optimal allocation of water based on economic and environmental criteria

252 Pages·2012·2.49 MB·English

OPTIMAL ALLOCATION OF WATER BASED ON ECONOMIC AND
ENVIRONMENTAL CRITERIA:
CASES FROM BANGLADESH AND INDONESIA

by

Md. Reaz Akter Mullick

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in
Water Engineering and Management

Examination committee: Dr. Mukand S. Babel (Chairperson)
Dr. Sylvain R. Perret (Co-chairperson)
Dr. Roberto S. Clemente (Member)
Dr. Vilas Nitivattananon (Member)

External Examiner: Prof. Bart Schultz
Department of Water Engineering
UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, Delft,
The Netherlands

Nationality: Bangladeshi
Previous Degree: Master of Science in Environmental Sanitation, Ghent
University, Belgium

Scholarship: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway

Asian Institute of Technology
School of Engineering and Technology
Thailand
December 2011
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Acknowledgement

I start in the name of Allah (God), the Most Merciful, the Most Beneficial. All my praises
be to Him, who has seen me through this work.
I owe deepest gratitude to a number of personalities who lent a hand to me in one way or
the other through the tough times of making this research work possible. First, my deepest
gratitude is to Dr. Mukand S. Babel. It’s an honor for me to have Dr. Babel as my
supervisor. He made available his support in this work in a number of ways, from
questioning the ideas to converting them into real application. His supervision,
systematical thoughts gave me leverage to conduct this research.
I am truly fortunate to have Dr. Sylvain R. Perret as my co-supervisor. My sincere
gratitude to him for helping me in several ways to explore through the maze of research at
my own, and at the same time provided support and guidance.
I am grateful to the examination committee members Dr. Roberto S. Clemente and Dr.
Vilas Nitivatananon for their insightful comments and constructive criticisms that helped
me improving the research work.
I am grateful to Professor Bart Schultz from UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education
for his timely and constructive incisive comments as the external examiner that has
improved the dissertation considerably.
I gratefully acknowledge the support and help from the officers and staff of BWDB and
IWM in collecting data and information for the research on The Teesta Basin, Bangladesh
and support from UNPAR team and PJT-I officials for the work on Konto Basin,
Indonesia. I also acknowledge the help and support from many of my friends, relatives and
from a two local NGOs while conducting the primary survey at the Teesta site, a very rural
environment.
I am also indebted to the whole WEM family, importantly Khun Pajee (Tuk), for all
administrative support she provided during these years.
Most importantly, none of this would have been possible without the love, patience and
prayer of my parents, wife and my little son, Safwan.
Finally, I appreciate the financial support from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
and the grant of study leave from my employer CUET, Chittagong, Bangladesh for
completion of this study and research work.
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Abstract
The manipulation and alteration of river flow generate significant benefits as well as
impact upon ecosystem integrity with loss of ecosystem goods and services, including
riparian livelihoods. Poor communities in developing countries are particularly at stake as
their lives largely and directly depend on river flows through fishing, navigation and
farming activities. Such water-uses bear significant social and economic value, but are
often poorly accounted. Ensuring environmental flow (EF) can act positively in preserving
these values; nevertheless it results in more competition among water users. Hence,
economically efficient yet socially justifiable and environmentally sound water allocation
at a river basin scale is an issue of global importance. Tradeoff is obvious in the process
but question arises as to what extent the competing water demands can compromisingly be
satisfied. In this regard, the research develops a methodology to allocate water optimally
between competing sectors including the environment in a river basin scale considering the
marginal benefit that each water-use generates.
The dissertation comprises two interlaced topics, successively, i.e. (1) estimating total and
marginal benefit functions for the off- and in-stream water uses in a river basin and (2)
setting up a model that can allocate water optimally among the competing uses. Off-stream
water-use is mainly consumptive use of river water (e.g. for irrigation) that subsequently
changes the natural flow regime. In-stream water use refers to use that occurs directly onto
the water course (e.g. fisheries, navigation). Environmental flow requirements are
estimated and considered as constraints in the optimization model. The model is applied to
Teesta River, Bangladesh, and Konto River Basin in Indonesia.
The Teesta flow is modified through an irrigation barrage inside Bangladesh since 1990.
Water uses in the Teesta are irrigation, instream fishery and navigation. Konto has a
reservoir at the upstream since 1970. A series of three hydropower plants are fed from the
reservoir and all the plants use the same water. The water is then sent to an irrigation
project. Municipal and industrial uses as well as reservoir recreation and fishery also
generate benefits.
Residual imputation method and yield response to water stress form the basis for
establishing the benefit functions for irrigation water use. Income variation of the
beneficiaries with the variation of river flow within a year forms benefit functions for
instream fishery and navigation. Total benefit for irrigation, fishery and navigation are
developed as a quadratic relation with river flow that results in a downward slopping linear
marginal benefit function. Marginal benefit for hydropower water use is considered
constant slope, whereas a hyperbolic tangent function is developed for estimating benefit
for reservoir recreation and fishery. Benefit functions are used as input to the optimization
model ‘Aquarius’. Alternative scenarios are analyzed and tradeoff between benefit
maximization and environmental protection is evaluated for the Teesta and Konto River
Basin. Current water management practice in both the basins is found generating the
maximum benefit; however, EF is not ensured for any of the studied river. For Teesta site,
in existing scenario, irrigation benefit and instream benefits are US$ 43.24 million and
0.58 million respectively when only direct instream uses are considered; whereas ensuring
EF results in a benefit reduction of US$ 9.25 million. In case of Konto, overall basin
benefits are US$ 16.28 and 15.21 million without and with consideration of EF
respectively; however, benefits from instream flow have not been measured in this case.
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Although the measured instream benefits from direct uses are much lower than offstream
benefits in particular for the case study sites, instream flow is critically important for the
socio-economy of the local people. Even satisfying the lowest level of EF results in higher
level of income for the poor who have flow-based livelihood; this is particularly marked
for the Teesta study site. Although non-use benefits and long term environmental benefits
of instream flow would change the optimization model outcomes, they have not been
considered. Overall benefit can only be increased if there is augmentation of flow and
improvement of irrigation efficiency.
This study can be considered as a pioneering work in valuing the marginal benefit of
instream flow and incorporating those benefits into a hydro-economic model. The study
also provides in-depth insight into the tradeoff between benefit maximization and
environmental protection through provisioning different levels of EF in rivers.
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Publications from the Dissertation

