Evaluation of proposed mesqa improvements: Fid-Bau Portal

Evaluation of proposed mesqa improvements

Depeweg, Herman / Hussein Bekheit, Khaled

Abstract Irrigated agriculture has beenpractised in Egypt for thousands of years. Manyprojects have been implemented and new projects arestill needed to improve the existing irrigationnetworks to increase the agricultural productivity aswell as the area of cultivable land. Recently theMinistry of Public Works and Water Resources (MPWWR)in Egypt started the Irrigation Improvement Project(IIP) with the objective to increase the productionfrom the existing agricultural land. To achieve thisobjective IIP proposed the redesign of main and branchcanals, the improvement or replacement of existingtertiary canals (mesqas) and the establishment ofWater Users Associations (WUA's). IIP emphasizes thatfor an optimal effect of the proposed improvements achange from rotational supply to continuous supply,from upstream flow control to downstream flow controland from the existing Agricultural Extension Serviceto a new Irrigation Advisory Service (IAS) isnecessary. This paper mainly focuses on the proposedimprovements at mesqa level for the Bahr El Saidiarea, which is representative for the irrigation areasunder IIP. The aspects presented are:– description of the improvements and their effecton the irrigation practice;– review, evaluation and refinement of three alternatives for mesqa improvement and appraisal from management, operation and social point of view;– hydrodynamic modelling to assess the hydraulicperformance of the three alternatives. An appraisal of the three alternatives on adequacy,reliability, equity and efficiency results inrecommendations for the proposed improvements, but anoverall evaluation should be based upon weighedindicators, the weight of each one should depend onthe objectives of the proposed improvements.