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River Systems and Water Resources of West Bengal: A Review

Affiliations

  • Department of Geography, University of Calcutta, Kolkata – 700 019, India

DOI: 10.17491/cgsi/2014/62893

Abstract


West Bengal (88,752 km2) is the only Indian state that extends from the Himalaya to the Bay of Bengal. It can be divided into nine physiographic provinces of which the Himalayas, the western plateaus, the northern and western alluvial fans and the Ganga delta are the most important. The development of the river system of the state was largely governed by tectonic evolution of the eastern Himalaya and western edges of the Bengal basin. The characteristics of the rivers as well as a number of aspects of water resources of the state can be linked to its physiographic regions. The principal issues associated with water in West Bengal include river degeneration, channel shifting, flood, urban waterlogging, drought, pollution, groundwater depletion and inland navigation. The management of water is practised by river impoundment projects in various scales and by drainage schemes. It is estimated that the western and eastern parts of the state are the most water stressed regions due to climatic and human factors respectively. The solutions for many of the water-related problems of West Bengal, progressive or cyclic, can be achieved by putting emphasis on participatory management besides organisational intervention.

Keywords


West Bengal, Water Resource, Physiography, River Degeneration, Flood, Pollution, Water Availability.

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17491/cgsi%2F2014%2F62893