New technique for preparing and reusing agricultural drainage water safely in irrigation

Abstract Not so long ago, due to the great shortage of irrigation water, Egypt on the national level, began to mix (in a certain percentage) raw agricultural drainage water with fresh irrigation water. This mix was for enhancing its quality to be compatible with the proper specifications and standards of irrigation water, for using it safely in the irrigation process, to compensate for the severe shortage of available quantities of irrigation water. In some regions, and local farms, to save their crops farmers were forced to use the drainage water available in the nearby area drains for irrigation due to the problem of insufficient water in the distributary canals. Such use of raw drainage water can cause great harm and has a negative impact on the environment generally, especially on aquatic and agricultural life. Therefore, in this study we aim to introduce an efficient, simple, cheap mobile treatment unit. This new introduced treatment unit can be used locally on farms to solve the problem of insufficient quantities of irrigation water, and also in some cases where the irrigation water, for various reasons, does not reach the ends of some irrigation canals thus causing a serious problem for farmers. The new introduced treatment unit, using some environmentally friendly cheap materials in certain tested quantities and doses, through three designed cylindrical filtration containers connected with each other respectively, succeeded in converting raw contaminated drainage agricultural water into safe water that can be safely and directly used in the irrigation process.