1st International Conference on Rain Water Cistern Systems
Honolulu, Hawaii, USA - June 1982

Section 2: Rainfall Analysis

Page 61

Estimation of Extreme Point Rainfall Over Peninsular India

O.N, Dhar, P.R. Rakhecha and A.K. Kularni,
Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology

Introduction

In November 1980, the United Nations launched International Drinking Water and Sanitation Decade (1981-1990) to focus world-wide attention on providing safe drinking water. In India there are still villages and towns in various parts of the country where people have to carry water from long distances for their daily use in spite of the fact that we have tremendous water resources which are replenished year after year by rainfall during the monsoon months.

It has been estimated that the average annual rainfall of the contiguous Indian area is about 117 cm of which about 76% is received during the four monsoon months of June to September (Dhar, Rakhecha, and Kulkarni 1979). This much rainfall is estimated to generate annually a surface flow on the order of 1 881 bil m3 (Murthy 1977). Apart from this, this country has groundwater resources which are on the order of 350 mil m3.

Because the main goal of the International Drinking Water and Sanitation Decade is to provide safe drinking water in sufficient quantity, an attempt has been made in this study to find out what the maximum probable rainfall or the extreme rainfall is that a station can get in the peninsular region of this country. This information, would not only be useful in knowing the extreme amount of rainfall that is physically possible over a station or a basin, but is also useful for the safe design of hydraulic structures that may be constructed for conservation of water in this region of India.

PDF of full document available to members (7pp, 270kb)