A. Refereed international journal articles:
1. Mullick, M. R. A., Babel, M. S. & Perret S. R. 2010. Discharge-based economic valuation
of irrigation water: evidence from the Teesta River, Bangladesh. Irrigation and Drainage,
60 (4), 481 – 492.
2. Mullick, M. R. A., Babel, M. S. & Perret, S. R. 2011. Optimal water allocation based on
marginal benefits from selected uses in the Teesta River, Bangladesh. Submitted to Water
Policy (Under review).
3. Mullick, M. R. A., Perret S. R. & Babel, M. S. 2011. Marginal benefit functions for
instream water direct uses – a case of Teesta River, Bangladesh. To be submitted to
International Journal of Water Resources Development.
4. Babel, M. S.; Mullick, M. R. A.; Yudianto, D.; Prasad, K. C.; Perret, S. R., Wahid, S. M.
and Triweko, R. W. 2011. Drops cascading and successive value addition to water of
Konto River, Indonesia: optimal system operation considering environmental
sustainability. To be submitted to Journal of Hydro-environment Research.

B. Book Chapters
1. Mullick, M. R. A., Babel, M. S. & Perret, S. R. 2009. Managing the competing water
demands from offstream & instream users – a conceptual framework. In Blöschl, G., Van
De Giesen, N., Muralidharan, D., Ren, L., Seyler, F., Sharma, U., & Vrba, J. (eds.) (2009).
Improving integrated surface and groundwater resources management in a
vulnerable and changing world. IAHS publication no. 330, pp 327 – 333. ISBN 978-1-
907161-01-8.

