Uttar Pradesh (UP), currently the most populous state of India, is endowed with bountiful of water resources, fertile land and favourable climate. A large network of many perennial rivers, mostly flowing from the Himalayas, contributes to its vast water resources potential and provides drainage to the state. At the same time, a deep alluvial aquifer underlies the vast plains, recharged annually by almost 1000 mm monsoon rainfall. Over the past century, one of the world’s largest canal systems has been constructed, supporting predominantly rice-wheat cropping. Most of irrigation headworks are run-off river systems, supplemented by some small reservoirs at some places particularly in the Siwalik foothills of the Himalayas. Initially, most systems were initiated as a protective measure against droughts. However, with introduction of high-yielding varieties of crops in recent years, irrigation demand has significantly increased so most systems have been under major rehabilitation in recent years in order to augment their discharge capacities.

Sustainability of agriculture is threatened by water-logging and consequent soil salinity-sodicity in canal command areas whereas groundwater depletion is also occurring in some other areas, resulting in reduced productivity. Meanwhile, there has been growing realisation among the water resources development and management professionals lately in India that irrespective of sources (groundwater and surface water), water must be treated as a single entity. This prompts to need of conjunctive irrigation management policy to be adopted for effective water management. Moreover, water use for agriculture can not be considered in isolation of other uses. This requires an integrated approach for sustainable water resources planning, management and operation under a river basin framework. Due to competition from increasing demands for agriculture, domestic, power, industrial, environmental and other uses, allocation of water to different stakeholders in appropriate quantity and quality has become increasingly difficult.

The economy of Uttar Pradesh is dominated by agriculture. Agriculture sector performance and share in state economy has declined significantly in recent years. A large productivity gap exists between achieved and potential. Agriculture sector growth, which has averaged about 1% in recent years, has to be at least 3% to keep up with population growth. Sectoral growth will have to be even higher to begin to significantly alleviate poverty. Irrigated agriculture is expected to be the engine of water resources management in the state. Sustainable productivity hikes require increased agriculture intensification with substantial diversification to high-income crops and other integrated water resources development options. For this, a well-functioning, fiscally-sustainable irrigation and drainage system integrated with appropriate agriculture inputs and processes is a pre-requisite.

As part of a broader World Bank-funded water sector restructuring project to address these outstanding issues, SMEC was commissioned in 2004 by the UP Irrigation Department (UPID) to develop the Basin Plans and Decision Support System for the Gaghra-Gomti basin. A Decision Support System (DSS) has been developed for basin planning of Jaunpur Branch Sub-basin (JBS), a pilot area in the Ghaghra-Gomti interfluvial. The same DSS is being extended for the 11 million ha Ghaghra-Gomti basin. The development of the Ghaghra-Gomti basin plans is underway.