Dep’t: Civil Engineering 5th Year

Irrigation Engineering

Chapter one:
Introduction

Prepared BY: Desalegn

B.
 Definition and scope of irrigation
 Definition: Irrigation is the science of artificial application of water to the
land, in accordance with the crop requirements throughout the crop period
for full nourishment of the crops.
 It is the Engineering of controlling and harnessing the various natural
sources of water, by construction of dams & reservoirs, canals & head
works and finally distributing the water to agricultural fields.
 To have maximum yield it is essential to supply the optimum quantity of
water with the schedule.
Necessity of irrigation:
Generally the following are some of the factors that necessitate irrigation.
 Inadequate rainfall
 Uneven distribution of Rainfall
 Increasing the yield of the crops
 Growing a number of crops
 Insuring against drought.
 Growing perennial crops.
 Scope of Irrigation Engineering
 application of water to the land for raising crops. It includes all aspects and

problems extending from the watershed to the agricultural fields.

 It deals with
Hydrology, river engineering, design and construction
of dams, weirs, canals and various other hydraulic and
irrigation structures.

It also deals with surface and sub surface drainage

system, soil reclamation, water-soil-crop relationships.
Other allied sciences such as flood control, Ground
water development, hydropower, and inland navigation
are also studied in IRRIGATION ENGINEERING.

Various aspects of Irrigation Engineering is:

1. Water resources and hydrology aspect –Study the hydrology of the region.
This includes locate various water sources meteorology, precipitation, stream
flow, floods, river engineering, reservoirs flood control and ground water
hydrology.
 The following information are required while designing various
irrigation structures.
 The quantity of water that will be available at a reservoir site for

storage.
 Maximum discharge at a river site.

 Reservoir capacity that ensures adequate Quantity of water for various

purposes.
 Quantity of ground water which can be economically exploited.

2. Engineering Aspect - involves the development of a source of water

for irrigation and construction of various irrigation structures.
◦ Dams and water power Engineering
◦ Diversion and Distribution structures
◦ Minor irrigation schemes (well, Tank / Pond).
◦ Ground water development.
3. Agricultural aspect – Involves irrigation practice and the study of
agricultural characteristics of the land and Crops.
4. Management Aspect- deals with successful implementation and
 Advantages & Dis advantages of Irrigation

Benefits of irrigation
Increase in food production
Elimination of mixed cropping
General prosperity (development of country)
Generation of hydroelectric power
Domestic water supply
Facilities of communication(roads)
Dis advantage of irrigation
It is occur when the scheme is not properly designed, implemented and
application management.
Some of the common ill-effects are
Water logging: when cultivators apply more water than actually required by
the crops, excess water percolates in to the ground and raises the water table.
Long term application of pesticides under large scale irrigation system might
have a negative influence on soil microbial activities, on the quality of
surface and sub surface water resources due to pollution application
fertilizer that contains nitrates.

 Irrigation may result in colder and damper climate causing outbreak of

disease like malaria.

 Irrigation is complex and expensive in itself. Some times cheaper water is

to be provided at the cost of the government and revenue returns are low.
 Functions of Irrigation water
• supply the moisture that essential for plant growth
• It act as solvent for nutrients
• Essential for chemical actions in plant , leading to its
growth
• Some salt present in soil react to produce nourishing
food products only in the presence of water
• Water cools the soil and the atmosphere and thus
makes more favorable environment for healthy plant
growth.
• Irrigation water, with controlled supplies, washes out
or dilutes salts in the soil
• It softens tillage pans
Irrigation Development In Ethiopia
 Irrigation potential
◦ Ethiopia has 12 river basin such as

