation contributes to only 8 % of the total CWU of 56 BCM, and the marginal productivity of canal irrigation CWU across districts is also very low, with a median of 0.03 USD/m3. Therefore, at present, the loss of benefits is only 1.2–1.6 % of the gross value of crop production. This loss of benefits can be overcome with an increase in irrigation efficiency or marginal productivity.

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Acknowledgments

This research study was carried out as part of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)-India’s ‘Living Ganga Programme’, and was funded by WWF-India and from the core funds of IWMI.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Water Management Institute, South Asia Regional Office, No 401/5 ICRISAT Campus, Patancheru, Hyderabad, 502 324, Andhra Pradesh, India

    Upali A. Amarasinghe

  2. International Water Management Institute, Head Quarters, Colombo, Sri Lanka

    Vladimir Smakhtin

  3. International Water Management Institute, Nepal Office, Kathmandu, Nepal

    Luna Bharati

  4. International Water Management Institute, New Delhi Office, New Delhi, India

    Ravinder P. S. Malik

Authors
  1. Upali A. Amarasinghe
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  2. Vladimir Smakhtin
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  3. Luna Bharati
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  4. Ravinder P. S. Malik
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Upali A. Amarasinghe.

Appendix

Appendix

See Table 5.

Table 5 Estimated loss of irrigation benefits due to 25 % reduction in canal irrigation CWU in the districts in and outside the command area of UGB
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Amarasinghe, U.A., Smakhtin, V., Bharati, L. et al. Reallocating water from canal irrigation for environmental flows: benefits forgone in the Upper Ganga Basin in India. Environ Dev Sustain 15, 385–405 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-012-9385-1

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