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Case Study 10: Water Conservation Technology (Ceramics)

The hazards of water shortages on the agricultural production of food and cash commodities in arid and semi-arid areas of Western Asia could not be over-emphasized. Lack of rainfall in rainfed agricultural areas lead to invoking of a strategy of seeking water from alternative sources, or deploying soil water reserves. Thus, measures of augmenting and/or enhancing soil water retention were incorporated in the agricultural production systems of the rainfed sector. Development of those measures focused on reducing evaporation rates, conserving soil water, and ultimately on promoting freshwater resources management.

Badiet El-Sham, Arabian peninsula, and North Africa used porous ceramics in irrigation many ages ago. The need for this technology was dictated by the arid lands and scarce freshwater characterizing these areas. Although the technology facilitates water conservation by minimizing evaporation from the land surface, water losses from transpiration continue unabated.

Technology Description

The equipment consists of a porous ceramic cup (7 cm depth, 3 cm radius, 3 mm thickness), tightly fitted with a plastic cover (stopper). The cup is placed in the root zone at a 30-40 cm depth. It is connected to the irrigation system by two polyethylene tubes of 20 mm internal diameter (Figure 78).

Figure 78. Porous ceramic

Water is admitted into the ceramic cup through a valve. The water begins to infiltrate through the porous walls in response to the absorption potential of the dry soil. A moist sphere (75 cm diameter in medium textured soils) is formed. In the sphere, the soil moisture tension is gradually reduced, until it reaches zero bar at saturation. The water moves dynamically thereafter according to the transpiration rate and soil moisture content. Studies showed that a mature producing tree requires three ceramic cups, while a 1-3 year old tree requires one cup.

The ceramic cups are made of a mixture of locally-available material, including sand< 0.5 mm nominal diameter, kaolin, feldspar, and clay. The mixture was poured in gypsum or steel molds that are placed in electric furnaces at a temperature below 1,000 ^oC. A ceramic cup is evaluated on the basis of the following characteristics:

• The permeability value reaches to 24 L/day under a hydrostatic pressure equivalent to 1 m;
• The durability of the cup (the cup wall thickness is 2-3 mm, which renders the cups susceptible to breakage if not carefully handled).

Extent of Use

The ceramic cup technology was designed at the Ministry of Agriculture in Syria. It was field tested in 1985 on apple trees at Jebel Al-Arab in southern Syria, on palm and olive trees at Sowana Oasis in the desert of Palmyra in central Syria and on graminaceous crops at ACSAD, in Rab’iya in North Eastern Syria. It was also tried by ACSAD in the Ghor area in Jordan.

Operation and maintenance

Operation and maintenance of the ceramic technology for irrigation is characterized by its simplicity. It requires opening of valves to fill the cups, and estimating the time for refilling them. The maintenance demands careful monitoring of leakage from the plastic covers of the cups, the valves or cup breakage. It is noted that the utilization of ceramics for irrigation is still being tested.

Costs

The fact that most of the raw materials for making ceramic cups are locally available, and that a cup weighs only 30 g, has helped considerably to reduce its cost. The labor charges present 80% of the manufacturing costs. A laborer can produce 100 ceramic cups/day, complete with their accessories. If a workman is paid 100 Syrian lira/day, the cost of a cup will be 3 Syrian liras, plus 2/cup Syrian lira to cover the cost of polyethylene pipes and cover. Thus, the cost of a cup is equivalent to US$ 0.10.

Effectiveness of the Technology

Under the dry environment of Deir El-Zur in Eastern Syria, the water requirements of a garden of 3-year old palm tree is about 3,000 m³/ hectare.

Advantages

The advantages of this technology are as follows:

• Ceramic cups can provide a high permeability rate of 24 L/day for 1 m of hydrostatic pressure;
• The wastewater can be applied without pollution where there is no direct contact between the farmer and the plants;
• The placement of water in the root zone reduces the evaporation losses from the ground surface (evaporation losses constitute 50% of the evapo-transpiration losses0;
• The technology does not require any special mechanical or electrical equipment;
• The pores are not clogged during water emission in the soil, because of the carbon dioxide pressure rise in the soil air.

Disadvantages

The primary disadvantage of this technology is that it is not yet automated, but rather is still dependent on manual labor.

Further Development of the Technology

Further development of this technology would include the following:

• Mechanization of the manufacturing process for the ceramic cups;
• Improvement of the plastic covers to fit the ceramic cups;
• Automation of the system operation.

Information Sources

Contacts

Abdulrahman Ghaibeh
Soil Laboratory Department
Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform
Damascus, Syria
Fax: (963-11) 5323100
email: soildir@sy.net

References

Ghaibah, A. 1993. Golden Prize for Best Invention from Wippo. Geneva, Switzerland.

 

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