Underground HDPE pipe lines in efficient Water Management

Underground HDPE pipe lines in efficient Water Management

In Indian perspective , the Earthen irrigation channels are more in use for irrigating the Agriculture crops by the farmers and hence becoming a familiar way to fulfill the water supply needs from source to the field.
However the farmers feels that there are some lacunae in this type of irrigation channels system.

In this process ,there are huge Seepage losses.

• The water is not being efficiently utilized.
• More over, the Process is too long & time consuming

Cemented irrigation channels can be a substitute to the earthen irrigation channels. However the best and most efficient way is the Use of HDPE Pipe lines. The use of Underground HDPE pipe lines  are becoming familiar among the farmers and they are adopting it. In Haridwar district of Uttarakhand , the Underground HDPE pipe lines are becoming a better way of irrigating the crops.

What is HDPE Pipe line?

Underground HDPE pipe lines , HDPE is acronym for High Density Polyethylene . Pipe line made of HDPE are highly efficient in irrigating the lands by minimizing the land use. The HDPE pipe lines are installed under the ground and hence minimize the land use thereby provides more area for the Agriculture Crops

Why to Use HDPE pipe lines ?

• It saves a significant area of land that otherwise gets used for above earth irrigation channels.
• There is no risk of breakage of Underground HDPE pipe based irrigation channels unlike in earthen irrigation channels
• Water efficiency is almost 100%
• It provides a better opportunity to irrigate the crops and not the land .
• It saves lots of water

How to install HDPE Pipe lines?

The HDPE pipe lines are installed under ground . First of all earth work is done .The length of the earth work depends on the length of HDPE pipe lines to be installed in agriculture field .Thereafter the HDPE pipes are installed . The Underground HDPE pipe lines are linked  to the water source.The water supply from where the source is done through these HDPE pipes. This is how the water supply is channelized. The outlets are provided in HDPE pipe lines at regular intervals as per requirements  so that an effective  irrigation can easily be provided to all standing crops in the field.

What are the Resources requirements ?

• HDPE pipe line
• Labour for Earth work and installation of HDPE pipes

How to go for Knowledge transfer?

• The interventions can easily be transferred through organizing field demonstration .
• A field demonstration can be given to progressive farmers from different villages
• Later on progressive farmers can better disseminate the interventions in their Gram Panchayat(GP)
• For large scale impact, exposure tour for the farmers at intervention site can be organized

How about the Sustainability ?

• The Underground HDPE Pipe line interventions is sustainable in Watershed Management. Any Watershed Programme can help the Village Community by educating them for use and maintenance followed by constituting Users groups.This way the Village community will be in a position to make it sustainable
• The resources mainly required is Underground  HDPE pipe lines and that is  quite cost effective  in long run .
• Apart from it, human labour is required for earth works and further HDPE pipe lines installation can easily be done under the technical guidance of existing Agriculture department/Irrigation department of the state.
• However, Proper installation and proper covering by earth is important. This will avoid any damage to HDPE Pipelines

What are major impacts of HDPE Pipe lines?

• In general with earthen type irrigation channels it takes at least 15-20 minutes for entry of the water and its complete spread in to the main field from the source but with Underground HDPE pipe lines it takes just few minutes.
• So, this way by installing HDPE pipe lines the Water Conveyance Efficiency (WCE) has increased manifold e the ratio of water entering the main field to the water diverted from the source will increase.
• Earlier method of irrigation like earthen irrigation channels results in huge seepage losses and many a times  under pressure of moving water , the earthen irrigation channels get destroyed and water fails to reaches the agriculture field. However Underground  HDPE pipe lines checks the Seepage losses
• HDPE Pipe lines will contribute to the uniformity of water spread in agriculture field. with earthen irrigation channels it is not possible to irrigate entire agriculture field and  as a result the ratio of Water stored in the root zone to the Water entering the main field i.e Water application efficiency(WAE) was quite low but with the installation of HDPE pipe line , the water application efficiency (WAE) will increase .
• The impact of increased irrigation efficiencies with installation of HDPE pipe lines will better reflects  in quality crop yield