ASSIGNMENT 01

IRRIGATION ENGINEERING

SUBMITTED BY

FAISAL MUNIR BCEF16E031

SUBMITTED TO

ENGR. OWAIS AHMED

LAB ENGINEER

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY,

UNIVERSITY OF SARGODHA
 WARABANDI

Warabandi system

Warabandi system is a rotational water allocation system which can fulfil the requirement of
equality. Warabandi is Urdu which combined by “wahr” and “bandi”, “wahr” is “turn” and
“bandi” means “fixation” “Warabandi” is “rotation of water supply according to a fixed
schedule which combine two different words in Urdu together. Warabandi system helping
farmer can be allocated the same volume of water after the systematic rotation of water as the
system will equalize the water allocation according to the regular and approved time schedule
included supply will start in which day, duration and how long will the water supply.

Brief Description

The water will deliver by a rotated watercourse and Warabandi system act an essential character
as an integrated management system from water sources to the farmer which called "nakka."
The farmer will receive their water after 7 days since the delivery of the water started.

Warabandi has three distribution system. Firstly, the structure of the delivery formed by the
central canal and two or more rotational branch canals, but the branch canals can't carry the
total amount of water supply at the first-time delivery. This step is the basic and primary
distribution system of Warabandi. Secondly, the secondary system formed by a large number
of rotational distributaries with carrying a full amount of water supply for ensuring every
farmer gets enough water supply and equitable as the branch canals deliver water to
watercourses after bringing into distributaries. The streams form tertiary distribution with full
amount since the water from distributaries was supplied.

Besides, the delivery of the water can't fulfill the demand since the volume of the watercourses
are limited, so, the proceed of the delivery will continue about seven days to ensure every
farmer receives the water. After seven days, which finished a period of delivery, the next
conveyance will start to ensure the farmer can get enough water resources to use.

Moreover, there are two types of Warabandi in Pakistan. The most common ways called
“KACHCHA Warabandi,” which is the system without government intervention, and the
farmers will make the decision and plan the schedule by themselves. The time planning from
the farmer can be changed if any situation happened, although the table predetermined through
the farmer's agreement. It can ensure every farmer's water supplied as the farmer group can
manage and distribute the process amicably and collectively as a flexible method. Also,
because without any government intervention, the decision will not be affected by any parties,
focus on who needs water at that time and plan out the entire schedule, which is more
comfortable and more flexible.

Another way is “PUCCA Warabandi,” the government will lead the program as a field
investigation and public inquiry if any situation occurred. However, "PUCCA Warabandi" are
not the majority in the population, even the amount is decreasing nowadays. The reason why
some people still adopt is that if any situation occurred, disputes were registered with the canal
authorities, which means the government will deal with the problem. This method commonly
used by large landowners for ensuring the owner's benefit, if any situation occurs, the
government can help them solve the problem. After the prescribed adjudication processes, the
system will change to official schedules as a result and become easier to manage as a large
landowner.

Warabandi Management system

In the rotation delivery system, water is delivered from a watercourse to various farms situated
along the watercourse according to a pre-decided time roster. Accordingly, this delivery system
is also known as warabandi system, which can be defined as an integrated management system
from source (river or reservoir) to the farm gate, i.e., nakka.
The main objective of the warabandi system is to attain high efficiency of water use by
imposing water scarcity on every user. The system ensures equitable distribution of water and
safeguards the interest of the farmers whose fields are located at the tail end of the conveyance
system.

In the warabandi system (Fig 1.1), water from the source is carried by the main canal which
feeds two or more branch canals that operate by rotation and may not carry the total required
supply. This is the primary distribution system which runs throughout the irrigation season
with varying supplies.

The secondary distribution system consists of a large number of distributaries which too run
by rotation but carry full supply. The branch canals supply water to the distributaries which, in
turn, feed watercourses through the outlets. The watercourses form tertiary distribution system
and carry their full supply when the supplying distributary is running.

The distributaries generally carry their supplies in eight-day periods. The number of these
periods would depend upon the availability of water and crop requirements. The eight-day
period of distributary running ensures a minimum of seven days running for all watercourses
including those which are at the tail-end of the distributary. The distributaries of the Bhakra
project generally carry water for 18 periods during the Kharif season and 16 periods during the
Rabi season.

The distribution of water flowing in watercourse is done on a seven-day rotation basis with the
help of an agreed roster (of turns) which divides 168 hours of seven days in the ratio of holdings
of farmers who are to be supplied water by the watercourse.

Whenever a distributary carries water, its watercourses receive their share of water at a constant
rate round-the-clock, and water distribution proceeds from head to tail-end of a watercourse.

