WATERLOGGING

Rajat Mishra
Asst. Professor
Civil Engineering Department
Abstract
 The basic reason for agricultural lands being affected by
water logging and salinity is inadequacy of natural
drainage system to handle the water reaching the land
either by natural or artificial means.
 When such a situation occurs artificial drainage system
has to be resorted to.
 The earliest drainage method consisted of drainage by
open trenches.
 Then came successively drains from stones, turf drains,
plug drains, brushwood drains and early brick drains
which were used for quite some time.
 After brick drains U tiles or horse shoes drains were
used.
 In the last came cylindrical clay tiles which also have been
replaced finally by PVC perforated pipes.
 It is important to understand the causes and the necessity of the
problem of drainage before discussing the methods of their
reclamation.
 Generally the different issues of drainage are visualised as
separate issues occurring independently, and therefore
requiring independent consideration.
 In fact water logging is the main cause which results in the
problems of drainage and salinity affecting agricultural
productivity.
 The objective of this paper is discussing the nature of water
logging its extent in the command areas and the country and
types of drainage, horizontal, vertical and Bio drainage etc and
the policy issues for proper management of water logged lands.
INTRODUCTION
The basic reason for agricultural lands being affected by water
logging and salinity is inadequacy of natural drainage system to
handle the water reaching the land either  by  natural or
artificial means.
In the earlier stages drainage was used for removal of river
overflows after the flood season.
Later on, during construction of highways drainage works
were used to clear ponding of rain and flood waters.
In Greek civilization some areas were reclaimed by a system of
ditches.
The drainage of humid and semi humid areas started in tenth
century and extended to different parts of Europe in sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries.
 The reclamation then meant only drainage of large swamps
around the lakes or low lying areas near the sea.
 In Netherlands the reclamation of land from sea was done by
polders.
 In some countries drainage was applied in humid lands for
production of upland crops, whereas in others drainage was
applied for lowering of water tables as well as reclamation of
salt affected lands for growing agricultural crops.
 The earliest drainage method consisted of drainage by open
trenches.
 Then came successively drains from stones, turf drains, plug
drains, brush wood drains and early brick drains which were
used for quite some time.
 After brick drains U tiles or horse shoes drains were used.
 In the last came cylindrical clay tiles which also have been
replaced finally by PVC perforated pipes.
 It is important to understand the causes and the necessity of
the problem of drainage before discussing the methods of
their reclamation.
 Generally the issues of water logging drainage and salinity
are visualised as separate issues occurring independently, and
therefore requiring independent consideration.
 However the three problems are intimately connected. In fact
water logging is the main cause which results in the problems
of drainage and salinity affecting agricultural productivity.
 There are various alternative approaches to drainage suiting
different crop and soil hydrological conditions.
 The objective of this paper is discussing the nature of water
logging its extent in the command areas and the country and
various alternative approaches to drainage ,horizontal
vertical as well as Bio- drainage including the policy issues
for proper management of water logged lands.
 WATERLOGGING
Water logging by its name gives the idea of water standing on the
agricultural field.
There has been no uniform norms or definition of the term water
logging and each state monitors according to its own norms.
Considering this Central Board of Irrigation and Power has given
the definition of Water logging as below
An area is said to be waterlogged when the water table rises to an
extent that soil pores in the root zone of a crop become saturated
resulting in restriction of normal circulation of air, decline in level of
oxygen and increase in the level of carbon‑di‑oxide.
The water table which is considered harmful will depend on the
type of crop, type of soil and the quantity of water.
The actual depth of water table when it starts affecting the yield
of the crops adversely may vary over a wide range from zero for
rice to about 1.5 m for other crops.
Norms of Water logging as Suggested by CBIP
Norms of water logging As suggested by
CBIP
Nomenclature Depth of water
table b.g.l.
