Drainage Engineering

Lesson 2
Drainage, objectives of drainage, familiarization
with the drainage problems of the state

CONTENT
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 Drainage Engineering

Course Name Drainage Engineering

Drainage, objectives of drainage, familiarization with the

Lesson 2
drainage problems of the state

Content Creator Name Pravin M Ingle

University/College Name Dr. Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth,Dapoli

Course Reviewer Name Rohitashw Kumar

University/College Name Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and

Technology of Kashmir, Srinagar

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Objective

i) to get well aquatints with basic of drainage, objectives of drainage and state
problem.

2.1 What is Drainage?

Irrigation and drainage constitutes a subset of water resources system and are
crucial for human survival Land drainage, or the combination of irrigation and
land drainage, is one of the most important input factors to maintain or improve
agricultural productivity.

To enlarge the present cultivated area, more land must be reclaimed than the
land that is lost due to urban/industrial development, roads and land
degradation. However, in some areas, land is a limiting resource, whereas in
other areas, agriculture cannot expand at the cost of nature.

Drainage is a reverse process of irrigation. It is broadly defined as the removal

(disposal) of excess water from a land (usually agricultural land). The terms
‘drainage’, ‘land drainage’, ‘agricultural drainage’ and ‘field drainage’ are used
as synonyms in practice.

Since drainage (land drainage) is necessary not only for the removal of excess
surface water or groundwater but also for removing salts from the soil, a precise
definition of drainage has been given by the constitution of the International
Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID, 1979). According to ICID (1979),
land drainage is defined as follows:

“Land drainage is the removal of excess surface and subsurface water from the
land to enhance crop growth, including the removal of soluble salts from the
soil”.

The above definition of land drainage (or drainage) is well known and is used
worldwide.

2.2 Objectives of Drainage

Plant roots require a favorable environment to extract water and nutrient

solutions to meet the plant’s requirement. For most crops, soil moisture ranging
from field capacity to 50% of the field capacity in the root zone is considered
ideal. Only a few crops such as rice and jute need standing water on the field at
certain stages of their growth. Chemically, a neutral and non-saline soil is ideal

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for proper growth and yield of most food crops. Excess water and/or high salt
concentration in the root zone or at the land surface do not allow the plant roots
to function normally. As a result, the plant growth and yield are adversely
affected. In the extreme cases of water logging and salinity, the seeds may not
germinate and the plants may wilt permanently. The result is a loss of
agricultural production. Land drainage, as a tool to manage excess surface water
and groundwater levels, plays an important role in maintaining and improving
crop yields:

 Drainage prevents a decrease in the productivity of arable land due to

rising water tables and the accumulation of salts in the root zone.

 Drainage is the only way to reclaim the land which is not cultivated due
to waterlogging and salinity problems.

Agricultural land drainage in essence is both a preventive and a curative

measure for the prevention of physical and chemical degradation of soils and for
the reclamation of already degraded lands. Thus, drainage of agricultural lands
is an effective technique to maintain a sustainable agricultural system as well as
to avoid environmental damage.

3.3 Drainage Problems in India

Waterlogging and salt accumulation are major constraints to sustainable

agricultural production in most countries of the world, especially in developing
countries (including India). In India, drainage problem is acute in the states of
Punjab and Haryana, while it also prevails in the command areas of other states.
Broadly speaking, waterlogging is a situation of an agricultural land when the
root zone gets saturated. Such a condition restricts normal air circulation,
reduces the oxygen level and increases carbon dioxide level in the root zone. On
the other hand, salt affected soils are those in which the concentration of salts
in the root zone adversely affects the normal root activity. Both the waterlogging
and salt affected soils produce detrimental effects on crop growth and yield as
well as cause environmental degradation.

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Waterlogging and salinity of agricultural lands are caused due to natural causes
or artificial causes (i.e., human interventions). Important natural causes are high
rainfall during the rainy season, unfavorable topography, backwater entry from
rivers, seawater intrusion, high evaporation during long dry periods, and the
salts present in the soil. On the contrary, important human factors are
unscientific management of land and irrigation water, use of poor-quality water
for irrigation, adoption of unscientific and non-sustainable cropping pattern,
and obstruction of natural outlets because of urbanization and construction of
highways and railways.

3.4 familiarization with the drainage problems of the state

Table 1.1 presents approximate information on the waterlogged and salt
affected areas in some of the states of India. In this table, waterlogged areas
include within and outside the irrigated regions as well as coastal saline lands.

