To what extent, do you think the recently approved National Hydrology Project can be helpful for mitigation of drought in India? Discuss.

National hydrology project(NHP) helps in mitigating drought through following ways:
1)By giving real time ground water,level particularly at village unit can help farmers in changing their cropping pattern.Also,it boosts the efficient and equitable distribution of water so as that the fields,live stock can prosper without water constraints.
2)Inundation of low level areas under sudden lifting of floodgates can make a disaster still worse.NHP provides real time flood forecasting before 1-3 days.This can result in better disaster management plan.
3)NHP provides for integrated water resource management adopting river basin approach.It can help in better planning and implementation of irrigation system
4)Hydro -meterologica data gathered under NHP can be used to map flood prone areas all over the country.This data can be used seemlessly by any user at state ,district and village level.The outcome of this can be better scientific planning
The only con under NHP is that decision making process in hydrology related matters is highly opaque and confined to a handful of officials.If this is addressed,NHP has potential to make the country drought free.

Topics: GS-III: Disaster and Disaster Management