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Quantitative analysis of reusing agricultural water to compensate for water supply deficiencies in the Nile Delta irrigation network

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Abstract

The main problem facing farmers in the Nile Delta is water shortages at the ends of irrigation networks and canals. These problems have worsened as water demands have increased. Egypt’s Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation is currently trying to avoid water deficits by returning agricultural drainage water to the irrigation canals. In the Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate, some canals have an oversupply in some months and deficits in others. Ministry officials started a project by constructing culverts connected canal ends with the main drain (Bhr Nashrat) to provide supplemental agricultural drainage backflows (SADB) channeled through these culverts. However, this return is not controlled, and flows are based only on differences in the hydraulic head. In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of SADB to counteract water shortages when the water supply from head regulators (WSHR) is insufficient. Our analysis considered the adequacy of the water supply and indicators of dependability and equity of supply. We tested two water supply conditions: (1) WSHR only and (2) WSHR plus SADB. During the summer (May–September) of 2008, SADB significantly improved the system’s ability to meet the irrigation water requirements (IWR) in some months. Adequacy and dependability, therefore, improved from “fair” to “good.” During the following winter (October–April), SADB improved adequacy and equity only in March and April, since water availability was generally sufficient under WSHR.

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Abbreviations

a i :

Area of sub-region i

A :

Area of flow

A I :

Total irrigated area

CV AI :

Coefficient of spatial variation of the ratio Q Di,t /Q Ri,t

CV T :

Coefficient of temporal variation of the ratio Q Di,t /Q Ri,t

CWR:

Crop water requirement

Ea:

Application efficiency

ET0 :

Reference evapotranspiration

I :

Sub-region

IWR:

Irrigation water requirement

K :

Number of sub-regions of the system

Kc:

Crop coefficient

n :

Manning’s roughness coefficient

P A :

Adequacy indicator

P D :

Modified dependability indicator

P E :

Modified equity indicator

Q Di,t :

Amount of water delivered

Q Ri,t :

Amount of water required

R :

Hydraulic radius

R eff :

Effective rainfall

SADB:

Supplemental agricultural drainage backflow

t :

A certain time

T :

Time period

WSHR:

Water supply from head regulators

WSHR plus SADB:

Water supply from head regulators plus backflow

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Post Global COE Project (Dry-land Science) funded by the Tottori University for funding this research. This study was partly carried out under the Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development (SATREPS) project, ‘Sustainable Systems for Food and Bioenergy Production with Water-Saving Irrigation in the Egyptian Nile basin. This work was also funded by the Japanese Government (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology), scholarship program (2011–2014) for the first author. The authors thank the WMRI of the NWRC in Egypt for providing data required.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The United Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences, Tottori University, Tottori, 680-8553, Japan

    A. Khater

  2. Arid Land Research Center, Tottori University, 1390, Hamasaka, Tottori, 680-0001, Japan

    Y. Kitamura & H. Fujimaki

  3. Faculty of Agriculture, Tottori University, Tottori, 680-8553, Japan

    K. Shimizu

  4. National Water Research Center, WMRI, Delta Barrage NWRC Building, Cairo, 13621/5, Egypt

    W. Abou El Hassan

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  1. A. Khater
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  2. Y. Kitamura
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  3. K. Shimizu
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  4. W. Abou El Hassan
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  5. H. Fujimaki
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Correspondence to Y. Kitamura.

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Khater, A., Kitamura, Y., Shimizu, K. et al. Quantitative analysis of reusing agricultural water to compensate for water supply deficiencies in the Nile Delta irrigation network. Paddy Water Environ 13, 367–378 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10333-014-0454-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10333-014-0454-y

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