Mahanadi

Orissa was hit by two spates of flood in September 2011, the first one being caused by heavy rains in the Mahanadi catchment and release of huge discharges from Hirakud dam. The second one was caused by heavy rains and flooding of Brahmani, Baitarani and Budhabalanga rivers. These floods point to the loopholes in river basin planning and management and calls for urgent attention of planners and policy makers. 

Water Initiatives Odisha, brings out a special note on this issue in response to the latest spell of the flood disaster in northern Odisha Rivers.

The subsurface aquifer systems in Mahanadi delta region in Orissa (India) is largely characterized by two groups of freshwater aquifer systems, both of which are prone to saline water mixing/migration with time and development:

• The south western Mahanadi delta region is represented by unconfined to semi-confined freshwater aquifers underlained by brackish/saline aquifer systems with a diffusion boundary.
• The north eastern parts of Mahanadi delta is represented by deep freshwater confined aquifers overlained by brackish/saline water aquifers with aquitard/ aquiclude boundary.

ABSTRACT

The Mahanadi River delta plain covers 0.9 x 10 km and lies between 85 40' : 86 45' E and 19 40' : 20 35' N. The catchment area of the river covers 1.42 x 10 km. The sediment yield of the Mahanadi catchment is around 200-400 tonnes/km. It has an average annual rainfall of 1572 mm and 70% of this during the SW monsoon season.

Mumbai Marooned: An Enquiry into Mumbai Floods 2005 - Final Report ,
By Conservation Action Trust - Click here

Enquiry-mumbai-floods-2005-final-report

The effects are most visible in the Sunderbans. Literally the 'beautiful forest', these wetlands at the mouths of the Ganga and Brahmaputra river systems are among the largest mangrove forests in the world. About 62% of this area of some10000sq km lies in Bangladesh but there is a significant Indian portion in the state of West Bengal.

The map indicates that across the main 19 river basins of the country, water resource projects with a total live storage of 174 BCM (Billion Cubic Metres) have been completed, 75 BCM are ongoing, and 132 BCM are being planned.

As part of the research study, River Basins and River Basin Organisations in South Asia, done by the Society for Participatory Development Hyderabad, CapNet South Asia (Read More) and Gomukh Environmental Trust for Sustainable Development Pune (Click Here), data about individual river basins has been collected for the river basins in South Asia.

Basin indicators map of Mahanadi river basin