1 Water logged < 2m
2 Potential area for water 2-3 m
logging
3 Safe >3m
Table 2 Waterlogged and User Areas in Different States
Sl. State (s) Waterlogged Usar area
No. area (lakh ha) (lakh ha)
1 Uttar Pradesh 8.10 12.95
2 Andhra Pradesh 3.39 2.40
3 Bihar 1.17 0.04
16
4 Gujarat 4.84 12.14
5 Haryana 6.20 5.26
6 Jammu & Kashmir 0.10 -
7 Karnataka 0.10 4.04
8 Kerala 0.61 0.61
9 Madhya Pradesh 0.57 2.42
10 Maharashtra 1.10 5.34
11 Orrisa 0.60 4.04
12 Punjab 10.90 6.88
13 Rajasthan 3.48 7.28
14 TamilNadu 0.18 0.04
15 West Bengal 18.10 8.50
16 Delhi 0.10 0.16
 Table 3. Waterlogged and Usar Areas in Different Irrigation
Commands (Areas in 100 hectares)
SI. Canal Command Water logging Extent of
No. Project(s) salinity
1 Gandak 211.01 (21.11) 400.00 (40.03)
Soil salinity
2 Sharda Sahayak 303.00* (28.34) 50.00 (4.68)
3 Chambal 195.00 (32.99) 352.42 (59.62)
4 Chambal 98.70 (20.31) 40.00 (8.23)
5 Chhatawa -- (--) 6.64 (3.79)
6 Rajasthan canal 43.10 (7.98) 29.11 (5.39)
7 Ukay-Kakrapar 16.25 (4.32) 8.29 (2.20)_
8 Mahi Kadana 82.00* (16.81) 35.76 (7.33)
9 Mal Prabha 1.05* (0.99) -- (--)
10 Tangbhaadra 4.65 (1.27) 24.48 (6.69)
11 Shriram Sagar 60.00 (47.62) 1.00 (0.79)
 APPLICATION OF DRAINAGE
 Drainage is the only appropriate approach to improve water
logging of agricultural lands.
 Different Connotation of Drainage
 Geographers call it pattern of watercourses in hilly areas.
 Pedologists term it as poorly drained soils according to
permeability.
 In Peru Engineers mean reconstruction of natural
waterways.
 In Canada they used to mean reclamation of marshes.
 In Holland they mean installation of tile or pipes.
 In the USA, they used to mean drainage of marshes and salt
affected irrigated lands.
Table 4: Countries with Largest Drained Area (ICID, 2002)
Country Population %Population in Total Arable Drained
in 106 Agriculture area land in106 Area 106ha
in106
USA 276 2 936 179 47
China 1267 68 960 135 20
Canada 31 3 997 46 9
Russia 147 11 1,707 127 7
Pakistan 152 51 80 22 6
India 998 55 329 170 6
Mexico 97 24 196 27 5
Germany 82 3 36 12 5
Great 59 2 24 6 5
Britain
Poland 39 20 32 14 4
Total 3,148 5,297 738 114
World 5978 13,387 1512 190
 India
 Water logging and salinity was observed in Karnal in 1855.
 Systematic efforts on Drainage were made and successfully
demonstrated in Gohana and Sampla at Central Soil Salinity
Institute Karnal around 1983- 1984.
 Later under ICAR projects several regional centers for research on
drainage were established in different states.
 CSSRI pilot projects under Indo-Dutch schemes on subsurface
drainage were established in different soil hydrological regions in
different states, which were quite successful and were picked up
well in few states.
 No systematic data of total subsurface drainage in the country is
available.
 However under RAJAD (Rajasthan Drainage Project) systematic
subsurface drains were laid in about 13000 hectares by fully
mechanized equipments.
 In Haryana state also about 3000 hectares of subsurface drains have
been laid by mechanized equipments.
 Some World Water Forum Views
 According to Schultz etal (2004) irrigation covers 270 million
ha or 18% of world’s arable land.
 Irrigation is responsible for 40% of crop output and employs
about 30% of rural population.
 It uses about 70% of water from global rivers. About 60% of
such waters are used consumptively.
 Drainage of rain fed crops covers about 130million ha i.e.
about 9% of world’s arable lands.
 In about 60 million ha of irrigated lands there is a drainage
system existing.
 From about 130 million ha rain fed lands about 15 % of the
crop output is obtained.
 In the second world water forum held in March 2000 at
Hague the paper resented on long term vision preparation on
water, life environment in the 21st century with its vision on
water for food and rural development indicated a required
duplication of food production in coming 25 years.
 It was also analyzed and calculated that the largest
agricultural area was without any water management system.
 About 90% of the increase in production had to come from
the existing cultivated lands and only 19% from new land
reclamation.
