PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT OF LINED WATERCOURSES IN DISTRICT JHANG

Most of the on-farm water management problems were not new. These problems have grown larger and there was increasing public demand for the development and management of land and water to be ecologically sustainable as well as economically. Pakistan’s agriculture totally depends on irrigation and irrigated land provides more than 90% of agricultural production. Due to the limited prospects for expanding irrigation facilities, the projected increase in irrigated agriculture had to come from significant improvements in the performance of existing systems. In Pakistan watercourse lining up to tail had been very limited due to high cost. This study was carried out to evaluate the impact of lining on four watercourses which were lined under National Program for Improvement of Watercourses (NPIW) project at the distributaries of Sultan Pakhra, Dhular, Bhangi and 3-L in District Jhang. The water conveyance efficiency and annual water savings in relation to increase cropping intensity and crop yield due to improvement of watercourses were studied. It was found that the conveyance efficiency of lined watercourse sections ranged from 83% to 90% whereas for unlined watercourse sections ranged from 36% to 69%. The average losses per 100 meter length in lined portion of watercourse from 0.3-0.6 and 1.0-2.0 lps in unlined portion. The cropping intensity of the selected sites increased 17-19% after lining. Crop yield was increased on an average of 530 kg/ha for wheat, 9600 kg/ha for sugarcane, 230 kg/ha for cotton and 190 kg/ha for maize after the lining of watercourses. The study was helpful for additional lining of the watercourses, motivation of farmers and performance improvements of the watercourses at the selected distributaries.