Department of Hydraulic and Water Resources

Engineering
Course name:-Irrigation Engineering
Course code: - WRIE-3161
Target group:-3rd year HWRE-Regular student
Pre-Request:-Introduction to hydrology(HWRE-2121)

Course Instructor:-Mr.Andualem L.
.

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1.1.Definition of Irrigation
 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
 Irrigation is the application of water to ensure sufficient soil
moisture is available for good plant growth throughout the
growing season
 Irrigation often is used on full-season agronomic or high-value
specialty crops to provide a dependable yield every year
 It is important to satisfy the crop requirement for sustaining crop
production
 Irrigation can be applied in supplemental or full depending on the
adequacy of rainfall
 More over the need to sustain a double cropping system in the dry
season and assuring of growing high-value crops are among the
factors that necessitate irrigation
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Cont…
Irrigation Engineering is an engineering science that is concerned

with the design, layout, and construction of irrigation systems

 It is mainly concerned with

The design, Layout, and construction of headwork

Canals, Canal structures,

Cross drainage works and Canal falls

 It includes the following structures for the regular supply of water

to the required command area:

 The construction weir/barrage, Dam/reservoir and Canal system
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1.1.1.Scope of Irrigation Scheme
 Irrigation Engineering is not only confined to the application of
water to the land for raising crops.
 It includes allHydrology,
aspects river
andengineering,
problems extending
design fromofthe
and construction
watershed to the agricultural
dams, weirs, canals fields
and various other hydraulic and
irrigation structures.
 It deals with:-
 Hydrology It also deals with surface and sub surface drainage
system, soil reclamation, water-soil-crop relationships.
 River engineering
Other allied sciences such as flood control, Ground
 Design and construction of dams,
water development, weirs, canals,
hydropower, and navigation
and inland
 Other hydraulicareand
alsoirrigation
studied in IRRIGATION
structures ENGINEERING.
 It also deals with a surface and subsurface drainage system, soil
reclamation, water-soil-crop relationships

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 Cont…
Aspects of Irrigation Engineering are:
1.Water resources and hydrology aspect :-
 The first aspect of irrigation engineering is to locate various water
resources and to study the hydrology of the region.
 The basic knowledge of water resources engineering and hydrology are
essential for an irrigation engineer.
 This includes:-Water sources meteorology, precipitation, stream flow,
floods, river engineering, reservoirs flood control and GW
 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
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Cont…
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, inundation
Irrigation).
 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
efficient management of engineering aspects and agricultural
works.

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 1.2.Necessity of Irrigation
 Water is normally supplied to the plants by nature through the
rainfall. However, it may be either insufficient, or ill-timed.
 To have maximum yield it is essential to supply the optimum
quantity of water with the schedule.
 Inadequate rainfall
 Uneven distribution of Rainfall
 Increasing the yield of the crops
 Growing a number of crops
 Insuring against drought.
 Growing perennial crops

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1.3. Benefits and ill- effects of irrigation

1.3.1. Advantage of Irrigation

 Increase in food production:-Increasing crop yields through
controlled and timely supply of water to the crop
 Optimum benefits:-Optimum utilization implies obtaining maximum
crop yield with any amount of water.
 Elimination of mixed cropping:- Mixed cropping is generally not
acceptable
 General prosperity:- A Revenue return is sometimes quite high and
helps in all round development of the country
 Generation of hydroelectric power:-Primarily objects designed for
irrigation alone but cheaper power generation
 Domestic water supply:- Provides water for swimming bathing, cattle
drinking etc.
 Facilities of communication: Irrigation channels are generally
provided with embankments and inspection roads
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 Cont…
1.3.2. Ill-effects 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
 Water pollution: Irrigation may contribute in various ways to the problem
of water pollution
 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
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 1.4. Types of irrigation
 Irrigation methods are classified as:-
A. Surface irrigation
 Furrow Irrigation
 Border Irrigation
 Basin Irrigation
B. Pressurized Irrigation
 Sprinkler Irrigation
 Drip or Trickle Irrigation
C. Sub-Surface irrigation
 Natural
 Artificial

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1.4.Irrigation development in Ethiopia
 Ethiopia is the water tower of North Eastern Africa
 The country is endowed with water resources that could easily be
tapped and used for irrigation
 Ironically this country is already suffering by food shortage and
chronic drought! WHY?
 In Ethiopia, rain-fed agriculture contributes the largest share of the
total production
 Irrigation development holds significant potential to improve
productivity
 Ethiopia is endowed with immense water and irrigable land
 12 river basins (SRP=124BCM andGW = 2.6-2.65BCM)
 Total cultivable land of between 30 to 70Mha
 No agreement with regard to the irrigation potential (5.8- 7.5Mha)