 In the rain fed areas without water management water
harvesting and watershed management may improve
livelihood of poor farm families but much increase in
production is not expected.
 Installation of irrigation and drainage systems in areas
without a system or improvement/modernization of existing
irrigation and drainage system.
 There has to be a shift of contribution to total food
production 30% for the areas without a water management
system, 50% for the areas having a irrigation system and
20% in rain fed areas with a drainage system.
TYPES OF DRAINAGE
(i) SURFACE DRAINAGE
Surface drainage is the removal of excess water from the land
surface to create more favourable conditions for plant growth.
The water may be from excess precipitation; water applied in
irrigation; losses from conveyance channels and storage systems
and/or water that has seeped from ground water in upper
reaches.
It is the drainage of excess water from the land surface at a rate
which will prevent long periods of ponding without excessive
erosion so that agricultural crops would have a favourable
moisture condition.
These can be broadly described as
1.On‑farm field drainage system
2.Intermediate drains (collector or carrier drains)
3.Main drains ( or sub main drains)
4.Seepage drains
(ii) SUBSURFACE DRAINAGE
Subsurface drainage may be defined as the removal or control of
ground water and removal or control of salts using water as
vehicle.
The source of water may be percolation from precipitation or
irrigation leakage from canals, drains or surface water bodies at
higher elevation.
Any drain or well designed to control or lower the ground water is
considered subsurface drainage.
They may be broadly classified in two categories as :
 (a) Horizontal Drains, and (b) Vertical Drains
(a) Horizontal drains
It is accomplished by buried pipes or pipe less (mole) drains and
also by deep open ditches.
Pipe drains : They consist of a system of pipes made of baked clay
concrete or perforated plastic pipe or any other materials. The
excess water enters in lateral lines through the joints between two
tiles or perforations and flows towards main drains.
Mole drains :
These are cylindrical channels artificially produced in the
subsoil by a mole plough.
In principle and hydraulics they are similar to pipe drain
except that they are not lined with tiles or plastic pipes.
Moling is considered as a temporary method of drainage as
moles deteriorate and have to be reconstructed for
effectiveness.

Deep open ditches :

If closely spaced, they also work similar to pipe drains or
mole drains for lowering water table and removing excess
water.
However, they are difficult to maintain and provide lot of
inconvenience for crossing of men, animals and farm
equipments.
 Objectives of Horizontal Drainage
The main objectives of horizontal drains are
(i) In humid region to accomplish aeration in plant root zone to
grow upland crops like maize, soybean etc and to provide
improvement in soil moisture conditions for operation of tillage,
planting and harvesting and thus to increase length of growing
season for the next Rabi crop
(ii) In irrigated ‑less rainfall arid regions, to remove toxic
substances like salts rising in the root zone from saline/alkali
water tables by evaporation.
In humid regions generally the water quality is good and
drainage is to be provided only for good aeration in root zone.
The depths of tile drains are generally kept 2.5 ft. to 3.0 ft. In
arid regions with saline soils the root zone of the crops has to be
kept free of salts from a saline water table.
In such drainage systems, the depth of tile drains are kept 6.0
ft. to 8.0 ft.
 In humid regions, the spacings are kept 30 ft. to 150 ft. apart
and upto 300 ft. apart for very permeable soils.
 When permeability is very low one may get spacings 30 to 40
ft.
 Unless the crop is of very high value drainage becomes
uneconomical with such spacings.
 In arid regions where depths are more, spacings may range
from 300 ft. to 600 ft.
(b) Vertical drainage
 Essentially this consists of a system of shallow tube wells
spread in the area through intensification of minor irrigation
works.
 Through direct extraction of ground water it lowers the water
table.
 The drained water may be used to augment irrigation water
supply in the area.
 Use of tube wells along with canal water could also be termed
as conjunctive use.
HORIZONTAL DRAINAGE , Some Clarifications
Can shallow Surface Drains lower water table and leach a Salt
affected Profile?
Surface drainage removes surface ponding and reduces the
recharge on high water tables and is thus a good supplemental
practice, but it cannot be used to lower water tables and remove
salts from salt profile.
For seepage to take place according to Darcy’s Law there should
be some hydraulic gradient between the two points considered.
For lowering of water table and removal of salts the amendments
must permeate the soil mass .
