2. Climate Variability and Its Implications for Water Management in India

This chapter first presents the water sector development paradigm followed in India since the country’s independence with a focus on the institutional set up, and also the current national policies in the water management sector, with particular reference to the provisions to deal with climate change and variability. The chapter then describes the phenomena of climate variability in India—using analysis of spatial and temporal variation in rainfall and pattern of occurrence of rainfall; intra-day, inter-seasonal, and inter-annual variability in temperature; relative humidity and wind speed; and spatial variation in solar radiation—and discusses their implications for managing water for drinking water supply and irrigation. Finally, it reviews the available empirical analysis of the long-term trends in temperature and precipitation in different regions of the country. It also describes the basic character of irrigation and water supply and sanitation systems existing in different regions of the country.