C. Papers in refereed conference/congress/symposium/forum proceedings:
1. Mullick, M. R. A., Babel, M. S. & Perret, S. R. 2010. Hydro-economic modeling for
optimal water allocation among in- and off-stream uses in the Teesta River, Bangladesh. In
the Proceedings of the 5th Conference of Asia Pacific Association of Hydrology and Water
Resources, Hanoi, Vietnam, 8 – 10 November 2010. pp. 329 – 339.
2. Mullick, M. R. A., Babel, M. S. & Perret, S. R. 2010. Flow characteristics and
environmental flow requirements for the Teesta River, Bangladesh. In the Proceedings of
International Conference on Environmental Aspects of Bangladesh, University of
Kitakyushu, Japan, September 4, 2010. pp.159 – 162.

D. Papers in workshops/Seminars
1. Mullick, M. R. A., Babel, M. S. & Perret, S. R. 2010. Incorporating discharge-based
marginal values of in- and off-stream water uses in optimal water allocation – a case study
from Bangladesh. Presented in the Workshop on Cooperation on the Ganges: Barriers,
Myths, and Opportunities held on 13 – 14 November 2010 at the National University of
Singapore, Singapore
2. Mullick, M. R. A. and Babel, M. S. 2011. Water resources development in Konto Basin,
Indonesia: is that environmentally sound? Paper presented 4th International Joint Student
Seminar on Civil Infrastructures. 1-2 August 2011, Bangkok, Thailand.

E. Abstracts/Presentations of paper
1. Mullick, M. R. A., Perret, S. R. & Babel, M. S. 2009. Instream water use – how much
value does it carry? Presented in the 12th Riversymposium, Brisbane, Australia, 21 – 24
September 2009.
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Table of Contents

Title page i
Acknowledgement ii
Abstract iii
Publications from the dissertation v
Table of Contents vii
List of Figures x
List of Tables xii
List of Abbreviations xv

Chapter Title Page
PART-I
1 Introduction 3
1.1 Background 3
1.2 Problem statement 5
1.3 Research questions 6
1.4 Research objectives 6
1.5 Scope and limitations of the work 7
1.6 Dissertation outline 8
2 Review of literature 11
2.1 Water allocation in water resources management 11
2.2 Efficiency in water allocation – insight into value of water 12
2.3 Consideration for environment in water allocation 22
2.4 Modeling water allocation 32
2.5 Concluding remarks 38
3 Research approach and methodology 410
3.1 Research approach 41
3.2 Developing benefit functions for water uses 42
3.3 Consideration of environmental flow requirements 48
3.4 Optimization model for water allocation 48
3.5 Model application 52
PART-II
4 Teesta River: study site in Bangladesh 57
4.1 The Teesta River, Bangladesh 57
4.2 Socio-economic condition 59
4.3 Water uses from the Teesta River 59
4.4 Teesta barrage and irrigation project 61
4.5 Water management of the Teesta 62
4.6 Data and information collection 62
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5 Benefit function of offstream water use in the Teesta River 65
5.1 Agriculture and irrigation in Bangladesh – a brief overview 65
5.2 Data and methods 67
5.3 Results 74
5.4 Discussions and concluding remarks 80
6 Benefit functions of instream water uses in the Teesta River 81
6.1 Introduction 81
6.2 Benefit function for fisheries water use 83
6.3 Benefit function for navigation water use 91
6.4 Combined benefit function of instream water uses 96
6.5 Discussions and concluding remarks 97
7 Environmental flow for the Teesta River 99
7.1 Introduction 99
7.2 Long term flow characteristics of the Teesta 99
7.3 Environmental flow requirements 100
8 Optimal water allocation in the Teesta River 107
8.1 Introduction 107
8.2 Water allocation at the Teesta study site using HEM 108
8.3 Results – optimization model 110
8.4 Concluding remarks 122
PART-III
9 Konto River Basin: study site in Indonesia 125
9.1 The Konto River Basin, Indonesia 125
9.2 Water resources development in the basin 128
9.3 Water uses in the Konto River Basin 130
9.4 Socio-economic condition 130
9.5 Water management of the Konto 131
9.6 Data and information collection 132
9.7 Estimation of environmental flow 141
10 Benefit functions of water uses in the Konto River Basin 145
10.1 Hydropower 145
10.2 Irrigation 146
10.3 Reservoir recreation and fishery 152
10.4 Municipal and industrial (M&I) uses 156
10.5 Discussion and concluding remarks 156
11 Optimal water allocation in the Konto River Basin 159
11.1 Water allocation in the Konto River Basin using HEM 159
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11.2 Results – optimization model 162
11.3 Concluding remarks 173
PART-IV
12 Summary, conclusions and recommendations 177
12.1 Summary 177
12.2 Conclusions 180
12.3 Contributions of the research 182
12.4 Recommendations 183

