Water-Saving from Rehabilitation of Irrigation Canals Case Study: El-Sont Canal, Assiut Governorate

Ashour, Mohammed; Sayed, Tarek; Atef, Abdalla

doi:10.21608/aujes.2021.89249.1034

Water-Saving from Rehabilitation of Irrigation Canals Case Study: El-Sont Canal, Assiut Governorate

Document Type : Original Research

Authors

¹ Prof. of Irrigation Engineering and Water Structures Civil Eng. Dept., Assiut University,

² Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Assiut University

³ Assis. Lecturer of Irrigation Engineering and Water Structures Civil Eng. Dept., Assiut University

10.21608/aujes.2021.89249.1034

Abstract

In light of the national project for rehabilitation and the lining of the exposed irrigation canals which is currently under implementation all over Egypt, a field study is introduced to assess the technical, and environmental expected impacts that must be achieved in such a national project. In arid and semi-arid regions, with permeable soils like Egypt, water seeps significantly through the exposed canals cross-sections, in addition to the quantities lost by evaporation under high temperatures. Saving such tangible quantities of water became the most important goal that can be achieved to solve the problematic situation of irrigation water shortage that faces Egypt nowadays. This study is a field attempt to estimate the transmission losses in the El-Sont canal in Middle Egypt (Assuit Governorate) as a representative open channel for a specific type of soil, climate, topography, and beneficiary’s lifestyle. Using the recommended equations developed by the most popular reviewed researchers, the conveyance and transmission losses for the understudy El-Sont canal, and its off-taking canals were calculated and evaluated to be about 248628 m3/day, i.e., more than 39.54 Mm3/year. That big quantity of saved or recovered water can be used for reclamation and irrigation of about five thousand new acres in the nearby area. The study and the field trips, visits, and the personal direct communication with the farmers and beneficiaries proved that the project had responded to their hopes for an improved living standard, health, in addition to the environmental situation for all the Egyptian countryside.

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