Frequent Breaches in Irrigation Canals in Sindh Pakistan

Riaz Bhanbhro, Nadhir Al-Ansari, Sven Knutsson

1Department of Civil, Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering, Lule? University of Technology, Lule?, Sweden 2Quaid-e-Awam University of Engineering, Science & Technology, Nawabshah, Pakistan.
Department of Civil, Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering, Lule? University of Technology, Lule?, Sweden.

DOI: 10.4236/jwarp.2014.64027                

Abstract

Every year, a number of breach failures occur in Irrigation Canals in Sindh. Those failures cause displacement of thousands of people, destruction of properties, land, and damage to costly crops that worth millions Rupees. In addition to that, breach failures also can cause water shortages when the failure occurs during the peak demand period. There are various causes of embankment failures which include overtopping, internal erosion, structural defects and piping. State of art for breach failures is presented in this paper and suggestions for prediction of breaches in context to canals in Sindh are discussed. Seepage and slope stability analyses are recommended for a long-term breach predictions.

Keywords

Canal Breaches; Embankment Failures; Long Term Breach Prediction; Irrigation System Sindh

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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