Water resources development may be

interpreted as being the endeavor or activities

aimed at improving the beneficial use of water
for human society. In this definition, all possible
uses such as consumptive (e.g. water supply,
irrigation) or non consumptive (eg. Hydropower,
navigation), as well as all aspects related to the
considered resource (quantity, time distribution,
quality) are involved.
The concept of water resources
development intends to integrate the
different views and perceptions of
individuals or society affected by the
availability of water as portrayed below:
To people in arid zones:
drought relief, irrigation, food, employment.
To people in wet zones:
flood protection, hydropower, navigation.
To the hydraulic engineer:
dam, reservoir, river training, water treatment
plants, pumping stations, power plants.
To the environmentalist:
habitat deterioration, pollution,
deforestation, destruction of wetlands.
To the lawyer:
water rights, legislation, institutional questions.
To the economist:
economic growth, alleviation of poverty,
generation of opportunities.
“ Why do we need to
develop our water
resources?”
Water is one of the essential prerequisites
of life. A country's water resources include
all the water in rivers, lakes, seas, and
groundwater. The distribution of water in
nature in space and time, however, is such
that it is scarce at some locations and at
particular times and excess at other
locations.
 Rainfall, which is the main water input to our
ecosystem, is variable in space and time. This
is then reflected, for instance, in river flow,
groundwater and lake-levels. Some areas get
more or less uniform and good amount of
rainfall most of the year (like areas in
Southwest Ethiopia), whereas other places get
their rainfall concentrated in few months (the
wet season).
On the other hand the society's demand
is not in general synchronized with the
availability of water. In fact, some needs,
such as irrigation water requirements are
high during periods of no, or less rainfall.
Hence man is faced with the task of
developing the available water resources
to meet his needs.
 With water needs for domestic use
and that for food production being
the basic requirements, water needs
of a society, both in quantity and
quality depend upon its level of
development.
 Water is needed for energy
production (hydropower), industrial
use, recreation, and navigation
(waterways), to mention the most
common and traditional ones. Thus
projects are designed and
implemented to meet all or some of
these needs.
 Water resources development
deals with projects that are
implemented for the proper
utilization and control of water.
 A (WR) project consists of constructed
facilities and other measures that control,
utilize or limit the use of water. All
measures that involve constructed
facilities are called structural measures.
 These could involve the building of an
impoundment behind a dam, for irrigation, water
supply, or hydropower development purposes, the
construction of dykes, culverts and other drainage
structures, or restricting the use of flood plains only
to uses that are not damaged by flooding (an
example of a non-structural measure for flood
mitigation), or the rehabilitation of stream courses
to cope with problems of environmental
degradation and water quality.
 Measures that do not involve constructed
facilities but make use of other management
tools to achieve some specified goals are
known as non-structural. Examples of such
measures include, rules (regulations) to limit or
control water and land use (e.g., flood warning
systems, restrictive zoning on flood plains).
SURFACE WATER
DEVELOPMENT
Surface Water
includes streams, rivers, lakes,
reservoirs, and wetlands.
 Sustainable development implies the
utilization of the earth’s natural resources
(including water) in a regenerative
manner so as to preserve them not only
for the present generation but for all
generations to come
 Despite the existing constitutional and
legal framework governing the utilization
of the country’s freshwater resources on a
supposedly rational and sustainable
basis, the depletion and contamination of
such resources due to several factors go
on unabated at an alarming rate.
 The National Irrigation Administration
proposed the following measures for
maximizing use of available water:
1. Construction of reservoir-type projects
2. Redesign of irrigation facilities to reuse
return flows.
3. Engineering measures to minimize water
conveyance losses
GROUNDWATER
DEVELOPMENT
Groundwater
is the water found underground in
the cracks and spaces in soil, sand and
rock. It is stored in and moves slowly
through geologic formations of soil, sand
and rocks called aquifers.
Groundwater development projects
take advantage of water as it moves
through an aquifer. Water that is
removed by humans at one place in
the aquifer may be replaced by rain
that falls in another region.
Some aquifers are so large that any water
taken out has little effect on the remaining
water. Most aquifers are not this large,
however, and it is possible for an aquifer
to become depleted through
overpumping and other forms of water
extraction.
Depletion depends on the balance
between how much water is taken out
and how much is replaced.
Overexploitation of aquifers is
sometimes called “mining water”.
History
Groundwater has been traditionally
developed from its natural discharge by
tapping springs or deriving stream base flow, or
by excavating shallow wells in high water-table
areas and using manual or simple mechanical
pumping devices.
History
Important changes did not appear until
the mid 18th century, when steam-driven pumps
were used to dewater mines, as done in
England and Wales.
History
In the mid 19th century, small diameter,
cased deep-bore technology was made
available in Europe, partly inspired by old
methods developed in China. This allowed the
construction of flowing wells under favourable
hydrogeological conditions.
History
This technology rapidly expanded to
other places, with variable success, and
helped to solve acute town water-supply
problems.
ATMOSPHERIC WATER
DEVELOPMENT
Atmospheric water usually exists in three basic
types: clouds floating in the sky, fog close to the
land, and water vapor in the air. Cloud and fog
are all made up of tiny drops of water (typically
with a diameter from 1 to 40 μm, compared with
the size of rain droplets varying from 0.5 to
5 mm), but the concentration of water droplets
in fog is usually larger.
Since the source of the atmospheric water
is normally clean, the water quality is
good enough for drinking and for other
domestic and agricultural purposes.
Thus, today water harvesting from air
shows a great promise in supplying water
for community use in arid areas, portable
water production by decentralized
systems, and emergency water supply in
post-disaster times.
History
The idea of collecting water from fog can be
traced back to centuries ago. Several accounts or
even legends concern dew “springs” and “ponds,” which
essentially come from the artificially harvested dew by
using large stones or trees. Therefore, it seems that
mankind considered dew as a source of fresh water
since time immemorial.
History
According to the forms of airborne water,
the atmospheric water-harvesting technologies
can be divided into three different categories:
artificial rain collection, fog water
collection, and dew water collection.
History
Weather modification (also known as cloud
seeding or “artificial rain”) may produce substantial
precipitation but only in the troposphere where
water-abundant clouds gather. No evidence shows
that the same process can be achieved at ground
level in a routine, controllable fashion.
History
Fog collection, unlike weather modification,
is a proven technology for a substantial supply
of potable water in certain arid regions.
History
Dew collection can be achieved by
passing the humid ambient air over a cooled
surface, and condensed liquid water is
obtained if the surface temperature is lower
than the dew point temperature of air.
Fog Water Collection
Fog harvest is feasible and
technologically accessible to slake the lack of
fresh water, typically in arid coastal areas. The
usual method to collect fog water is placing a
rectangular mesh perpendicular to the wind,
which traps fog droplets.
Fog Water Collection
When exposed to a foggy environment, water
droplets carried by the wind are pushed against the
mesh and become trapped. After successive impacts,
the droplets grow by coalescence until they are large
enough to fall by gravity, and a gutter transports the
water to a tank.
Dew Water Collection
Among alternative approaches, dew
water collection has been widely recognized as
the ideal candidate because it is minimally
affected by climatic and geographical
constraints compared with fog water collection.
Dew Water Collection
It is also more cost-effective than the
cloud seeding in less cloudy areas. Initially
research mainly focused on passive radiative
condensers, which do not need extra energy
input.
Dew Water Collection
It is also more cost-effective than the
cloud seeding in less cloudy areas. Initially
research mainly focused on passive radiative
condensers, which do not need extra energy
input.