Each cultivator on a watercourse is entitled to receiving the entire water in the watercourse
only on a specific weekday and at a specific time (including night time). There is no provision
in this system to compensate a defaulting farmer who has failed to utilize his turn for any reason
whatsoever.

Before a farmer receives his share of water, some time is spent in filling up the empty
watercourse between the point of taking over and the beginning of his holding. Likewise, the
tail-end farmer continues to receive water (though at a decreasing rate) for some time even
after the supply to the watercourse has been stopped. All such factors are suitably accounted
for in deciding the flow time per unit area and the flow time for a farmer.

Objectives of Warabandi System

As an integrated water management system, warabandi is expected to achieve two main

objectives,

 High efficiency
 Equity in water use

Warabandi system needs a certain amount of capital to fix and maintain after deteriorating. The
system has been in use for a long time in every country; for example, Pakistan started
Warabandi since independence, the system has already deteriorated. So, the government ought
to make an appropriation for fixing and maintaining the system to ensure the follow-up of
Warabandi. However, the government may not have enough capital to solve it. Also, some
government did not provide human resources for maintenance and management. Besides, due
to the local severe corruption problem, relevant departments and the government do not have
enough capital to carry out maintenance, those impoverished country are difficult to maintain
the system's follow-up development. Besides, there may not be local staff to understand the
relevant skills for maintaining system running. Facing those problems, the underprivileged
country's farmer can get the sufficient and equitable water supply at the beginning, but because
of the government's insufficient management for the system, farmers always struggle with the
system. If the government does not fix it, the efficiency of Warabandi will decline sharply.

Also, setting up the system and maintaining the system needs a massive amount of capital.
Most of the budget amount for system management is allocated to the significant administrative
structure to deal with the bureaucratic problems in the operation of the system, while the
follow-up maintenance and maintenance cannot get enough budget, only a small part of the
budget allocated. Although the government got enough capital to build up the system, due to
the corruption problem, the project cannot finish and maintain finally. When the system
deteriorates, water delivery becomes less efficient, making it challenging to ensure equitable
distribution for all farmers. But the government may not have enough money to deal with the
situation because they need to pay a certain amount of fixing payment. Not only insufficient
on setting up a budget, but the government also cannot use every capital to deal with the system.

As the population soared, so made the demand for food, but Warabandi can't fulfill the demand.
Especially in deprived areas, where there is not enough awareness of birth control, the
proportion of the population is rising much faster than in developed countries. Despite having
adequate irrigation systems, the number of operations has always been limited to meet the
rapidly increasing demand for food, and the government may not have the money to build more
systems to meet the demand. At the same time, even if the government makes more systems,
as the system deteriorates, the government will be unable to maintain the deteriorating system
due to corruption, understaffing, mismanagement, and other reasons. In doing so, it will not
only fail to meet the food demand but also waste money.

Characteristics

1. Usually, the farm size, of the application system is small, the area of the farm can't be
too vast and limited in around 2 to 5 ha.
2. The water should be on time to deliver to different farms because of the planned
schedule, the amount of the delivery water and the water duty should be counted
volumetrically.
 3. To ensure the procedure, delivery can run smoothly; the main canals will separate as
upstream or downstream control or a combination of two methods, there also have a
central controlling system as the farm will set up distributors, flow dividers, or on-off
gates.
4. The system as the main watercourse will operate at no less than 75 percent of the full
supply level to ensure every farmer can get the same proportion of the water. The
regular and unauthorized outfalls can't get the right to be allocated the water from the
water sources.
5. The outfalls should not install any gate to ensure the near the outfall can get enough
proportion volume of water.

Types of Warabandi system

Two major broad categories which mostly determine the type of warabandi practiced is that
of 'kaccha' warabandi and 'pakka' warabandi. Kacha warabandi mainly refers to the
allocation of water between the landowners on their own mutual consent.

 Kachcha warabandi

The warabandi which has been decided by the farmers solely on their mutual agreement,
without formal involvement of any government agency is known as kachcha (ordinary or
unregulated) warabandi.

 Pucca warabandi

The warabandi decided after field investigation and public inquiry by the irrigation department
when disputes occurred and issued in officially recognized warabandi schedules, is called
pucca warabandi.
Advantages

Warabandi system helps people get rid of the old irrigation system. In the past, people used the
irrigation system from the British. But the system was leaky and outdated, which wasted about
95 percent of water. Although the irrigation system from the British was not suitable for others
country Warabandi system helps the farmer get enough water supply on time which planned,
and they can get the water according to the pre-decided schedule. As the improving on
irrigation efficiency, the farmer did not need to get trouble with the leakage. The farm water
requirement can reduce by 50 percent to 70 percent. Since the replacing on gravity-based canal
flows with piped water supply, it can avoid more than 50 MAF of losses on water from the
delivery. As the delivery leakage decreased, the farmer gets more water supply for irrigation.
The farmer can improve better irrigation efficiency since the decreasing on-farm water
requirements; the better irrigation system can help farmers grow more crops since Warabandi
system can sure every farmer gets enough water supply. Also, the irrigation system will not
have any limitation as the system also can feeding in higher elevation fields as some farmer
cannot carry out irrigation because the water supply from gravity-based was not enough to
feed. As the higher irrigation efficiency, although the water leakage reduced, the production
increased due to higher per acre yields and extra area brought under irrigation, the farmer not
only can minimize farm water requirement but also increase their crops as a result.

