MAINTENANCE AND REPAIRS IN IRRIGATION

SYSTEM

B Y Bhandiwaddar
Superintending Engineer
Water and Land Management
Institute (WALMI),Dharwad.

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1. Introduction:

The performance of majority of irrigation schemes in

our country has fallen short of the expectations
regarding the utilization of created potential,
agricultural production and farm incomes.

This is due to a number of factors among which, no

doubt the lack of proper operation and maintenance of
the irrigation physical system. This is an over riding
cause along with inexperience of management.

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 Sustained high operational efficiency of the
system is possible only with adequate and
timely maintenance of all the structures of
the system and in turn,
 systematic program of maintenance is
required. prioritization of various items of
repairs keeping in view of the budgetary
provisions of one hand and performance
and safety on the other hand.

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Maintenance of the system is very complex and is not
as simple as it may seem at first. It needs lot of
thinking and experience.
A lot of personal inspection by all the concerned staff
need to conduct regular hydraulic surveys, discharge
measurements and collection of observational data.
If deterioration of major and minor nature and worn-
outs of small and big extents are found it is the duty
of the field staff to bring it to the knowledge of higher
authority and attend the same on priority.

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 Closemonitoring of these information and
systematic documentation in the form of
registers, returns, reports and inspection
notes is a precursor for establishing a
technically sound periodical maintenance
program for a system.

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2.0 Maintenance of Irrigation systems:
In order to have efficient water management to
provide more reliable, predictable and equitable water
deliveries to the farm head, the condition of the
physical systems of irrigation projects will have to be
very good which can be achieved only with adequate
and timely maintenance of the whole system.
Therefore maintenance service is the indispensable
necessity for the survival of irrigation projects.

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 The proper maintenance of irrigation scheme has
permanent benefits to many generations. Need of
maintenance is greater in schemes in which ‘low-
cost’ technology is adopted for construction.

 Poor maintenance is due to insufficient funds, lack

of interest by engineers and farmers, inadequate
organizational setup at workplace, lack of social
awareness, and inadequate and improper
planning of maintenance works.

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2.1 Functions of Maintenance Service:

The main functions of the maintenance service

are (i) Planning the maintenance activities (ii)
Implementing the maintenance activities as planned
and those unforeseen and (iii) monitoring the
activities. The maintenance activities can be more
easily undertaken during the off-season when labour
will be available and the operation staff also will be
more free to supervise the works.

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2.2 Types of Maintenance:
i) Normal or Routine Maintenance:
These are the maintenance activities that
are usually conducted annually for an irrigation
system. These include all works necessary to
keep the irrigation system functioning
satisfactorily.
ii) Emergency and Special Maintenance:
These include repairs of damage caused
by major disasters such as floods, earthquake
and any other unforeseeable natural
phenomena and endanger the safety on the
critical structures like dam, head works, or the 9

irrigation canals.
iii) Essential Structural Maintenance:
It is the required maintenance for flow control and
measurement structures.
iv) Deferred Maintenance:
It is the accumulation of maintenance need being
accrued under the normal or routine maintenance program
because of shortage of funds and other reasons.
v) Catch-up Maintenance:
It is a program of works to take care of the
accumulated deferred maintenance needs in order to up-
grade the hydraulic performance of the system.

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vi) Preventive Maintenance:
It is a program for taking care of the causes creating
the maintenance needs when there are only a minor problem
and if unattended result into a major expensive problem.

vii) Re-habilitation:
It is required because of the accumulation of deferred
maintenance needs has become so great that operation of the
system is significantly hampered. If the systematic preventive
maintenance program is worked out, the rehabilitation does
not arise except to replace aging structures or for
modernization.

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2.3 Maintenance Activities:
These have been grouped according to the
major elements of an irrigation system:
(i)Dam and reservoir (ii) Irrigation
network (iii) Drainage net work (iv)
Ayacut road net work and flood
protection dykes (v) Pump stations (vi)
Ancillary works.

The potential activities of these groups

comprise the following:
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i) Dam and Reservoir:
Reservoir:
• Controlling aquatic weeds.
• Removing floating objects
likely to hamper and damage hydraulic works.
• Monitoring the water quality to detect and avoid
sources pollution.
• Sedimentation surveys.

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 Dam:
• Lubrication of gates and replacement of seals.
• Anti-corrosion treatment
• Control of filters.
• Upstream slope of Earth dams –D/s rain cuts.
• Electro-mechanical system i.e., engines, head
gates, lighting and wiring system.
• Settlement and seepage at junctions of masonry
and earth i.e., wrap-around.

