TAPPING EPHEMERAL STREAMS FOR IRRIGATION.

By the year 2000 the requirement for water in India is expected to increase from 310 to 590 km**3 per year. A case has been made out to tap ephemeral streams by providing small reservoirs, water harvesting tanks and headworks for spate irrigation. Ephemeral streams in India flow in almost all the states and are characterized by the steep slopes, high peaks and short durations of flood flows, and high sediment transport rates. The short effective life of such reservoirs and factors such as stream flow variability and stream mobility warrant economy in design. To this end a few measures found suitable during investigations of two dam projects on such streams are presented.