This is possible only through line sinks created in the form of
sub surface drains.
With shallow drains only sheet flow over surface can take place
providing surface washing of salts from the surface without any
effective leaching of the profile.
Reclamation by Leaching with Gypsum shallow water table areas
and reversal of alkalinity
Leaching has been found to be quite effective in areas with deep
water tables. However carrying out reclamation at a heavy cost in
areas with shallow water tables the areas have been found to return
to original state of alkalinity.
Deep open Drains Functions
Deep open drains say up 80 cm or more depth are theoretically
subsurface drains and equivalent in performance in tile drains.
 Being open at the surface they can perform surface drainage also,
besides subsurface drainage, but they are difficult to maintain as
well as to be crossed by men, animal and machinery.
Earlier subsurface drainage works in other countries were carried
out by such open drains but substituted later by covered drains.
It took about a century to start from subsurface drainage through
open drains stone drains to arrive at the system of closed perforated
PVC pipes.
To reduce or stop seepage is it necessary to line all the earthen
canals?
With constraints on funds, it may be infeasible to line all the
length of main canals and distributaries. Highly permeable and
low permeable zones should be identified and as a first priority,
only reaches with high permeability may be lined, which may
be gradually extended.
Effectiveness of Limited Combination of Surface and Vertical
Drainage
Sometimes a combination of vertical drainage (small tube wells
and surface drainage (done by farmers) is planned providing
all amendments and fertilizer inputs. A monitoring of water
quality in recirculating the moderately sodic ground waters,
the continued addition of chemical inputs and its long term
projection is desirable, besides the immediate benefit accrued
with such projects.
Role of Blocking of natural Drainage by Highways Railways and
Canals: There are large areas (about 15‑20 percent) in the country
waterlogged because of blocking of natural drainage to overland
flow due to manmade structures like railways, highways and
irrigation canals. These structures provide very insufficient size
culverts/siphons for drainage crossing to economise their own
projects. Such locations should be identified, indexed after
surveying to find the nature and extent of water logging. Depending
on funds available, the culvert size and drainage ways should be
appropriately enlarged in phases.
Role of Toe/Interceptor Drains: Interceptor drains are a good device
to reduce bank seepage from the canals specially in the canal fill
zone. It needs however to be appreciated that Interceptor drains can
only partly reduce seepage from the canal banks. They cannot
reduce seepage from the bed of the canals. The toe‑drains of canals
should be properly constructed and maintained for effective
drainage of seepage water. Closed drains though costly can be
maintained better than open drains.
Borrow pits along Roads Canals and Railways
Borrow pits along the road‑side railways and canals should be
interconnected till they are outletted in the cross drainage works.
Integrated System of Drainage from Field to Outlet
Total effective drainage from a command area needs the essential
components of field drainage, intermediate link drainage and
outlet drainage.
Outlet drains are important but such a system without positive
field drainage construction may amount only to wastage of
money. In effect such a system would be parallel to construction
of main canals and distributaries by one department and
requiring establishment of another department of CADA for
utilization of irrigation potential. It is desirable that all the three
components of drainage are coordinated by the same authority
for better effectiveness and accountability.
VERTICAL DRAINAGE
Vertical drainage and conjunctive use is another good way of
lowering water tables and providing subsurface drainage. With
good quality ground water it is an excellent practice. On one hand
it lowers the water table and on the other hand through the same
process it also provides irrigation for increasing production of
agricultural crops. However, it is important understand different
issues involved with it. One of the issues is whether one can
effectively implement conjunctive use in a command area with the
presently prevailing democratic and socio‑economic set up.
Conjunctive use of surface and ground water
It is term used for application of tube wells along with canals for
irrigation of agricultural crops. Essentially this consists of a system
of shallow tube wells spread in the area through intensification of
minor irrigation works. Through direct extraction of ground water
it lowers the water table. The drained water may be used to
augment irrigation water supply in the area. Use of tube wells
along with canal water could also be termed as conjunctive use.
Conjunctive use through vertical drainage requires good quality
ground water. Through vertical drainage lowering of general ground
water level has to be done through large scale pumping from shallow
tube wells. Only shallow tube wells are useful for lowering water
table. Deep tube wells in confined aquifers would not be effective to
lower the water table.