Warabandi system got better irrigation discipline and more equitable water allocation. The
water supply planned by those farmers and they decided the time schedule included amount
will start in which day, duration and how long will the water supply, it will not be affected by
other stakeholders who will have benefit-conflicting. Also, the structure of the delivery system
ensures every farmer's benefit because the system got three procedures, and the regular timing
of the whole process takes seven days to finish. The procedures ensure every farmer get
sufficient and proportional water supply for irrigation. Besides, the irrigation system will auto-
feeding when the crop's need as a stable water supply. The time schedule decided by farmer
and the regular water supply system ensure every farmer gets equitable water supply, the time
that takes to transport the water, duration and how long will the water supply both will mark
on the time schedule, the farmer can check and supervise the procedure from the time schedule.
So, they can have better irrigation discipline.

Formulation of Warabandi System

Warabandi system also provides a higher contribution to the country's economy. For those
farmers, as the system raises the plantation intensity, the amount of crop increased, the farmer
can earn more profit, and it will increase their working incentive. They will work harder for
more plants and obtain more income. The gross national product and the gross domestic
product gets a higher result as a higher cropping intensity, which means the farmer can
contribute more to the country's economy. Besides, for the government, better irrigation
discipline and more equitable water motivate farmer's working incentive because the water
supply will not be affected by benefit-related factors and they can decide everything about the
water supply by themselves. If the farmer decided to use "KACHCHA Warabandi," the time
schedule will determine by the farmer, the government does not need to do anything during the
procedure. As the system can avoid the leakage on water from the delivery as canal flows with
piped water replaced gravity-based, the capital losses of government will reduce. As a result,
the government will reduce the payment for the leakage during delivery through canal flows
with piped water. The system can provide a higher contribution to the country's economy.

Also, Warabandi system is environmentally-friendly. Sufficient water supply recovery

hydrogeology. Due to the reducing on water leakage on the delivery, the country gets additional
water sources, for example, Pakistan got additional about 75 MAF flowing rivers. At the same
time, the proper riverine fields keep getting the requisite aquifer recharge, and the riparian
ecology and biodiversity recovered since enough water supply. The availability of water in
riparian zones helps the plantation of trees near the river, which is sustainable for the
environment.

The warabandi schedule is framed under Section 68 of the Canal and Drainage Act (VIII of
1873) in which rights to form and maintain water distribution schedules for watercourses are
vested with the Canal Officers of the Irrigation Department. Several amendments and
departmental rules were added later. Theoretically, in calculating the duration of the warabandi
turn given to a particular farm plot, some allowance is added to compensate for the time taken
by the flow to fill that part of the watercourse leading to the farm plot. This is called khal bharai
or watercourse “filling time.” Similarly, in some cases, a farm plot may continue to receive
water from a filled portion of the watercourse even when it is blocked upstream to divert water
to another farm or another part of the watercourse command. This is called nikal or “draining
time,” and is deducted from the turn duration of that farm plot. The calculation for a warabandi
schedule starts with determining by observation, the total of such filling times (Tf) and the total
of such draining times (TD). Then, for a weekly warabandi rotation, the unit irrigation time
(Tu) in hours per hectare can be given by:

TU = (168 - TF + TD) / C

Where, C = culturable command area of the watercourse. The value of TU should be the same
for all the farmers in the watercourse. A farmer’s warabandi turn time Tt is given by:

Tt = TU x A + Tf - Td

Where, A is the farm area, and Tf and Td are filling time and draining time, respectively, for
the farm area. Only some of the farms in a watercourse may be entitled to either filling time,
or draining time, or both. The warabandi schedule is prepared on the basis of the different turn
times calculated for each farm plot on the basis of these values, wherever they occur, and on
the area of each farm plot. The main obstacle to achieving equity as defined above has been
varying seepage losses along the watercourses. Theoretically, this problem could have been
dealt with readily by creating a virtual imaginary land area for the tail Enders, but such a
strategy has not been tried, probably because it would have involved some ad hoc decisions
and destroyed the transparency of the original concept.