Water balance assessment of Sajnam watershed, Lalitpur (U.P.)

It is a well-known fact that it is not all possible to avoid droughts, but droughts can be managed to minimise the hardships of the local population. For this purpose, understanding of the supplydemand scenario is of utmost importance to understand the overall hydrology and planning needs of any watershed. It is in this direction, the comprehensive water balance analysis has been performed for the Sajnam watershed in Lalitpur district of Bundelkhand which is susceptible to regular and continuous droughts. The detailed water balance has been carried out after identification of important components and their quantification using the advance tools of Remote Sensing & GIS alongwith standard estimation techniques of individual components. It was observed that the runoff at the outlet of Sajnam basin is influenced by the water storage in the irrigation project located on the main river. The higher surface runoff of 668.53 MCM, 406.17 MCM, 343.46 MCM and 214.00 MCM is generated only during 2013-14, 2008-09, 2012-13 and 2010-11 respectively. During the remaining years, the runoff varied between 89.35 MCM and 209.81 MCM. Efforts can be initiated towards exploring the possibility of more water harvesting structures on the lower order tributaries as well as artificial recharge measures depending on the hydro-geology of the watershed.