CHAPTER ONE: INTODUCTION

1.1 Background
It is fact that the population of the world as a whole increases significantly from time to time.
This in turn develops the demand of food and results economic crisis. In order to overcome this
problem design of small, medium and large scale irrigation project is essential. Nowadays,
implementation of small and medium scale irrigation scheme is being given priority in the water
sector development strategy of Ethiopia.

Ethiopia is one of the developing countries and around 85% of the total population depends on
agriculture most of the agricultural practice is rain fed crop production.

Agriculture is the leading sector in the regional economy of Amhara. The predominant
agricultural system is based on smallholder production and the crop production is entirely
dependent on rain fed agriculture with limited areas currently developed under irrigation. The
natural supply of water to the agricultural land for crop production purpose is usually received
from natural sources such as precipitation/rain, other atmospheric water, groundwater, and
floodwater.

Irrigation is an artificial application of water to irrigated crop fields to supplement the natural
sources of water to satisfy the crop water requirements and increase crop yields on sustainable
basis without causing damage to the land and soils. Irrigation is generally considered as a means
of modernizing the country’s agricultural economy in general and the agricultural economy of
Amhara region in particular and is an important investment for improving the real income
through increased agricultural production and productivity.

Moreover, irrigation plays an important role in combating the effects of recurrent droughts and
sustains production with efficient and effective use of available resources; namely, water and
land in order to primarily alleviate the problem of food insecurity, improve nutritional status of
the rural population and in the long-run alleviating poverty. It is through irrigation and integrated
crop development that sustainable crop production can be ensured. Accordingly, as part of the
water sector development program, the Tegdar has initiated the study and design of a small scale
irrigation.

1.2 Statement of the problem

Ethiopia is known as “African’s water Tower” because many researches investigate that, in
Ethiopia within 14 highest and lowest rivers there is about 101.5 billion m^3 water flows in one
year, but we are still taking donations from developed countries. So, we have to find a way to
improve feeding our people and the only thing to do that is to stop farming only one time a year,
which is in the summer. In order to do that we as an engineer have to construct structures like
weir to create a head and divert the water to farm three or four times a year, so as to increase the
crop yield and reduce the poverty through the whole country.

1.3 Objectives and scope of the project

1.3.1 General objective

The main objective of this project is to design small Scale irrigation project for utilizing the
available water and land resources in the study area.

1.3.2 Specific objectives

The specific objectives of the present study include:

 To conduct frequency analysis to determine design discharges for the project.

 To conduct overall design of the headwork and other hydraulic structures based on
standard procedures.
 To check the stability of the head work structure
 To introduce modern irrigation technology for higher production by upgrading the
farmers land and water resources utilization capacity especially in dry season.
 To increase levels of income, levels of food security in the household, employment
opportunities and general improvement of standards.

1.4 Scope of the study

This study steps towards construction of weir diversion in river catchment. This study focuses on
designing the different components of weir and the alignment of a cannel. On the other hand the
study considers the discharge flow of the river that is used only for irrigation water demand.
1.5 Significance of the study
For increase agricultural production assessing irrigation potential plays a major role. Weir
diversion construction will contribute in making appropriate land use decisions, which are vital
to achieving optimum productivity of the land and to ensure environmental sustainability. In
addition to this, it very important tool in terms of agriculture development planning and manage
the available land and water resource in an efficient and sustainable manner. It is also introduce
improve irrigation technology and expand irrigation investment. Therefore this study, help as to
identify and assess surface irrigation potential under particular study area of Tegdar basin.

2 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1.1 Definition of Irrigation

Irrigation is the artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to assist in the growing
of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and re vegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas
and during periods of inadequate rainfall. Irrigation is defined as: The process of artificial
application of water to the soil for the growth of agricultural crop is termed as irrigation. It is
particularly a science of planning and designing a water supply system for agricultural land to
protect the crops from bad effect of drought or low rainfall. It includes the following structures
for the regular supply of water to the required command area, the construction weir/barrage and
dam/reservoir canal system.

