Water Management Strategies and Impacts on Livelihoods in Egypt

WLI Regional Knowledge Exchange Workshop on Decision-support Tools and Models 23-27 September, 2013, Djerba, Tunisia

Water Management Strategies and Impacts on Livelihoods in Egypt

WLI Goal and Intended OutputsOverall Goal: to improve the livelihoods of rural households and communities in areas where water scarcity, land degradation, and associated problems are prevalent.

Intended Outputs: 1. Integrated water and land-use strategies for policy-making, tools for sustainable benchmark management and organizational mechanisms for community inclusion at the benchmark site.2. Enhanced knowledge, skills and qualifications for key stakeholders in the benchmark sites.3. Improved rural livelihoods of farmers in the benchmark sites through the adoption of sustainable land and water management practices and livelihood strategies.

National Policy Objectives in (EGYPT):

1. Increase the productivity of both land and water units.2. maintain the sustainability of water and land use. 3. Improving the livelihood of rural inhabitants.4. Reducing poverty rates in rural areas.

South El-

HusianiaEl

ZankalonEl-Bustan

Damnhour

Benchmark sitesAgroecosystem: Irrigated agricultural

The sustainability of the irrigation system…?

The gap between on-farm irrigation management & general irrigation network management [knowledge, management, & planning strategies]… ?

Major questions…

Sustainability of irrigated agriculture in the Nile Delta

Sustainability of the irrigated land

A. Assessing the sustainability of the irrigation system (Modeling )

B. On-farm soil degradation analysis

B.1 Baseline assessment

B.2 Comprehensive case studies of soil degradation [soil compaction, salinity build-up, water table fluctuation]

B. 3 Spatial analysis and hazard map development of soil degradation baseline in the Nile delta region

C. Water Constraints on Crop choice and farmers income in the Thiba irrigation scheme

At Behaira Governorate and very close to Damanhour city.

Area is 241 ha(735 Feddans).

The water source from El Nasery Canal then Sabya and Habib Canals.

The location has only one main drain of Nasr Allah drain.

Dominated soil types: Clay, Silty-Clay

Damnhour

Old land benchmark

• Monitoring and EvaluationMeasure supply and demand through Water BalanceOn-demand spatial assessments

• Options for improvementsBuild scenarios for up-scaling model


Evaluation Indicators:- Water productivity- Water use index or Application adequacy [PA] - Distribution efficiency [PF]- Dependability [PD]- Others…

Measure Performance classesGood Fair Poor

PA 0.90 – 1.00 0.80 – 0.89 < 0.80PF 0.85 – 1.00 0.70 – 0.84 < 0.70PE 0.00 – 0.10 0.11 – 0.25 > 0.25PD 0.00 – 0.10 0.11 – 0.20 > 0.20


Irrigation sustainability assessment (Modeling )…linkages & the way forward

Develop an appropriate tool to help in designing possible efficient, economic and sustainable irrigation strategies that maximize water productivity and minimize environmental harmful impacts.

“Water productivity optimizer (WP_optimizer)”: integrated modeling framework, aiming to analyze water productivity and environmental impacts of irrigation practices, starting from field scale to tertiary canal irrigation zone scale.

Activity [A] is linked to the modeling analysis of “Irrigation Benchmark project”

Irr. networ

k

Spatial analysis

Scenarios

WP_optimizer is developed and coded by VB.Net using ArcGis 10 tools, for windows 7.

“WP-optimizer” has two connected routines:- On-farm irrigation

management,- Irrigation distributary

network.

WP-OPTIMIZER STRUCTURE AND THEORETICAL BASIS

Selection of the most suitable on-farm model

Parameter

WAVE

SIMETAW

SALTMED

SWAP

SPAW

CropSyst

DSSAT

AquaCrop

1-Objective 7 5 9 9 9 8 5 52- Theory 6 4 8 9 8 7 4 43- Crops 6 5 9 8 8 8 8 64- Strength 5 2 9 6 9 9 5 55- constrains & limitations 6 2 8 8 8 8 5 56- inputs 9 9 9 8 8 9 9 97- outputs 5 5 9 10 9 9 5 58- license 0 10 10 10 10 10 10 109- Interface 6 9 9 8 6 6 910- The availability of scientific review, case

studies and technical assistants 4 1 7 8 6 8 9 5

11- calibration 6 8 8 8 7 4 912- Error alerts & log files 8 6 9 5 9 5Overall compatibility index0= not compatible 10= highly compatible 4.8 5.0 8.6 8.3 8.3 7.8 6.6 6.4

On-farm Model [SaltMed] ...(Ragab, 2002)

“SaltMed” is the on-farm water

management model, it has been developed

(Ragab, 2002) as a generic model that can be used for a

variety of irrigation systems, soil types, soil stratifications,

crops and trees, water management

strategies (blending or cyclic), leaching requirements and

water quality.

