The NAPCC prepared by the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change (PMCCC) suggests that there will be a decline in the water run-offs in all river basins except the Narmada and the Tapi. A decline of more than two-thirds is being anticipated for the Sabarmati and Luni basins. Sabarmati gets its waters from Narmada, and with global warming and climate change a grim reality, there are doubts about long-term supply of water from these sources to the river.

"Wide variations in rainfall as a result of global warming would significantly alter the average flow of the river. An anticipated six-degree rise in temperature in the future, according to IPCC estimates, could dry up rivers one day. What if Narmada waters itself are under pressure tomorrow?" — IIM-A faculty and member, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) of UNFCC, Priyasarshi Shukla had earlier warned.

These projections were made earlier in India’s ‘Initial National Communication, 2004’ (NATCOM - I) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC). The decline in the run-offs by two-thirds of the Sabarmati basin is in the section marked ‘Observed Changes in Climate and Weather Events in India’ of the NAPCC which was released by the PM recently. Planners of the Sabarmati riverfront need to wake up to the reality of global warming and climate change.

"Time has come to make a reverse study and assess how climate change and environment would impact projects like the Sabarmati riverfront," said Shukla. Commissioner Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, IP Gautam, says "We will study the possible impacts of climate change on the riverfront project and factor in those risks while making future plans for the project. Once the project is completed and with the drainage system in place, the Narmada waters in the riverfront would be as potable as in the main canal"