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BARI D Area: a Potential Source of Groundwater for Irrigation

M. A. Rashid
Principal Scientific Officer
Irrigation & Water Management Division, BRRI, Gazipur

M. A. Khair
Professor
Irrigation & Water Management Department, BAU, Mymensingh

A. F. M. Saleh
Institute of water and flood Management, BUET, Dhaka

L. R. Khan
Professor
Irrigation & Water Management Department, BAU, Mymensingh

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

Barind area, the driest part of Bangladesh, where surface water is scarce and groundwater development has been initiated without detail investigations. Therefore, a field study was conducted in 5 thanas in the BMDA project area during 1999 to 2003 to investigate water table fluctuation and to assess groundwater availability in the study area for irrigation. As the rainfall was not uniformly distributed throughout the year, the Boro rice was fully dependent on irrigation water. The groundwater table was found gradually declining day by day during dry season due to increasing demand for abstraction but the aquifer was found to be fully recharged after the monsoon except in a few locations. The highest elevation of groundwater table occurred during September/October in most locations and the lowest elevation occurred during April/May. The annual recharge ranged from 359mm to 663mm. Based on the additional available groundwater, minimum 2% (Nachole area) and maximum 14% (Paba area) of the land area in the selected thanas could be brought under irrigation. In total an additional 75.5 Mm³of groundwater is available for irrigation in the studied 5 Thanas, which can be utilized to irrigate an additional 10630 ha more area and this additional area is about 6% of the total land area. At present about 80% of the available groundwater is being used and the rest 20% is available for future use. The results of chemical analysis showed that the pumped groundwater is suitable for irrigation purposes in the Barind area.

Keywords: Groundwater, Irrigation, Barind area

Location: BARI

Start Date: 01-01-1999

End Date: 30-06-2003

Program Area: Crop-Soil-Water Management

Commodity: Water management

Objectives:

i) To monitor fluctuation of water table

ii) To assess groundwater availability for irrigation use.

Methodology:

In order to study the groundwater level fluctuation of the aquifer, data were collected from 27 observation wells in unconfined aquifer located within five thanas. Nine observation wells were selected from Godagari, six from Paba, five from Tanore, four from achole and three from Sapahar thana areas. For confined aquifer water level data were collected from 10 observation wells (DTW) taking two from each of the selected Thanas. The information was collected from BMDA office. Long-term groundwater level (GWL) data of 14 years (1988-2001) for unconfined aquifer were collected from WARPO office, Dhaka. The data were recorded by BWDB from 27 locations in 5 thanas of BMDA project. These groundwater levels were measured weekly in each month. Rainfall data of Bannd area were collected also from the BWDB office for the same period (14 years) from 1988 to 2001. Many direct and indirect methods are available for estimating recharge. In this study, aquifer parameters (storage coefficient or pecific yield) and groundwater level fluctuation have been used for assessing groundwater recharge of dIifferent types of aquifer within the study basin. To estimate the volume of groundwater available for Boro season from unconfined and confined aquifers, the recharge depth was multiplied by the area under study. On average, the area under unconfined and confined aquifer in each Thana were considered 66% and 86% of the total land area of each Thana respectively. The volume of water withdrawn during Boro season of 2003 was obtained by multiplying the discharge of each pumping unit with the operating hours during the season and the number of units.The additional irrigable area with the computed additional available volume of groundwater was calculated. The estimated additional volume of groundwater was divided by the depth of water required (including land preparation water) in Boro season in the recommended management practice (irrigation after three days of disappearing of standing water) to obtain the additional irrigable area. This area was also expressed as the percent of total land area of the respective Thana.

Source of Information: Journal of Agricultural Engineering, Dec. 2008, Vol.35/AE, pp:01-11, ISSN:0379-4318.

Article Link (Online Journal):

Funding Source:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

In the study locations the aquifers have the potentiality to transmit sufficient water. Although the groundwater table is gradually declining day by day during dry season due to increasing demand for pumping but the aquifer is fully recharged after the monsoon except in a few locations. As the study area has intensive tubewells for crop production, the present trend of increasing the number of DTWs/STWs from year to year may lower the groundwater table due to excess pumping of groundwater. At present 24% of the land area is under irrigation and an additional 6% can be brought under irrigation with the stored groundwater. 2) In total an additional 75.5 Mm³ of groundwater is available for irrigation in the studied 5 Thanas, which can be utilized to irrigate an additional 10630 ha more area using the recommended practice (3 days alternate drying and wetting) and this additional area is about 6% of the total land area. Therefore, more irrigation facilities should be developed with the additional available water to increase rice production and to meet the increased food demand.

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