2.1.2 History of Irrigation

The earliest form of irrigation dates back at least 8,000 years, and the technique remains an
important part of successful agricultural practices across the world. Here is a brief history of
irrigation from the earliest days until modern times. The earliest known systems of irrigation
began in 6000 BC in Egypt and Mesopotamia. In Egypt, the Nile flooded for a few months each
year, and the waters were diverted to the fields to allow farmers to grow crops where otherwise
they would be unable to do so. In 3100 BC, a large irrigation project was built, which involved
the construction of dams and canals up to20 kilometers in size.
2.1.3 Irrigation Development and Coordination in Ethiopia
Food production in the country, with cereal yields of less than one t/ha has failed to keep pace
with population growth and in many areas; there are increasing food deficits because of low
rainfall or over population. Rain fed agriculture provides the largest proportion of the total
production. However, over the past few decades, irrigated agriculture has become more
important. River basin master plan studies and related surveys indicate a maximum irrigation
potential of about 3.5 million ha. However, the irrigation potential of Ethiopia is at present
estimated at about 2.7 million ha, considering the availability of water and land resources,
technology and finance.

2.1.4 Necessity of Irrigation

For the growth of plant/crops: adequate quantity and quality of water required in the root zone of
the plant. However, in actual condition during the whole period of plant growth/partly there
exists inadequacy of water to full fill the crop water requirements. Thus,

The Following factors govern the necessity of irrigation:

 Insufficient rainfall: when the seasonal rainfall is less than the minimum requirement for
the satisfactory growth of crops, the irrigation system is essential.
 Uneven distribution of rainfall: when the rainfall is not evenly distributed during the Crop
period or throughout the cultivable area, the irrigation is extremely necessary.
 Improvement of perennial crops yield: some crops such as sugarcane etc require water
throughout the major parts of the year but the rainfall fulfills the demand during the rainy
season only. Therefore, for remaining part of the year irrigation is necessary.
 Development of agriculture in the desert areas: in the desert area where the rainfall is
rare, providing and developing irrigation system is necessary in order to cultivate crops.

2.1.5 Benefit and ill Effect of Irrigation

A. Direct Benefit of irrigation

There are a number of benefits of irrigation and can be summarized as follows:

 Increase in crop yield

 Protection of famine
  Improvement of cash crops
 Elimination of mixed cropping
 prosperity of farmers
 source of revenue
 Overall development of the nation
B. Indirect Benefits of Irrigation

 Hydroelectric development
 flood control
 navigation
 Development of fishery
 Domestic and industrial water supply.
 ground water recharges
C. Ill-effects of Irrigation

The uses of irrigated agriculture have the following ill effects if not properly managed:

 Raising of water Table

 Formation of marshy area
 dampness of weather
 loss of soil fertility
 soil erosion
 production of harmful gases

2.1.6 Important Factors Affecting Irrigation Planning and Development

The major factors influencing development of irrigation facility are as follows:

 Soil
 Climate
 Topography
 Water source
 Crop(s) to be cultivated
 Energy
 Commodity/product market
  National policy and priority
 Institutional infrastructure
 Economic factor

2.1.7 Types of Irrigation and Their Application Methods

1. surface irrigation
2. pressurized irrigation

2.1.8 Selection of Irrigation Method

Some of the considerations in selection:

 Compatibility of the system

 Economic considerations
 Topographic limitation
 Soil Characteristics
 Water source – quality and quantity
 Crop factors: economic-value, salt tolerance
For this project, among the various irrigation methods, surface irrigation method has been
selected. The surface irrigation methods, such furrow, border and basin irrigation methods can be
used to supply irrigation water to the plants/crops. However, each method has its own advantages
and disadvantages. Care should be taken when choosing the method which is best suited to the
local circumstances, i.e., depending on slopes, soil types, selected crop types, amount of water
available of the command area, etc... Based on the above factors surface irrigation method has
been proposed for the proposed crops in this project. The method allows applying light irrigation
and can be laid out in sloping fields along the contour. Furrow irrigation method is best suited for
most of the proposed and row planted crops. In general, furrow irrigation method is simple,
manageable and widely practiced irrigation method. This method is suitable for row crops that
cannot stand in water for long periods. The only thing required to use this method is row planting
of crops. In furrow irrigation, water no longer flows over the entire soil surface but is confined to
small channels (furrows) between the crop rows. It is then gradually absorbed into the bottom
and sides of the furrow to wet the soil. Most row crops such as vegetables, cotton, sugar beet and
potatoes. Rotational flow water distribution is also recommended for the project area.
2.1.9 General Characteristics of Surface Irrigation
Pros:

