Abstract
Irrigation is an agricultural practice adopted in Rwanda to fight against poverty by increasing agricultural production as a big sector which occupies a central place in the economy of the country. Once irrigation project is made without taking into account the environmental impacts that may occur, it may fail before the design period or may persist with the excessive generated negative impacts exceeding the targeted objectives. The aim of this study was to investigate environmental impacts of an already implemented irrigation project in Kanyonyomba swamp located in Gatsibo District of Eastern Province of Rwanda in order to quantify the benefits and to increase agricultural production by mitigating negative impacts generated by this project. The Kanyonyomba earth dam has been constructed on Kanyonyomba River in Gatsibo District with a length, a spillway crest width and a reservoir height of 210 m, 4 m and 8.5 m respectively. The site observations on land, the interviews analysis and water and soil laboratory tests were conducted to assess various environmental impacts. The analysis of the results reveals the presence of positive impacts including increased agricultural space and agricultural production through the introduction of rice cultivation in this medium. However, this project has led to multiple adverse effects in the hosting environment impacts that need to be mitigated including the increased incidence of diseases in the surrounding population and accidents resulting from an increased exposure of people to the dam reservoir. Moderation of soil acidity, the use of the dam reservoir as a water supply source, the provision of boots and gloves to protect farmers from being contaminated by water living microorganisms and the development of impacts monitoring plan are among the proposed measures in order to mitigate these environmental impacts.
Highlights
Nowadays, developing countries are facing with various constraints such as demographic explosion, pressure on arable land and natural calamities due to changes in climatic conditions
After comparing our results with the salinity risk standards shown in the Table 8 below, we found that the soil was at low risk because of low salinity with an average salinity of 104.4 microseconds/cm compared to the medium risk limits of soil salinity whose positive ions exchange capacity ranges between 250 μs/cm and 750 μs/cm [11]
In order to understand the environmental impact of an irrigation system, analyses of water and soil were carried out in the laboratory; many surveys and observations were carried out at the field
Summary
Nowadays, developing countries are facing with various constraints such as demographic explosion, pressure on arable land and natural calamities due to changes in climatic conditions. Some efforts including birth control, protection of the environment as well as agricultural development plans are among the main political slogans envisaged in each country in order to resolve these issues. These countries are characterized by a predominantly agricultural economy where more efforts are oriented and focused on increasing and improving agricultural productivity. Irrigation may lead to poverty reduction via increased yields, increased cropping areas and higher value either by raising employment; cutting prices in an imperfectly open economy or if there are high transport costs. As irrigation can generate a stable flow of income through increased intensity of cropping, improved yields and more stable yields across seasons and years, it may augment employment opportunities [3]
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