RESTORATION OF WATER RESOURCES IN CHANGING CLIMATE

Abstract

Among the existing and projected impacts of climate change, impacts on water resources are expected to exacerbate the current and future threat of global water. scarcity. In the present study, water scarcity is examined as. an impact of climate change in Barinallah watershed. Villages dependent on this watershed for water needs, confirms that climate change. is one of the factors causing depletion of water resources. In order to show the linkage between climate change and water .scarcity, evidence is presented on changes occurring in these villages on local climate parameters such as snowfall, rainfall and temperature. Also evidence is analyzed in changes occurring in the hydrology of the water bodies that make water available to these villages. This establishes that water scarcity in these villages has been induced not only by increasing demand, but also by decreasing supply of water. In view of the water scarcity facing in the region, an investigation of the measures taken to address this issue is presented, which reveals that the primary adaptive response employed in these villages is supply augmentation. Additionally, climate change considerations have been largely absent in the policy/ planning processes that govern water management in the study area, implying that the responses of this area to water scarcity have been . influenced by the pursuit of short-term economic benefits in a local economy that fails to recognize the importance of the integrity of water resources to its sustenance. The perpetuation of unsustainable economic development and failure to account for climate change impacts in local water management points to the presence of several technological, structural, financial, and political barriers to the planning/ implementation of holistic climate-centric strategies. for adaptation to water scarcity in Barinallah watershed. To conclude in brief, the study makes an attempt to establish the climatic response in the availability of water resources in the region. The study confirms the increasing variation in temperature and rainfall pattern in each passing days, resulting in erratic and uneven rainfall. Finally, restoration measures through tapping the falling rainfall in the region is suggested by constructing check dams, gabions etc. in different -streams/ nallah in Barinallah watershed.