Surface water meets 69% of state’s requirement: Govt

Gandhinagar: A note prepared by the state govt as a preparatory exercise for the distribution of Narmada water to stakeholder states that Gujarat meets 69% of its requirement from surface water, while the remaining is from groundwater sources.
Available water in Gujarat is 55,608 million cubic metres (MCM), of which 38,100 MCM (68.5%) is surface water, while 17,508 MCM (31%) is groundwater.Interestingly, the note prepared by the Gujarat Infrastructure Development Board (GIDB) says that 80% of surface water resources are located in south and central Gujarat, while the remaining 20% are in other regions of the state.
Commenting on the availability of surface water, the note said that the state has 185 river basins, eight of which are perennial. These basins are unevenly distributed, with 80% of the surface water resources located in central and southern Gujarat, while the remaining 20% is spread across the remaining regions of the state.
"Gujarat's 1,600km coastline makes desalination a viable alternative. However, it has not been fully utilized due to high costs, the energy-intensive process, and significant capital expenditure for plant setup," the note said. The note added that despite these challenges, some progress has been made in the field of desalination with the setting up of a 100 MLD (million litres per day) desalination plant at Dahej in south Gujarat.
The note said that currently, Gujarat treats a total of 4,075.97 MLD of sewage. Of this, 1,190.87 MLD is reused for irrigation, industrial production and for gardening.