Rivers Basin Mean annual Ground water potential gross Net area
area Vol.x109m3 potentialx109m3 irrigable area(ha) Under irrigation(ha)
(Km)2
Awash 112696 4.60 0.14 205400 69900
Abay(Blue Nile) 204000 52.62 1.80 1001550 21010
Baro-Akobo 75912 11.81 0.13 600000 350
Rift valley lakes 52739 56.3 0.10 139300 12270
Omo-Gibe 79000 17.96 0.10 86520 27310
Genale-dawa 17104 5.88 0.03 423300 80
Wabi-Shebelle 202697 3.16 0.04 204000 20290
Tekeze 865000 8.20 0.02 189500 1800
Ogaden 72121 0.86 - - -
Denakil 62882 0.86 - 3000 -
Aysha 2223 0.22 - - -
Mereb-Gash 5700 0.65 0.05 67560 8000
Total 1127312 112.45 2.59 2920130 161010
Irrigation …
 From the above table the total basin area covers
1,127,312 km2 and have a potential of 112.45*109m3
and 2.59*109m3 as annual runoff and ground water
respectively.
 With in the basin there is 2,920,130 ha potentially
gross irrigable area and out of which only 161,010
ha is net area under irrigation.
 This shows that the country has developed irrigation
scheme <3% of it’s potential.
 This is also concentrated around awash basin.
 Now, the country is forced to develop more irrigation
scheme to alleviate food shortage due to the
repeated occurrence of drought.
 Thus irrigation is expanding to many of other basin
such as wabi-shebel, genale…
Irrigation …
 Overall Objective Of Irrigation Policy In Ethiopia

The overall objective of the irrigation policy is to

develop the huge irrigated agriculture potential for the
production of food crops and raw materials needed for
agro-industries, on efficient and sustainable basis and
without degrading the fertility of the production fields
and water resource base.
Standards of irrigation water
 Every water is not suitable for irrigation. Since
it’s quality is influenced by the content of soil
and water itself.
 A particular water may be harmful to irrigate a
particular type of soil but the same water may
be useful to irrigate some other type of soil.
 If water contain
 Toxic chemical
 Reactive chemical
 Injurious bacteria
It is said to be poor quality or unsatisfactory for
irrigation purpose
standards …
 Therefore it is important to make a complete
water quality assessment by considering
A. sediment content
B. total concentration of soluble salt
C. concentration of specific element that can be
potentially toxic to the crop
D. proportion of sodium ion to other cations
E. pH value of water
A. Sediment content
It’s effect is depend on the source of sediment
standards …
B. Total concentration of soluble salt
◦ Water with high concentration of salt can be the
cause “physiological drought” to the plant
◦ Salinity concentration of soil solution Cs after the
consumption use(Cu) is given by;
Cs= C *Q
Q  (C u  Peff ) 
Where Q is quantity of water applied
Cu is consumptive use of
Peff is useful rainfall
Cu-Peff is used up irrigation water
C concentration of salt in irrigation water
 standards …
The salt concentration is generally measured by determining the electrical conductivity of
water. They are directly proportional to each other. Electrical conductivity is expressed in
micro mhos per centimeter. When its value is up to 250 micro mhos/cm at 25°C, it is called
low conductivity water (CI) ; when its value is between 250 to 750, it is called Medium
'conductivity water (C2) ; when its value is between 750 to 2250, it is called High
Conductivity water (C3) ; and the values above 2250, are classified as very High
Conductivity water (C4). The suitability of these four types of waters for irrigation supplies
are discussed in Table 1.1
 standards …

C. Potentially toxic elements: elements like Boron, Selenium, etc. may be toxic to
plants.
• Concentration of Boron exceeding 0.3 PPM may be toxic to certain plants.
• Concentration of Boron > 0.5 PPM dangerous to nuts, citrus fruits.
 standards …
D. Proportion of sodium ions to other cations(SAR)
◦ Irrigation water having high SAR level can lead to the build up of
high Na in the soil.
◦ When the amount of sodium increases, it has effect on the soil
structure(break down) or soil dispersion
◦ Then the soil become plastic, sticky and porn to form clogs &
crust on drying
◦ Infiltration & permeability of the soil will be reduced
◦ The proportion of sodium ions present in the soil is generally
measured by a factor called sodium-absorption ratio (SAR) and SAR
is defined as:
◦ The suit abilities of these four kinds of water for irrigation are
discussed in Table 1.2. The SAR value can be reduced by adding
gypsum (CaS04) to theNa water or to the soil.


 Ca    Mg   
 
 2 
SAR=
standards …

When SAR between 0-10 it is low sodium water (S1)

10-18 medium sodium water (S2)
18-26 High sodium water (S3)
>26 very high sodium water (S4)
 standards …
 Depending upon the Electrical conductivity EC (representing salt
content) of water, the exchangeable sodium percentage ESP
(representing percentage of sodium. w.r.to total exchangeable
cations), and the pH value of the soil, the soils are classified as
saline, alkaline, or saline- alkali, as shown in table 1.3 below:
standards …

E. pH :- The pH value of a soil or natural water

is a measure of its alkalinity or acidity.
◦ More accurately stated, the pH value is a measure of
the hydrogen ion concentration in water.
 Feasibility studies of irrigation projects

 What is irrigation project?

