AGRICULTURAL DRAINAG WATER MANAGEMENT OF KHOZESTAN PROVINCE

摘要

In Khozestan province in Iran, 31 billion cubic meter surface water is supplied by the Karkhe,Karoon, Dez, Maroon, Jarahi and Zohre rivers (about one-third of the nation’s surface water),It has about 1.5 million hectares of cultivable lands and a suitable climate for agriculture (2cultivation seasons in a year),It is the main agricultural production zone in Iran. The majorproblems facing agricultural development in Khozestan is salinity of vast area of lands, waterlogging due to excessive irrigation and generation of high volume of agricultural drainagewater of poor quality. So planning and management of the huge quantity of drainage water isan important issue. Mixing of poor quality drainage water (due to salinity, agricultural fertilizersand pesticides), with the surface water resources of Karoon and Karkhe rivers, Shadeganpond and Horolazim natural reservoirs, is becoming the main environmental challenges ofprovince. In order to face the challenges, several strategies have been considered and someof them have been executed. These measures include, transfer of drainage water to PersianGulf, reducing drainage volume through higher irrigation effi ciency, controlled drainage,integrated farm drainage management systems(IFDM), revise drainage design criteriaadopting subsurface drainage, public participation in irrigation and drainage management andfocussing on sustainable development in the basin. These are discussed in this paper.