Cover slide option 1 Title
Conjunctive Management of Water Resources –
Underground Taming of Floods for Irrigation
Jeremy Bird on behalf of
Paul Pavelic
International Water Management
Institute
GEF International Waters
Conference - 12 May 2016

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Water for a food-secure world
Current Situation – Wet Season
CONJUNCTIVE FLOOD AND DROUGHT MANAGEMENT

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Water for a food-secure world
Underground Taming of Floods for Irrigation (UTFI);
Wet season
CONJUNCTIVE FLOOD AND DROUGHT MANAGEMENT

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Water for a food-secure world
Underground Taming of Floods for Irrigation (UTFI);
Dry season
CONJUNCTIVE FLOOD AND DROUGHT MANAGEMENT

Rural
Farmers
Urban Flood
Managers
Surface Water
Opportunities
Impacts
Upstream Downstream
Groundwater
SOLVING MULTIPLE PROBLEMS WITH ONE SOLUTION…

Performance testing of
basins designed to infiltrate
floodwater are positive
Falling groundwater level
trends are reversed and year-
round rice/sugar production
maintained
The Chao Phraya basin lies at
the economic heart of Thailand.
The basin is routinely affected
by major floods downstream,
yet farmers, cities & industry
frequently run short of water.
KEY FINDINGS
• Significant volumes of floodwater (30%) can be
harvested in wet years without major impacts on
existing users or ecosystems
• $250 Mill./year of added revenue can be generated
• Payback time on capital investments could be just
a few years
• UTFI would be far cheaper than conventional
engineering approaches for flood mitigation
UTFI CONCEIVED & TESTED IN THAILAND

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Water for a food-secure world
IDENTIFYING SCOPE IN THE GANGES BASIN
• >60% of inner GB
potentially suitable
• Prospects in others
basins being explored

Example of village selection
utfi.iwmi.org

UTFI: Stakeholders Consultations
Consultation with Villagers
utfi.iwmi.org
• State/District/Division level
consultation – to inform UTFI
activities and seek support
• Village level consultation - to
understand willingness to support
and maintenance
Consultation with District Officials

UTFI: Site Development
Pre implementation
Post implementation
utfi.iwmi.org

UTFI: Key Findings
utfi.iwmi.org
• Groundwater level improved by 0.5 m after UTFI implementation
• Water level in the piezometers dropped by 2 m after recharge indicating the
demand and use of groundwater
• Under ideal conditions, the recharge system can intercept 60,000 cum per
month, or 180,000 cum for a 3 month recharge season.

Large-scale Implementing Mechanism
utfi.iwmi.org
• To put UTFI in practice, integration with
relevant ongoing government programmes
is required.
• IWMP is one of the best approaches to
harvest rainwater to improve livelihood by
providing community managed simple low
tech solutions and mitigate adverse
climatic conditions such as floods.
• Convergence between IWMP and MNREGA
is crucial and mutually beneficial.
• UTFI and IWMP or WDC-PMKSY are
perfectly matched as both focused on
clusters of micro-watershed level in a
holistic manner.

TYPES OF RISKS & ISSUES
TECHNICAL RISKS SOCIAL/INSTITUTIONAL RISKS
- poor system design/
construction and/or site
selection
- low recharge performance
- new upstream developments
- insufficient incentive for land
conversion
- poor or inadequate participation of
local communities / institutions
- cumbersome or overly-complex
implementation models
ECONOMIC RISKS ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS
- high investments or
opportunity costs
- high maintenance/
operational costs
- polluted floodwater enters aquifers
- waterlogging due to aquifer over-
filling
- negative impacts downstream due to
interventions

ILLUSTRATIVE VIDEO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9au0ApUlxu8
WEBSITE:
http://utfi.iwmi.org/
FURTHER INFORMATION

Led by IWMI
Groundwater Solutions Initiative for Policy and Practice
A global partnership for sustainable groundwater management
…to strengthen, expand and connect current groundwater initiatives
…share experience on solutions and approaches to scaling up
… advance the agenda of sustainable groundwater management to
achieve the SDGs