Water rights and rules, and management in spate irrigation systems in Eritrea, Yemen and Pakistan.

Haile, Abraham Mehari; Steenbergen, Frank van; Schultz, Emily

doi:10.1079/9781845933265.0114

Cited by 17 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Based on the measured volume in meter-cube per second a sharing rule is set in Eritrea 1 . The problem is that under rotational distribution, flood is not sufficient even for upstream farmers e.g., Tahima in Yemen (Mehari et al, 2007). In other countries, however, flood management depends on the construction around fields.…”

Section: Water Management Water Share and Equitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most empirical studies focus on storage based WHTs instead of spate irrigation (He et al, 2007;Oweis and Hachum, 2006;Rockstrom et al, 2002). In addition, previous studies use qualitative analysis to investigate why farmers go for spate irrigation in a few Asian and North African countries (Mehari et al, 2007(Mehari et al, , 2008. Similar studies carried out in Ethiopia on spate irrigation are also qualitative and used qualitative methodologies (Kato et al, 2011;Van Steenbergen et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Irrigation technology and crop choices in Ethiopia: Spate vis-a-vis rainwater-harvesting irrigation technologies

Wakeyo¹,

Fujimoto²

2017

Afr. J. Agric. Res.

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Moisture-stress weakens the use of modern inputs such as fertilizer, which could undermine yields. In a growing population, low yields cause food shortage. Investing in irrigation mitigates moisture-stress but expensive for smallholder farmers. Spate irrigation, a sudden flood run-off diverting, is cheaper to invest in than other irrigation technologies such as ponds and shallow-wells. This study investigated factors deriving the choice of spate irrigation in Ethiopia, and compared crop-choices and yields among irrigation technologies. To investigate the technology choice, logit model was estimated using data collected from Ethiopia in 2005. Secondary data was analyzed to examine crop-choice and yields. The findings show that: (1) farmers with higher irrigation capital, family-labour, lower operation and maintenance (O&M) costs and living in more arid and rainfall-shortage areas choose spate irrigation; (2) market access does not affect the choice; (3) spate users often grow cereals and pulses than other irrigation users, and this enhances food security; (4) spate irrigation increases grain supplies by increasing yields. These findings suggest that encouraging irrigation-capital creation, low-cost O&M, meteorological services, and considering regional diversities increased the probability of modernizing spate irrigation. The findings also inform the decision on crop choice in disadvantaged and remote areas to improve livelihood.

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Section: Water Management Water Share and Equitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Irrigation technology and crop choices in Ethiopia: Spate vis-a-vis rainwater-harvesting irrigation technologies

Wakeyo¹,

Fujimoto²

2017

Afr. J. Agric. Res.

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“…More than anything, the chronic underfunding and the loss of vigour in the operation and maintenance departments was its undoing. It left a vacuum where it was not clear who was responsible for the hard work of timely repair (Mehari et al, 2005a).…”

Section: Can the Targets Be Achieved?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydraulic performance evaluation of the Wadi Laba spate irrigation system in Eritrea

Haile

Depeweg

Schultz

2005

Irrigation and Drainage

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Spate irrigation is a method of harvesting and managing floodwater, which is unpredictable in timing and volume. In the spate-irrigated area of 16 000 ha in Eritrea, the farmers have for decades used brushwood and earthen diversion and distribution structures, locally known as Agims and Musghas, to harness and share the floodwater. Although these practices managed to make the systems sustainable for the past 100 years, they failed to fully mitigate the unpredictability of the floodwater and relieve the farmers from poverty. With the aim of improving living conditions, the government decided to modernize the spate irrigation systems. In 1998, the Wadi Laba (2600 ha) was selected as a pilot project, and its major Agims and Musghas were replaced by a concrete headwork and gabions. The main targets were: expanding the annually irrigated area from 1200 to 2600 ha, diverting large floods in a regulated manner so as to increase the probability of irrigating the downstream fields, while preventing erosion and sedimentation and reducing the labour and brushwood needed for operation and maintenance.Field surveys, discharge measurements, interviews and group discussions were conducted to evaluate the performance of the Wadi Laba system. It was found that in an ''excellent'' flood season, only 1400 ha was irrigated. Reasons include: the inappropriate design assumptions and approaches in the initial phase of the modernization, the non-coherence of the modern design with the indigenous water rules and water-sharing arrangements, the failures of the breaching bund, the sedimentation in the culvert and the incorrect operation and use of the scour sluice. Among the proposed improvements are: strengthening the farmers' organization technically, institutionally and legally, replacing the culvert with a head regulator gate, constructing supplementary offtakes, converting the breaching bund into a low-crested rock fill spillway. Besides discussing these issues, this paper provides quantitative justification why the floodwater would have to be supplemented with groundwater, if there is to be a real possibility of achieving the set targets.

