Water gain and water loss of some freshwater aquaculture ponds at Kausalyaganga, Orissa, India

Abstract Hydrological data were collected from the six ponds of 0.05 ha size in the farm of the Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture, Bhubaneswar, India. Data on rainfall, run-off, evaporation, and seepage were collected from these ponds for the years 2013 and 2014. The rainfall was 175 ± 3.0 and 202 ± 5.0 cm in 2013 and 2014, respectively. The run-off was 36 ± 1.2 and 29 ± 1.0 cm, in these ponds, in 2013 and 2014, respectively. Average evaporation was 0.30 cm/d in 2013 and 0.37 cm/d in 2014. The average seepage was 0.22 cm/d in both the years. The loss from the evaporation and seepage could be compensated through the regulated inflow of groundwater from wells/canals. The total amount of well/canal water in an average year to compensate the water loss through evaporation and seepage was calculated and for the 1.0 ha pond, 9800 ± 200 m3 of water in 2013 and 13,700 ± 300 m3 of water in 2014. Accordingly, the harvested water could be 12,000 ± 200 m3 in 2013 and 15,000 ± 300 m3 in 2014, respectively. The consumptive water use was 3.15 ± 0.3 m3/kg fish and 3.35 ± 0.2 m3/kg fish in 2013 and 2014, respectively. The total water use in these embankment ponds was 5.15 ± 0.5 m3/kg fish and 5.66 ± 0.6 m3/kg fish in 2013 and 2014, respectively.