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ii) Irrigation Network:
A) Concrete Lined Canals:
• Problems associated with sub-pressure, gypsum
soils and swelling clays, etc.,
• Replacement of joints, damaged slabs and CC
lining. Removal of silt.
• Weed control.

• Main problem is cracking of lining, eruption of

slabs due to sub-pressure.
Provide relief valves and sub-surface drainage
system.
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B) Earth Canals:
These are the main problems requiring
maintenance:
Silting: It is due to (1) Excessive silt entry at the
main canal intake (2) Dis-proportional withdrawal
by branches (3) Prolonged heading up at
control points (4) Drifting sand and (5) Inadequate
channel transport capacity of channels (6) Re-
entrance of excavated materials due to rain and
wind (7) Mal-functioning of the system (9) excessive
weed growth (10) Wrong channel regulation.

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iii) Drainage Network:
It is very important to retain this in good working condition
with the following maintenance operation.
• Light deforestation

• Weed control in the canal section

• Seeding grass in the canal section

• Maintain flow gauges

• Removal of silt

• Maintenance of pumping station where water cannot be evacuated

by gravity.

Surface open drains are maintained on similar lines as those of

earthen irrigation channels. Tile drains have two problems (a)
obstruction due to silting and plant roots (b) mineral deposit. The first
is the most common. There are established methods for cleaning these
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drains.
.
iv) Ayacut road network and flood protection
banks:
There are various classes and types of
roads and protection banks. All roads are mostly
damaged during rainy season combined with the
traffic. Repairs imply removal of loose materials,
refilling of potholes with stable materials.
Compaction of layers and resurfacing and
rectifying the damaged portions of culverts,
causeways, bridges and other masonry structures.
.

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v) Pump stations of LIS
• General maintenance of pumping machinery as
per maintenance schedule.
• Repairs of valves and pipelines of suction and
delivery system.
• Up-keep of pump house.

• Safety of materials, equipment and machinery.

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vi) Ancillary Works:
The hydraulic structures in an irrigation
scheme include gates, inlets, spillways, outlets, inlet
structures, regulation works, measuring works and
communication works of canals, check dams and
other minor works.
Maintenance of these works if constructed in
concrete involves removal of silt and other
obstructions. Mechanical elements need frequent
greasing. Iron elements need anti-rust treatment.

.
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 Administrative buildings, residential and
other special installations like stores,
laboratories, workshops, community
buildings, water supply features require
certain degree of up-keep depending upon
importance and necessity.
The maintenance of these should not be over
looked.

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2.4 Planning Maintenance Activities:

For taking up maintenance programs the following

steps must be fallowed:

i. Make an inventory of all works that require

maintenance by ‘walk through’ survey and prepare
notes, sketches and reports.
ii. Determine the volume of maintenance activities to
be undertaken instantly and annually.

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i. Establish the optimum cycle of maintenance
for each of work.

ii. Determine machinery and manpower

requirements to undertake the maintenance.

iii. Prepare Estimates, get administrative and

technical sanctions.

iv. Budgeting and maintenance priorities of works

should be as per program of works.
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 Exhaustive list of works is prepared and for
simplification of maintenance job, all the works are
grouped into types of similar characteristics under each
system. The volume of works under each type of
maintenance is computed for estimation purposes.
It should be based on experience gained in the
particular project with knowledge of the strong and
week spots of the project.

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 2.5 Implementation of the Maintenance Programme:
It is highly dependent on the specific conditions at the site
and round about. Some general principles that may be adopted
are as under.
i. Good planning of each work is very essential as time and
resources for execution are limited.
ii. Monitor the progress day today and control the execution.
iii. Farmers participation is encouraged in the maintenance
jobs.
iv. Maintenance works on voluntary basis may be encouraged
by providing food and transport for special repairs.
v. Farming community is utilized for unskilled labour
requirement.

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2.6 Maintenance of the system below the
out-let (i.e., tertiary system):

This system is to be maintained by the

farmers. The success of irrigation and its efficiency
depends upon the maintenance of this sub-system.
Generally farmers do not attend as they are
individually indifferent to the community needs and
there is lack of technical knowledge also.

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 Therefore the staff of irrigation management
(I.D.) have to educate the farmers and motivate
them to attend the maintenance of the system.
The activities involved will be the same as for
the unlined secondary and primary systems but
very small in magnitude.

 The necessary technical guidance for execution

should be provided by the departmental staff.

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