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Ganges Delta gets its water back through rainfall

Auf: 7. März 2012

A large part of the water evaporated from the Ganges Delta falls back as rain in its water basin. Irrigation in India uses up daily about a millimetre of its ground and surface water.

Part of this water evaporates. Wageningen UR researchers from the Earth System Science and Climate Change Group tried to trace where the evaporation ends up, and found that the seasons have a strong influence. The monsoon season is crucial in this area.

Monsoon winds bring in warm and moist ocean air in the summer from the south. In winter, dry and cool air is transported from the north, taking water which evaporates in the winter southwards. This water disappears thus and can be considered as 'lost'. However, things are different before, during and directly after the monsoon season. According to calculations from Obbe Tuinenburg and his colleagues, sixty percent of the evaporation during the peak period of the monsoon season (May, June and July) fall back as rain into the water basin.