Full Form of NWDA, National Water Development Agency, Govt. of India

 The National Water Development Agency, commonly referred to as NWDA, is a society under the Ministry of Water Resources.

It was set up in July 1982 as an autonomous society to carry out water resources and development work.

The main focus is to carry out the water balance, detailed studies and analysis, investigations, and other studies scientifically as a basis for the optimum utilisation of water resources in the Peninsular river system of our country.

It deals with water-related works, which include the preparation of reports of all the river development projects and thus helps in providing a concrete shape to the river development of the peninsular area.

The plan is prepared by the Ministry of Jal Shakti, which comes under the Department of Water Resources.

Shri Bhopal Singh is in charge of NWDA as the director general.

Governing Body

The government body which governs the NWDA comes under the chairmanship of the secretary, which deals with the Ministry of Jal Shakti. It fulfils the administration role and controls all this society's external affairs. 

It makes sure about the rules, laws, and orders from the ministry and the society and performs the duty of carrying out the activities which are needed by the society.

There have been 70 meetings conducted till now for the betterment and completion of projects and related works.

NWDA Studies

NWDA studies include peninsular and the Himalayan component.

• The Peninsular Component-

It includes the studies and work related to the peninsular part of India, which includes rivers such as Mahanadi, Godavari, Pennar,  Krishna, Cauvery, Vaigai, and all other West flowing rivers of states like Karnataka, Kerala, north of Bombay, and south of Tapi.

It also includes tributaries of the river Yamuna which flows towards the southern side. The main aim behind it is to maintain the surplus water regions and deficit areas to make a balance.

The society conducts extensive research studies and concluded that rivers like Mahanadi, and Godavari and their basins are water surplus whereas, rivers like Kaveri, Pennar, and Vaigai are usually water deficient.

They conducted pre-feasibility studies which carried approx 16 links such as Hemavati and Bedti-Varda links.

Let us talk about it-

Bedti-Varda Link

NWDA prepared the DPR of the Bedti – Varada link upon the request of the Government of Karnataka. After this, NWDA started working on it.

Netravati-Hemavati Link 

The Government of Karnataka started this project by taking up the feasibility of the Netravati-Hemavati link.

• Himalayan Component 

Pre-feasibility studies of fourteen links are done by NWDA in the Himalayan component. It is given below-

• Manas-Sankosh-Tista - Ganga Link Project
• Ganga-Damodar-Subernarekha Link Project
• Jogighopa-Tista-Farakka Link Project
• Farakka-Sunderbans Link Project
• Subernarekha-Mahanadi Link Project
• Gandak-Ganga Link Project
• Sarda-Yamuna Link Project
• Ghaghara -Yamuna Link Project
• Yamuna-Rajasthan Link Project
• Chunar- Sone Barrage Link Project
• Sone dam-Southern tributaries of Ganga Link Project
• Kosi-Mechi Link Project.
• Kosi- Ghaghara Link Project

Out of these, NWDA has only conducted feasibility studies on 9 links which are stated below-

• Ghaghara-Yamuna Link (Indian portion),
• Sarda-Yamuna Link (Indian portion),         
• Manas-Sankosh-Tista-Ganga (MSTG) Link,
• Gandak-Ganga links,
• Subernarekha-Mahanadi,
• Ganga-Damodar-Subernarekha,
• Yamuna - Rajasthan link.
• Rajasthan-Sabarmati,
• Farakka-Sunderban (FS) Link

Apart from this, Feasibility Reports are under modification of the following links-

1. Kosi-Ghaghra link
2. Chunar -Sone barrage link.

• Intra-city Links-

There was approval to identify Intra state links in states such as Bihar to prepare pre-feasibility links and connections with other states. This work has now been approved and added to the core functions of NWDA by the special meeting conducted on 28.06.2006.

After that, NWDA requested all the states and union territories to provide the details related to it.

Certain states such as Meghalaya, Delhi, Punjab, Sikkim, Haryana, Nagaland, Puducherry, Daman & Diu, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, and Lakshadweep have reported that there are no Intra-State link proposals in their concerning  States / Territories.

Conclusion

So, NWDA plays a major role in the regulation of water bodies and water management. Working on different river projects and interlinking helps in the optimal utilization of water resources at the same time augmenting the upgradation related to it.

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