Goa severely lacks in quality data on water availability

Goa is not a water stressed state, however, all of the estimated water in the state is not available for human consumption. The state severely lacks reliable and quality data on water availability and discharge of its rivers. Rigorous studies are therefore needed to assess the actual availability of water in Goa from various sources and accordingly a water atlas for the state needs to be prepared, states the draft state water policy 2021 prepared for Goa by the Resources“>Water Resources department (WRD).

Per capita annual availability (in Goa) is 1,807CuM. If the amount of renewable water in a country is less than 1,700 CuM per person per year that country is said to be experiencing water Stress. By this yardstick, water availability in Goa seems to be well above water stress. However, all estimated water is not available for human consumption, the 2021 document reads.

RTDAS (Real Time Data Acquisition System) and SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems have been installed in some places for acquisition of hydro-met data. It has been recommended by the policy that these systems should be extended to all the water bodies across the state.