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“…Spate irrigation is locally known as Jerif in Eritrea. In the context of Eritrea, spate irrigation is defined as the method that directs large quantities of floodwater that originate from sporadic rainfall in the highlands (upper catchment), which are emitted through wadis (ephemeral streams) and spread over low-lying agricultural lands with earthen and/or concrete structures (Mehari et al, 2005a). There are no archaeological findings or artefacts that could with certainty answer the question of when spate irrigation started in Eritrea.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling soil moisture and assessing its impacts on water sharing and crop yield for the Wadi Laba spate irrigation system, Eritrea

Haile

Schultz

Depeweg³

et al. 2008

Irrigation and Drainage

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In the Wadi Laba spate irrigation system, sorghum and maize crops complete their growth period (September to April) mainly based on the soil moisture stored during the flood season from 15 June to 15 August. For the past 100 years, the farmers have strived to divert the unpredictable and destructive floods and irrigate their fields three to four times (irrigation gift is 50 cm each time) so as to harvest 4.5 t ha À1 yr À1 of sorghum or sorghum and maize. Simultaneously, to realize fair water sharing, the farmers introduced two water rights and rules: (1) a field is entitled to a second, third or fourth turn only after all other fields have received one, two or three turns respectively; (2) upstream fields have a priority right to the medium floods ( 50 m 3 s À1 ), the midstream and downstream fields to the moderately large and large (50-200 m 3 s À1 ), and very large (200-265 m 3 s À1 ) floods respectively. These water rights and rules were regularly observed in the indigenous systems when farmers relied on each other for the timely maintenance of the earthen/brushwood structures that frequently failed, but are being violated following the introduction of the concrete structures in 2000.The Soil Water Accounting Model (SWAM) that has been developed as part of the study on which this paper is based revealed that when a field receives two, three or four turns, the soil moisture at the onset of the planting season remains the same, namely 67.5, 72 and 77.5 cm if the field gets its last turn by 15 July, 30 July and 15 August respectively. These results were validated with the more complex Soil Water Atmosphere Plant Model (SWAP). Even the 67.5 cm water depth (with some 120 mm contribution from rainfall), sufficiently supports the said yield. Unlike in the indigenous system, when the fields usually received a third turn by the end of the flood season, the concrete structures of the modern system have made it possible for the upstream farmers to irrigate three or even four times by July. Thus, to maintain fairness of water sharing, the water rights on the size of floods would have to be modified to: regardless of the flood size, if upstream fields are irrigated twice or three times by 15-30 July, the subsequent floods would have to be conveyed to the midstream/downstream fields. Copyright # 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. ) respectivement. Ces règles de gestion de l'eau ont été régulièrement observées dans les systèmes indigènes quand les fermiers ont compté les uns sur les autres pour l'entretien en temps opportun des structures fragiles en terre et broussaille, mais ont été violées après l'introduction des structures en béton en 2000.Le modèle de bilan hydrique Eau-Sol (SWAM) qui a été développé dans cette étude a indiqué que, quand un champ reçoit deux, trois ou quatre tours, l'humidité du sol au début de la saison de plantation reste la même (soit 66, 71 et 76 cm) quelque soit la date du dernier tour (soit le 15 juillet, 30 juillet et 15 août respectivement). Ces résultats ont été validés avec le modèle plus c...

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Water rights and rules, and management in spate irrigation systems in Eritrea, Yemen and Pakistan.

Cited by 17 publications

References 3 publications

Irrigation technology and crop choices in Ethiopia: Spate vis-a-vis rainwater-harvesting irrigation technologies

Irrigation technology and crop choices in Ethiopia: Spate vis-a-vis rainwater-harvesting irrigation technologies

Hydraulic performance evaluation of the Wadi Laba spate irrigation system in Eritrea

Modelling soil moisture and assessing its impacts on water sharing and crop yield for the Wadi Laba spate irrigation system, Eritrea

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