Table 1.1. Geographical, waterlogged and salt affected areas of some states
in India (Bhattacharya and Michael, 2003)

Sl. Geographical Waterlogged Salt Affected

State
No. Area (Mha) Area (Mha) Area (Mha)

1 Andhra Pradesh 27.44 0.339 0.813

2 Bihar 17.40 0.363 0.400

3 Gujarat 19.60 0.484 0.455

4 Haryana 4.22 0.275 0.455

5 Karnataka 19.20 0.036 0.404

6 Kerala 3.89 0.012 0.026

Madhya
7 44.20 0.057 0.242
Pradesh

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8 Maharastra 30.75 0.111 0.535

9 Orissa 15.54 0.196 0.400

10 Punjab 5.04 0.199 0.520

11 Rajasthan 28.79 0.348 1.122

12 Tamil Nadu 12.96 0.128 0.340

Uttar Pradesh &

13 29.40 1.980 1.295
Uttaranchal

1.3.3 Drainage Problems in Rainfed Areas

The progress of the net sown area and its break-up into unirrigated and irrigated
areas in India is shown in Fig. 1.5 (FAI, 1998). Although the unirrigated area has
decreased with increasing irrigation development, about 80 M ha of the cropped
land is still unirrigated (rainfed). As the pace of irrigation development has
slowed down in recent years, much of the cultivated area may remain
unirrigated in the future. Thus, it is irrigation rather than drainage which should
be of concern for rained areas. However, due to the diversity of climate and soil,
even rainfed areas experience excess water during monsoon season and excess
salts during dry season (non-monsoon season). For example, land inundation
during the monsoon season and high soil salinity during the dry season prevent
cultivation in the coastal areas of Medinipur District, West Bengal. Vast flat lands
in southwestern Haryana and south-western Punjab, despite a low annual
rainfall, get waterlogged due to sudden rains and lack of drainage to clear out
the runoff fast. Lands in the plains of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) are
uncultivable during monsoon due to excess water. Thus, drainage is relevant
even in the unirrigated areas to ensure crop production.

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Fig. 1.5. Progressive development of net sown, irrigated and rainfed areas in
India during 1950-2000 (the last values are extrapolated).(Source: FAI, 1998)

1.3.4 Technical Limitations and Current Status of Land Drainage

Making major changes in the physical, morphological, and chemical properties

of the land and water resources are infeasible. Equally infeasible is to change
the climate of a region. However, the occurrence of waterlogging and salinity
problems can be substantially reduced when proper attention is given to the
factors listed above. The man-made causes, which are mainly concerned with
the development and use of land and water resources, are theoretically easier
to prevent and even to rectify. The rectification is, however, expensive, and the
prevention has proved to be elusive up to now. Therefore, we are seriously
concerned about the adverse impacts of waterlogging and salinity on
agricultural production. Also, agriculture sector needs a serious attention

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because of the fact that while land and the water resources are limited in
quantity and degradable, human population is gradually increasing in most Asian
and African countries. This necessitates more agricultural productivity per unit
of land and water, which will be possible only if further deterioration of land and
water resources is avoided or minimized, degraded lands are reclaimed and
these two vital resources are utilized judiciously.

Among the various activities in the agricultural production system, drainage is

perhaps the most neglected in India as well as in many other developing
countries. The misuse of irrigation water is slowly but inevitably leads to
drainage problems. Of great relevance in the context is the history of land and
groundwater degradation due to their unscientific use in different parts of the
world. In 1876, the Reh Commission had cautioned against undermining the
importance of agricultural drainage in the irrigated areas of India. According to
(Bower and Hufschmidt, 1984), irrigation and drainage, as practiced in the
developing countries, is functionally inefficient, technology primitive,
economically unremunerated and environmentally degrading. Also, in the past,
there have been an unspecified number of recommendations of a large number
of seminars and symposia, highlighting the necessity of land drainage in
enhancing and sustaining agricultural production. Most recently, there are the
crisp observations of the Standing Committee of Agriculture (Lok Sabha
Secretariat, 1996) of the 11th Lok Sabha of India, on the undesirable neglect of
the agricultural drainage in the irrigated areas of India. Thus, modernization of
irrigation and drainage is urgently needed in India as well as in many other
developing countries across the world.

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References

Bhattacharya, A.K. and Michael, A.M. (2003). Land Drainage: Principles,

Methods and Applications. Konark Publishers Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, India.

Bower, B.T. and Husfschmidt, M.M. (1984). A conceptual framework fro analysis
of water resources management in Asia. Natural Resources Forum, 8(1): 343-
356.

FAI (1998). Fertilizer Statistics. The Fertilizer Association of India (FAI), New
Delhi, India.

FAO (1973). Drainage of Salty Soils. FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper 16, Food
and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome.

ICID (1979). Amendments to the Constitution, Agenda of the International

Council Meeting at Rabat. International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage
(ICID), Morocco, ICID, New Delhi, India, pp. A-156-163.

Lok Sabha Secretariat (1996). Fourth Report of the Standing Committee on

Agriculture of the 11th Lok Sabha. New Delhi, India.

Michael, A.M. and Ojha, T.P. (2006). Principles of Agricultural Engineering.

Volume II, M/s Jain Brothers, New Delhi, India.

MOWR. (1991). Report of the Working Group on Problem Identification in

Irrigated Areas with Suggested Remedial Measures. Ministry of Water Resources
(MOWR), Government of India, New Delhi.

Schwab, G.O., Fangmeier, D.D., Elliot, W.J. and Frevert, R.K. (2005). Soil and
Water Conservation Engineering. Fourth Edition, John Wiley and Sons (Asia) Pte.
Ltd., Singap

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