Groundwater

Terti

ary

cana

l

Dist

ribut

ary

cana

l (m

esqa

)

Drai

nage

syst

emIrrigation

ETRainfall

Runoff

Deep percolation

Seepage

Seepage

Groundwater drainage

Upper soil surface

Tail outflow

Tail outflow

Irrigation system supply

Drainage outflow

System boundaries and water inflows and outflows for the calculation of the water balance


The time step of the WP-optimizer water balance simulation is 15 days, in order to match actual national irrigation rotations system.


WP_optimizer is under evaluation now, using a case study from the Nile Delta Region.

Activity [B]: On-farm soil degradation analysis

Sustainability of the irrigated land


B. On-farm soil degradation analysis

B.1 Baseline assessment

B.2 Comprehensive case studies of soil degradation [soil compaction, salinity build-up, water table fluctuation]

B. 3 Spatial analysis and hazard map development of soil degradation baseline in the Nile delta region

Soil compaction & salinity in old land

B. Soil degradation assessment in old land

Questionnaire form …o the sources of soil compaction due to agriculture practice, o the perception of the farmers the effect of soil compaction

Sample size: Phase I: 50 points without field measurements, Phase II: 50 points with field measurements for soil

compaction and soil salinity at different stages of the cultivation season, as follows:

Before land preparation and planting After land preparation and planting Mid of summer season End of summer season

B. Soil degradation assessment in old land

Data collection from the 38 sampling points:• Questionnaire form,• Soil compaction, moisture and salinity.

Data collection from the 12 sampling points (4 selected fields on each mesqa of the selected 3 mesqas):

• Questionnaire form,• Soil compaction, moisture and salinity,• Crop pattern at each mesqa• Analysis of mechanical and chemical properties of the soil before and

after cultivation season,• The quantity of the irrigation water at the mesqa level,• The quantity of the irrigation water at the field level ( if possible),• Crop yield at the field level.

20 cm

40 cm

60 cm

Before planting After planting Middle of the season

C. Water Constraints on Crop choice and farmers income in the Thiba irrigation scheme (New land)

IWMI: François MOLLE & Wafaa GHAZOUANI

Objective:how the quality of water supply to end-users in the Thiba scheme fed by branch canal 20, in terms of adequacy (quantity is enough to meet crop requirements), timeliness (water is available when needed), predictability (crop choice and management can be planned based on reasonable expectations), impacts crop choice and therefore farm income.

Activity [C]:

Research steps: Generate GIS layers based on Google Earth [Tiba scheme,

Nubaria], through information gathered at the village and farm levels (including the use of groundwater).

Use information generated from remote sensing data by IFAD’s “Smart ICT” project, to study the spatial heterogeneity of evapotranspiration across the command area.

Compare with data from the survey and generate a synthesis map showing the quality of access to water.

Select a sample of branch canals Conduct farming system surveys, unpack the rationale of crop

choice at the farm level, and identify possible improvements in collective action around water management.

Map and assess the overall yield gap due to both reductions in yields and constraints to crop choice.

Synthesize results on the productivity gap, and ways to close this gap by improving water management

Activity [C]:

Preliminary results:- The quality of water supplies to particular farm depends heavily

on its location within the network- factors contributed to the heterogeneity of water supply:

- power cuts which affect the main pumping station and the electricity networks of the collective pumps

- Physical illegal intervention on the irrigation infrastructure to increase water supply,

- Social influence of the control of infrastructure and application of the official rotation between the sub-branches of the BC.

- Economic results showed a gap of production, which was mainly induced by both restriction on crop choices and decrease of crop yields as one moves to downstream the BC

The way forward…

Irrigation system sustainability assessment in old land…to be cont.

Include branch canals in the modeling assessments Soil degradation due to agriculture practices…to be cont.

Modeling study of the effect of applying deficit irrigation on irrigation system performance at the old land Benchmark

• AquaCrop model• Major field crops• Pilot fields to collect the required data• Include climate change impacts

Thank you

Documents

Water Management Strategies and Impacts on Livelihoods in Egypt