OPERATIONAL PRACTICES IN UPPER GANGA CANAL SYSTEM-CONSTRAINTS, PROBLEMS

Abstract

The Upper Ganga Canal (UGC) was commissioned in the year 1854 by diverting water. from Ganga river at Hardwar (ex-Bhimgoda barrage) in to the UGC system. Initially it was designed to provide protective irrigation. Piecemeal improvements have been made over the years and the design discharge of 189 cumecs has been gradually increased to present day capacity of 297 curnecs. The total command area of UGC is 1.95 Mha. out of which the CCA on outlets is 0.98 Mha. This is spread over ten districts in Northern part of Uttar Pradesh State in India. The UGC system has length of 6540 km of unlined irrigation channels. The original planning and design objectives of the scheme are not relevent in context of present day extensive agriculture and ever increasing irrigation demands existing for all the time in a year. Further more, an important inequity in water supply has developed through extensive sugarcane cultivation in the upper part of the project area. This has made the irrigation service to the lower part of the command even more unreliable and untimely because of the reduced water supply. In addition, there are other constraints and problems in equitable distribution of water and dependable service to the farmers. Although river supplies are adequate during monsoon season (Kharif season July-October) at the head of canal but the canal system fails to deliver adequate water in the lower reaches. During Rabi season, the river supplies are far deficient than irrigation demands on canal system and inspite of established practice of "Rostering" of supplies over a long period of more than 100 years, the available irrigation water in tail portions of system and on even individual branch or long distributary is always deficient and not dependable to meet out irrigation requirements.