EVALUATING THE IMPROVED IRRIGATION NETWORKS IN EGYPT

Abstract

This study summarizes the results of evaluating the improved canals in Egypt. These results constituted a part of an evaluation programme that was conducted by Water Management Research Institute (WMRI) to evaluate the first phase of the Irrigation Improvement Project (IIP1). This part of the evaluation programme was built on measuring specific hydraulic indicators, such as Relative Water Supply (RWS) and Water Use Index (WUI) in improved and unimproved canals to assess achieving the targets of the improvement project. The programme concluded that most of the targets were not achieved yet illustrating that the main reason was the inappropriate operation of the system. The study illustrated that the chance to achieve the improvement targets should be mainly through the effective operation of the system. The introduced operation system was the continuous flow system, with which water supply will be provided to different branch canals continuously and on volumetric basis and an internal rotation will be applied between lifting points. The monitoring results showed that the actual applied system is a hybrid system between rotational system and continuous flow system. Under this hybrid system, the branch canals are open almost continuously, but water is distributed based on maintaining specific water levels downstream the head regulators without calculating the water volume or implementing an internal rotation between the lifting points. This system encourages farmers and especially head farmers in rice regions to use more water. The main recommendation of the study was to conduct intensive investigations to adapt the continuous flow to another suitable system that fit with the current circumstance of the irrigation networks and the current capacities of the irrigation directorates and Water Users Associations (WUAs). This introduced system might be an adapted version of the rotational system. The other recommendations include forming the improvement targets in a shape of certain responsibilities to encourage irrigation directorates achieving these targets and having certain strategies to face the environmental problems.