References 187
Appendix A Discharge data of the Teesta river, Bangladesh 201
Appendix B Irrigation water requirements and irrigation water value at TIP 205
Appendix C Questionnaire survey and results for the instream water use benefit at Teesta 209
Appendix D Environmental flow assessment for the Teesta 213
Appendix E Input to Aquarius model for Teesta River study site 221
Appendix F Data and information for Konto River Basin 223
Appendix G Valuation of water in Konto River Basin 229
Appendix H Input to Aquarius model for Konto River Basin 233
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List of Figures

Figure Caption Page

Figure 2.1 Typical demand-supply function 14
Figure 2.2 Full value of water with its components 16
Figure 2.3 ramework in linking instream flow, functions, services and value 16
Figure 2.4 Addition of rival and non-rival demand functions 18
Figure 2.5 Concept of development space considering negotiated limit of river basin
development 25
Figure 3.1 Methodological framework for the research 42
Figure 3.2 A representative fitted reservoir recreation total benefit curve 47
Figure 3.3 River basin node-link network 49
Figure 3.4 Sequential maximization of a concave objective function by Sequential Quadratic
Programming 52
Figure 4.1 Teesta River and Teesta Irrigation Project in Bangladesh 58
Figure 4.2 Mean monthly flow (MMF) for the pre-barrage (1967 – 1990) and post-barrage
period (1991 – 2006) at Kaunia Railway bridge of the Teesta river 59
Figure 4.3 Study site and location of riparian unions under primary survey 63
Figure 5.1 Crop calendar for Teesta Irrigation Project 68
Figure 5.2 Typical water balance for low land rice field 71
Figure 5.3 Total benefit functions for the irrigation water use at Teesta irrigation project 79
Figure 5.4 Marginal benefit functions for the irrigation water use at Teesta irrigation project79
Figure 6.1 Estimated total and marginal benefit function for individual fisherman working in
capture fisheries in Teesta 90
Figure 6.2 Estimated total and marginal benefit function for navigation water use for an
individual boatman for the Teesta study site 95
Figure 7.1 FDC and required EF for the month of January and February for the Teesta at
Kaunia 102
Figure 7.2 Mean monthly flow with RVA targets at Kaunia Point of the Teesta River for the
months of January and February 105
Figure 8.1 Schematic of the Teesta River Network at study site 109
Figure 8.2 Mean monthly flow (MMF) at Kaunia (D2) as obtained from model and the lower
RVA boundary 112
Figure 8.3 Change in Boro rice yield in different scenarios analyzed 115
Figure 8.4 Benefits for offstream (OSB) and instream uses (ISB) in different scenarios
analyzed for Case-I relative to Scenario S0, Case-I 117
Figure 8.5 Benefits for offstream (OSB) and instream uses (ISB) in different scenarios
analyzed for Case-II relative to Scenario S0, Case-I 118
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