According to Smedema and Zimmer (1994) in Scarp programme of
Pakistan about 15000 large capacity tube wells were installed to
reduce rising water tables and alleviate irrigation water shortage. The
pumped water was used to supplement canal supplies at the head of
the irrigation water courses. With success of VD and CU programmes
a large number of farmers estimated as 300000 farmers started
constructing their own private tube wells. This has been more
successful in fresh water zone than in high salinity ground waters.
With private tube wells and non existence of any ground water laws it
is difficult to implement it in an organised way. Still encouragement
of shallow tube well pumping through minor irrigation in good quality
ground water areas along with reduction of canal running duration
should be helpful in improving drainage conditions.
Well point system has Different Objective than Conjunctive Use
Some times, the objective of vertical drainage is assigned as
steady state lowering of water tables in the root zone for growing
crops due to overlapping of draw down caused by pumping of
closely spaced wells.
In other words this is similar to the well known well point
system.
Such a system is used for building foundations or other
structures in high water table areas where rapid lowering of
water tables is required for short periods.
Such a system is costly and would also involve high recurring
energy costs and does not seem to be practicable for growing
agricultural crops.
It does not seem to be feasible for continued lowering of water
tables in root zone for long periods necessary for growing crops.
Suitable Conditions For Conjunctive use
de Ridder (1983), Attia and Twinhoff (1989) recommend technical
feasibility of tube well drainage only based on geometry of aquifer
hydraulic parameters, thickness and hydraulic resistance of clay
cap, ground water quality and rate of recharge.
According to them well drainage enables the ground water to be
lowered to a much greater depth than gravity drainage.
Where deeper layers of substrata are more pervious than layers
near the surface pumping from these layers may reduce the artesian
pressure that is often present creating a vertical downward flow
through the upper layers.
According to CWC and USAID the feasibility of tube well drainage
is recommended for large areas of flat lands with high water tables,
thick aquifers with good hydraulic conductivity, areas having high
infiltration rates, ground water under artesian pressure, ground
water with good quality, where pipe drainage is feasible but costly
because of inadequate outlets, where ground water lowering is
desired beyond 2 to 5 m.
BIO‑DRAINAGE
Utility of Bio drainage
•Bio‑drainage is proposed as a good method of subsurface
drainage.
•However, it is important to identify appropriate situations where
this method can be effectively and usefully utilized.
•It is unfair to assign it an objective which it can not take care
and then misinterpret the approach.
•It is a good method to reduce bank seepage in canals and have
been used for this purpose in many canal commands
•It is not only an economic method of drainage, it also improves
the ecology of the area and is environment friendly.
•It provides costly wood useful for multifarious purposes and also
various range of bio‑mass.
•It can transpire water from ground water table in good amounts.
A large range of crops tolerant to salinity can be grown in salt
affected lands.
•It is a good method for economical exploitation of a waste land.
Bio drainage useful for long term water table lowering but not for
growing Agricultural Crops
Agricultural drainage requires frequent and rapid lowering 1 to 2
m of water table in 2 to 3 days after every recharge due to
irrigation/rainfall during the crop growth period. If trees can
lower water table by 1 m in 1 to 2 years what will happen to crops
during this period. This, lowering also is possible only if there is
no recharge in the tree cropped area. If there is frequent recharge
due to irrigation/rainfall it does not appear feasible that the water
table can be lowered by tree crops.
There does not seem to be any experimental evidence at
international level of bio drainage having been used for production
of agricultural and food crops. All the suggested plan of creating
point source, line source, wind rows, strip planting and planting in
other geometries through trees along with agricultural crops
appears to be theoretical which has not been physically
demonstrated anywhere for growing agricultural crops.
Bio drainage utility in old or new commands
The trees have to be planted till they become affective in providing
evapotranspiration. This is possible only in new commands not yet
water‑logged. In water‑logged and salt affected commands it is not
practical to plant and establish trees. if they can be planted and
grown over a time seepage process from the canal would require to
wait for their becoming old enough to provide evapotranspiration.
Bio drainage can remove only water and not the salts from a saline soil?
There are no evidence of systematically controlled experiments to
demonstrate removal of salts from a saline high water table soil
profile. Growing salt tolerant crops does not imply removal of salts
from soil profile and enabling it for growth of agricultural crops.