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Opportunities and challenges of irrigation in Ethiopia
A. Opportunities of irrigation in Ethiopia
The basic opportunistic considerations regarding irrigation developments
are:
 Emphasis and priorities are given to irrigation in the growth and
transformation plan of the country
 Indigenous knowledge and introduction of promising household water
harvesting
 Micro-irrigation technologies
 Government‘s strong political commitment and encouragement to private
sector and public enterprises involvement in irrigation development
 Abundant water resources(surface and GW resources)
 Climate and Land suitability
 Availability of inexpensive labor
 Availability of suitable lands for Irrigation developments especially at
arid areas of the country (Andualem, 2022)
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 Cont…
B. Challenges of irrigation in Ethiopia
 The country Ethiopia is gifted with an ample amount of water resources,
but little has been developed for irrigation
 Ethiopia irrigation development to significantly contribute to the overall
socio-economic development lies mainly in the absence of:-
 A well-defined coherent policy
 Lack of the required huge investment
 Weak awareness creation to farmers, and
 Ineffective of the irrigation extension system
 The other Major challenges are listed below
 Poor Scheme Management
 Socio-institutional Problem
 Market Problem
 Insufficient Technical Skill
 Financial Shortage
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 1.5.Functions of Irrigation water
 The function of soil moisture in plant growth are diversified
 It adds water to the soil to supply the moisture essential for plant growth
 It acts as a solvent for the nutrients. Water forms the solution of the
nutrients and this solution is absorbed by the roots. Thus water acts as a
nutrient carrier
 The irrigation water supplies moisture which is essential for the life of
bacteria beneficial to the plant growth
 Irrigation water supplies the moisture which is essential for the chemical
action within the 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-by Leaching processes
 It reduces the hazard of soil piping
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 1.6. Standards of irrigation water
 Every water is not suitable for irrigation
 The quality of irrigation water is very much influenced by the contents of
the soil, which is to be irrigated
 Particular water may be harmful for irrigation on a particular soil but the
same water may be tolerable or even useful on some other soil
 Irrigation water may be said to be unsatisfactory for its intended use
if it contains:
 Chemicals toxic to plants or the persons using plant as food
 chemicals that react with the soil to produce unsatisfactory moisture
characteristics
 Bacteria injurious to persons or animals eating plants irrigated with
water.
 There are two main causes of salinity:
 Salinity caused by the supply of irrigation water and
 Salinity caused by the upward movement of water and salts, related to
high water tables and lack of drainage
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 1.7. Feasibility studies of irrigation projects

Types of Irrigation projects

 Any plan small or large, which ultimately aims at satisfying the
paramount need of adequate water provision for crop production, is an
irrigation project.
 Based on the scope of the irrigation project, irrigation projects can be
classified as
 Large scale >3000 ha
 Medium scale 200-3000 ha
 Small scale <200 ha
Stages of investigations in the development of irrigation projects
 Basically, the development of water resources for irrigation requires the
conception, planning, design, construction, and operation of various
facilities to utilize and control water and to maintain water quality.
 Investigations of the development of irrigation projects need multi-
disciplinary approach.
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 Cont…
The common procedures adopted in the development of an irrigation
project are:
 Sites are located on the top sheet
 The marked sites are inspected (reconnaissance) to decide their feasibility.
 The feasibility investigations are carried out for one or more of the possible
alternatives and estimates based approximate details are prepared.
 Detailed investigations are then taken up and technical sanctions are granted.
 After the technical sanction, agency of execution (i.e., contractor) is fixed
and construction started.
Approaches of data collections:
The following questions should be answered
 What or which data are required?
 How they can be collected?
 Why are they needed?
 Is the cost of their collection meaningful?

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 Cont…
 Data to be collected at the feasibility study stage are:-
 Physical data ---- Location, size, physiography
 Hydrological data---Precipitation, Evaporation, transpiration ,etc.
 Agricultural data---Land classification, CWR, types of crops
 Geological data---Rock and Soil types, GW, minerals, erosion
 Cartographic data---Topographic and other maps of the area
 Ecological data---Types of vegetation, fish and wildlife
 Demographic data---Population statistics, data of people
 Economic data---Transportation, market, land taxes
 Legal data---Water rights, land ownership administrative pattern
 Data in existing project---Types of Locations of various projects
 Data on public opinion---Opinions of d/t sections of the society
 Flood control data---Records of a past flood, the extent of damage
caused, drainage Requirements, etc.
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 END OF CHAPTER ONE

THANK YOU!!!
THANK YOU FOR ALL
END OF CHAPTER ONE!

THANK YOU FOR ALL

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