 Used method worldwide

 Water is distributed over the field by gravity.
 Water application is directly on the soil surface
 Requires relatively minimal Old-age method
 The most extensively capital investment
 Doesn’t require complicated and expensive equipment
 Energy costs are substantially lower
Cons:

 Labor requirements is relatively high

 Operation is easy
 Limited to land already having small and maintenance costs are high
 Relatively inefficient method and even slopes
 Entirely practiced where water is abundant.
 More affected by water logging and salinity problems
 Land leveling costs are high

2.2 Methodology
In the designing of this final year project on irrigation with weir we will use the following
procedures

2.2.1 Data Collection

Data collecting from different sources and we get:

 Geological and socio economic from report design

 Developing topo map from the given survey data
 Hydrological data

2.2.2 Analysis
 Hydrological analysis
 Consistency test
  Estimation of peak discharge from the given river discharge
 Tail water depth computation
 Selection of site and weir type
 Weir designing
 Weir height determination
 Stability analysis
 Design of divide wall, under sluice, head regulator
 Design retaining wall and main canal.
N.B: we will discuss this analysis into the next chapters in detail.

2.2.3 Analytic Tools

All necessary standard equations and empirical formulas including that we have learned in
irrigation course are used in their respective areas of analysis.

 By using internet service like: - Google earth for the canal alignment and global Mapped
for conversion of data.
 Using different software such as: - AutoCAD, Arc GIS, Civil3d metric, Microsoft word,
Microsoft excel etc.

3 CHAPTER THREE: LOCATION AND HYDROLOGICAL ANALAYSIS

3.1 Location and Description of the Project Area

3.1.1 Location
Tegdar is an intermittent stream in east Gojjam Zone, Amhara Region, Ethiopia. It is located at
an elevation of 2,530 meters above sea level. With Latitude of 10° 54' 0" N and Longitude of 38°
2' 59" E
N.B: we will do the location by using both Google Earth and GIS lately, but now we will
roughly sketch it out.

3.1.2 Topography
Topography is an important factor for the planning of any irrigation project as it influences
method of irrigation, drainage, erosion, mechanization, and cost of land development, labour
requirement and choice of crops. The topographic feature of the far surroundings of the project
area is flat especially, the topographic feature of the command area slope is ranging from 2-5 %.
The slope gradient class also the project command area is situated at the left side of the river
from its natural flow direction; and the natural topographic feature has also inclined from South-
West to North-East direction. Ranges from nearly level (2%). Hence, it has identified to be
almost suitable for surface irrigation

3.1.3 Soil
Soil texture refers to the relative proportion of sand, silt and clay in a mass of soil. Texture is
important in that it helps to determine the capacity of the soil to retain moisture and air as both
are necessary for plant growths. Soils with greater proportion of large particles are well aerated
and allow water to pass through the soil more quickly.

3.1.4 Land use/Cover

The land use type of the command area is almost all covered by traditional rain fed and irrigated
farming and cultivated lands of individual holdings. The total area of the region, include Tegdar
(1880.5ha), where the project site is found, the largest coverage is cultivated land which is
1435.5 hectares (76.3%); and the rest is covered by communal and/or private grazing lands,
construction, gullies, etc. lands.

Based on information obtained from Getnet Yohanes (a person from Tegdar) the major trees
naturally grown and/or artificially planted in the Tegdar are: Girar (Acacia abysinica), Bahir Zaf
(E.globulus), Tid (Juniperus procera) and Bisana (Croton Macrostachy). Bushes are:Bibisha
(Trichilia dregeana);Tinjut (Combratium Collinum), and from shrubs are: Tembelel (Oncoba
spinosa) , Kimo (Olinia rochetiana), etc. However, much of the command area is presently used
to grow annual crops.

3.1.5 Climate Condition

Climate has an important influence on the nature of the natural vegetation, the characteristics of
the soil, the crops that can be grown and the types of farming that can be practiced in any region.

