Studies of Seepage Losses in Lined Irrigation Channels

Abstract

Investigations carried out by the Bihar Hydraulic Research Station, Khagaul, Patna indicated that one of the main difficulties in popula-rising the tube-well irrigation in this part of the country is the high rate of seepage and percolation losses in earthen channels. Assessment of seepage losses in Patna canal and Arrah canal systems showed wide variations at different sections of the two canals. Extraordinary loss of about 300 cusecs at a discharge of 2300 cusecs occurred within half a mile stretch of Patna canal. In case of Arrah canal a loss of about 60 cusecs at a discharge of 646 cusecs was recorded in a 10 mile stretch. Jain (1964) worked out economics of well irrigation and found that the costs of irrigation per acre-inch were Rs. 7.00, Rs. 2.80 and Rs. 4.75 for (i) unbored masonry well fitted with persian wheel, (ii) bored masonry well fitted with electric pump set and (iii) bored masonry well fitted with diesel driven pump set respectively. The cost of raising a crop of wheat requiring 10 acre-inches of irrigation works out to Rs. 70/- per acre and that of rice requiring 30 acre-inches as irrigation Rs. 210/- with persian wheel. Therefore, the importance of reducing seepage loss through field channels needs no further emphasis.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.29321/MAJ.10.002500

Pages

2 -

Creative Commons

Copyright

© The Author(s), 2026. Published by Madras Agricultural Students' Union in Madras Agricultural Journal (MAJ). This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited by the user.

Keywords