The scope of bio-drainage seemed to be more favourable in arid
zone where drainage surpluses are small in relation to
evapotranspiration rates (1 to 2 mm/day vs 10 mm/day).
USE OF PRODUCTIVITY CONCEPT IN WATER LOGGED
LANDS
According to Sikka and Bhatnagar (2004) a substantial area in the
eastern region is categorised as water congested or waterlogged area
where water remains stagnated for a long period.
In Bihar itself, about 2,00,000 ha is under Chaurs and nearly 7300 ha
under Mauns (Singh and Ahmad, 2003).
In addition, large portion of the canal commands or lowlands get
seasonally waterlogged during monsoon period.
Waterlogging starts from July and lasts upto November and in some
parts it remains waterlogged even upto January.
Such areas remain poorly utilised with some paddy production with
low yields (1-2 t/ha) and harvesting of wild fishes (100-200 kg/ha).
Similarly there are lot of borrow pits, excavated for soil for raising
field level or house construction. Although such pits are mostly of small
sizes (100-300 m2), and remain unfit for commercial fish cultivation, but
the possibility of growing cultured fish was explored with the farmers
and self help groups to have some production.
POLICY ISSUES FOR PROMOTING AGRICULTURAL
DRAINAGE
Periodic monitoring and reporting of Water tables
It is necessary to determine pre monsoon and post monsoon water
tables every three years in order to determine the increase in the
extent of water logging with progress of time for the pre-monsoon
and post-monsoon season.
Only a periodic comparison of successive pre-monsoon water levels
or successive post monsoon water levels for every three years can
provide this information.
Long term canal rostering and conjunctive use in waterlogged area
In high water table areas with good water quality water,
conjunctive use through intensification of subsidies on minor
irrigation works and lesser release of water in main canals and
distributaries should be properly planned and encouraged.
 In the canal commands, irrigation should be reduced by
long duration rostering of canal networks considering
ground water levels in the areas.
 If the water level is less than 5 m b.g.l., canal irrigation
should be discouraged.
 For paddy cultivation, canal irrigation should be given
preference but over‑irrigation should be discouraged.
 Where canal irrigation is in vogue it is strongly
recommended to go for a conjunctive use of surface and
groundwater and to use adequate quantity of groundwater
from tube well irrigation so that the pre‑monsoon
groundwater level should be around 10 m below land
surface.
 Further rostering of the canals for long periods and use of
groundwater for irrigation will lower the water table and
keep it in control and, thereby, increase the agricultural
production.
Necessity of a separate body to look after Drainage provision and
maintenance
There should be an independent investigation and planning
organization in Irrigation department for collection of drainage
data, drainage surveys, storage and processing of data base and
preparing and dovetailing of drainage project in an integrated
manner. This needs being implemented in right spirit.
Integrated approach of drainage starting from drainage link
drains main drains and natural waterway
For appropriate agricultural drainage, it is necessary that field
drains link drains and main drains should be constructed and
made to function in an integrated manner.
Most of field drains constructed by rural development projects
have been encroached by farmers by putting bunds across drain
for irrigation or putting it to cultivation.
It is necessary to establish responsibility of repairs and
maintenance on some institution which presently does not exist.
• In highly waterlogged areas where drainage is difficult and
costly Water Productivity concepts may be used as developed
in different Research complexes and Water Technology
Centers.
• Simultaneous Planning and sanction of Irrigation and
Drainage but implementation of Irrigation woks carried only
for Irrigation.
• The drainage projects components are simultaneously
provided along with the irrigation project.
• But generally irrigation component of the projects are
completed expeditiously, whereas, drainage component keeps
lagging.
• Such disbalance in project construction should be properly
monitored and discouraged.
Drainage Maintenance Norms
The norms of maintenance of drains recommended by
expert committee, Govt. of India (1981) should be appropriately
followed.
Only 35 percent of cost of maintenance of drains being met by
state government is insufficient and should be increased for
effective results.
The various provisions of North India Canal and Drainage Act
(1873) and its modification requiring Gaon Sabha to construct
repair and maintain the water courses below the outlet should
be suitably amended to appropriately define the responsibility
of Gaon Sabha and various departments.
Similar modifications needs be done in respect of Panchayat
Raj Act (1947).
Thank You