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Irrigation - Spate

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[[Image:Spate_irrigation_icon.png|right]]

[[Image:Spate irrigation.PNGjpg|thumb|right|250px|Maintaining earthen bunds with bullocksSimple infrastructure development can help people to manage flash floods and spread water over land - the working procedure of "spate irrigation". Photo: LEISA Magazine, EritreaMarch 2009, vol. 25 no 1: Farming diversity.]]

The management of sediment loads is as important as the management of flood water. Soil moisture conservation (recharge of shallow aquifers) is the key to high productivity. Spate irrigation is an ancient form of water management in arid and semi-arid environments, practised most widely in Pakistan, but also in Asia, Yemen, the Horn of Africa and North Africa. It is typically applied where highland plains meet alluvial flat slopes and where annual rainfall is erratic, often below 200 mm. In Pakistan, sporadic floods from temporary rivers are diverted and spread over a large area of land by earthen bunds, about 1 km long, several metres high and up to 20 m wide at the base. Near the mountains, the bunds divert part of the fast flowing flood; lower down they divert the entire flow. Water is guided through a system of flood channels to the bunded fields, often as large as 15 hectares, sub-divided into sections. The collected water is used for irrigation, the filling of water ponds and the recharge of groundwater. As such, spate irrigation provides considerable opportunities for reviving and improving the agricultural productivity and livestock production.

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