The climate of an area is highly correlated with its vegetation and, the extension system, the
types of crops that can be cultivated. The major elements of climate are described as follows
meteorological station both for climatic data (temperature, relative humidity, wind speed,
sunshine hour and rain fall data) were used for the project study. In general, the source of
meteorological data is the National Meteorology Service Agency (NMSA).

3.1.6 Rainfall
The project area has monomial pattern of rainfall. The main rainy season (Meher/Kiremt) occurs
from mid-May to late September. Meher/Kiremt rainfall is largely received in the months of July
and August. The annual amount of rainfall has been well distributed throughout the rainy
seasons. Therefore, the amount of rainfall has been sufficient for the crops grown in the wet
seasons. The average annual rainfall at Gundewoin station is about 1144.9mm. The monthly
rainfall distribution has monomial characteristic with better rainfall distribution from July to
August. More than 86.1% of the annual rainfall occurs from June to October.

3.1.7 Temperature
The prevailing temperature considerably influences selection of crops and their growing periods.
Optimum temperature plays an important role on the growth period and the production of crops.
The mean minimum and maximum temperature at meteorological station is 9.9 and 23.3 𝑐°,
respectively. The monthly mean minimum temperature varied from 6.6 𝑐° (January) to 11.7 𝑐°
(in August); and the monthly mean maximum temperature varied from 20 𝑐° (August) to 26 𝑐°
(March, April and May)

Sunshine Hours Duration: The sunshine hours duration at ranges from 5.6 (July) to 9.6 hours/day
(November). The mean annual sunshine hour duration is 8.3.

3.1.8 Relative Humidity

The relative humidity (RH) also varies from 40% (February and March) to 77% (July and
August) and the mean annual RH is 55 %.

3.1.9 Wind Speed

High desiccating wind in the form of storm not only increases crop water requirements, due to
increased evapotranspiration, but also adversely affects the growth and yields of crops depending
on the crops growth stage, at which it occurs. However, the wind speed ranges from 0.7 m/sec/d
to1.2 m/sec which is low and not likely to cause damage to the crops. The mean annual wind
speed is 1.1 m/sec.

3.2 Hydrological Analysis

3.2.1 General
Hydrology is the primary analysis carried out before designing any hydraulic structure. Most of
the studies show that the majority of failures were not due to structural weakness rather it is due
to unavailability of sufficient hydrological data and insufficient hydrological analysis by which
design was made.

Hydrology is a science that deals with the depletion and replenishment of water resources. It
deals with surface as well as groundwater, as far as their occurrence, circulation, distribution,
chemical and physical properties, reaction to environment and living things its use and
quantitative use on the earth. The basic knowledge of this science is a must for constructing any
water resources engineering works.

Hydrology is used for designing and planning of weirs, spillways reservoirs and other hydraulic
structures. All planning in hydrology terms is predicted on the assumption that the past history of
water occurrence will be repeated in the future. It helps for the design and operation of hydraulic
structures. To plan these structures we need one of the following;

i) The flood of certain frequency

ii) Daily flow
iii) The discharge available for a certain percentage of time.

In the design of water resources projects, like irrigation project, the peak magnitude of the flood
are of great importance to design economic structures with less probability of failure.

3.2.2 Watershed characteristics

In any small scale modern irrigation system, most of the headwork component structures are to
be designed considering the magnitude of flood produced by a fifty years return period design
rainfall. Once the rainfall is determined, the next step is to investigate about the characteristics of
the watershed. Determination of catchment area, mainstream length and the vertical elevation
difference are the major and the primary activity for watershed runoff simulation using various
accepted models. Tegdar irrigation project has a total catchment area of 136.6km2 having the
mainstream length of 14208m; the watershed has an average main stream bed slope of 0.013.

100% of the catchment area falls in Goncha Siso Enesie woreda and almost more than 56.11%
of the watershed is cultivated land the major and dominant land use coverage The major land use
types in the watershed include Afro alpian , Cultivated, , grassland ,plantation and sharp land .
All the watershed parameters have been determined by using a topographic map at a scale
1:50000 and Digital Elevation Model of 30x30m resolution. By using SWAT GIS and field
ground truthing or data collection, the average Curve Number in Antecedent Moisture Condition
II is found to be 80.3 Based on the observation, curve number for the watershed is determined.
All the details of the watershed characterization and development plan is shown in the
watershed.