DELIVERING ABUNDANT FRESH WATER
TO EVERY CORNER OF INDIA
With India's future water challenges, the problem isn't so much one of supply, it's more a problem of uneven distribution. The north and east of India enjoy abundant supplies of water, but the south and west of India are relatively arid. It is important to note that if the proposed aquaducts, reservoirs and pumping stations were built, India's major river interlinking projects, through a system of reservoirs and aquaducts, (ref. India's Water Future) could then move water in cubic kilometer volumes relatively cost effectively. Once the costs of the interlinking system are borne, the biggest ongoing cost is the energy required for the pumps. But to pump a cubic kilometer of water up a 250 meter lift, which is what it would take to get water from the Ganges basin to the Deccan Plateau, would only require 100 megawatt-years of power. To pump 50 cubic kilometers of water per year from the Ganges basin upwards 250 meters into aquaducts flowing south and west, which is more than the most ambitious of India's current interlinking projects, would only require about 5 gigawatt-years of electricity. This amount of electricity represents only about one-half of one percent of India's current total yearly energy production (all sources).
2007-06-27 15:42:13
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answer #2
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answered by Menehune 7
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