Sujlam Suflam Spreading Canal – a revolutionary form of water management to change the water problem in water scarcity area

Abstract

Gujarat’s water supply varies widely from year to year and area to area. Sometimes floods and water shortage occur
in the same year. While the wettest areas in the south, most of Gujarat’s people and farmlands are in the drier
Northern and Western portions of the state. State’s challenge is how best to conserve, control and deliver enough
water to meet needs where and when they occur.
There are very few perennial rivers in the state out of a total of 185 rivers and limited facility of surface irrigation.
Perennial rivers are located in 20% area of the state, which accounts for 80% of surface water of the state.
The annual rainfall in western & Northern Gujarat and hilly eastern tribal belt is about 300 to 600 mm. rainfall is not
only scanty, but erratic and unevenly distributed.
As such majority of the area of the state is rain-fed and there is achute shortage of irrigation water in this area. This
leads to drought every third year. The drought is such a menace that not only it eats away billions of rupees but
along with it because of lakh of surface and ground water resources, millions of cattle and shepherds have to migrate
from saurashtra, kachchh and north Gujarat to the area of south Gujarat in search of water, food and fodder. Further,
in order to mitigate scarcity, the state government has to undertake scarcity relief works at a huge cost.
The ground water table is very deep and polluted, quality of which is not suitable for irrigation and drinking
purpose. There is depletion of ground water by about 3 to 5 meters every year. Deterioration of quality of ground
water leads to diseases like fluorosis.
The state adopted an integrated approach for efficient and sustainable water resources development and
management, which is inclusive in scope. This includes “Inter Basin Transfer of Water”.