 Is a project which aims to satisfy the paramount need
of adequate water provision for crop production.
 Irrigation project may classified as
Type of project Command area Development cost*
(ha) U.S dollars/ha
Average cost Range in cost

Large scale >10,000 16,000 5,000-50,000

Medium scale 2,000-10,000 9,000 4,000-15,000

Small scale <2,000 4,000 1,000-6,500

 The country has 3,637,000 ha potentially irrigable area.
 Out of which
 27% for Small Scale Irrigation scheme & the rest 73% is for
Medium Scale and Large Scale Irrigation scheme.
 Stages of irrigation project investigation and
development are
 Conception
 Planning
 Designing
 Construction
 Operation
 Common procedure for development of irrigation
project are
◦ Locating site area
◦ Reconnaissance survey of the site
◦ Detail investigation
◦ Fixing contractor and starting construction wok
 Approach of data collection
◦ Type of data to be collected
◦ how and why data is going to be collected
◦ Cost analysis
 Some of the data to be collected are
 Physical data: includes location, size and climate
 Hydrological data: precipitation, evapo transpiration, stream
size, water quality
 Geological data: rock & soil type, ground water, minerals
 Cartographic data: maps of the area
 Ecological data: vegetation cover, wildlife found in the area
 Demographic data: population statistics
 Economical data:
 Legal data: water right, land ownership
 Public option: opinion of different section of the society about
the project
 Flood control data: records of past flood condition and extent
of damage caused
 Information to be collected are
 Land resource
 Land Suitability is the fitness of a given type of land(a land
mapping unit) for a defined use.
Land mapping unit is parts of an area which are more or less
homogeneous with respect to a certain land characteristics.
Land evaluation shall be made which gives different
classification of land indicating their suitability for a specific
land uses.
• There are four structure of suitability classification. Namely
 Suitability orders: indicate whether land suitable or not suitable
for the use under consideration. Symbolized by letter S or N
 Suitability class: reflect the degree of suitability or not suitability
with in the suitability order. Symbolized by S1,S2, S3… and N1
&N2
Information …
◦ Soil survey
 This is assessment of soil in terms of type, infiltration
characteristics, hydraulic conductivity, workability ,
fertility ,salt content and extent exposure for flooding and
etc…
Examples of the minimum grade of a number of land qualities
and land suitability ratings for irrigated rice
Land qualities Land suitability rating
S1 S2
Soil depth (cm) >60 >30
Soil fertility high low-medium
Soil salinity (ECin mmhos/cm) <4 <8
Rock outcrops (% of ground surface) <2 <25
Net field water requirements (mm/day) <20 <20
Slope (%) <2 <4
Field size medium-large small
Land development costs (US $ /ha) <200 <600
Flooding nil or slight moderate
Information …
 Water resource
 Surface water sources
 Ground water sources
◦ Quality of water
 Agricultural & engineering aspect
◦ Present farm practice
 Number of farm, size of farm, farming methods, crop
yield/ha and it’s cost of production labour availability,
existing market and transport system
◦ Feature state of agriculture
 Here there should be a clear demonstration about soil,
climate, cop rotation, market accessibility and also
advisory and training facilities
◦ Engineering aspect
 focuses on the development of source of water and
construction of different structures to store, divert,
convey and apply irrigation water.
 Information …
 Social and economical aspect
◦ Benefit and cost analysis
 Cost: the various type of costs such as capital cost, interest
on the capital cost depreciation cost, operation and
maintenance cost should be determined.
 Benefit: the feasibility of an irrigation project shall be
expressed in terms of cost ratio.
Cost Ratio=

If CR >1.5, the project is said to be economically justified

Information …
 Other aspects to be considered
◦ Organizational and management aspect: the organization/
institution which are responsible for the management of
project should be identified
◦ Feature expansion potential of the project
◦ Environmental impact assessment(EIA)
 End of chapter
one.
Thank you!!!