Sediment As a Resource for Development of Eastern Nile Countries
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Sediment as a Resource for Development of Eastern Nile Countries By Dr. Mohammad Abdel·Fadil 1 Abstract Land and water are ecologically linked in a natural system called a catchment area, drainage basin, or watershed. From the smallest droplet to the mightiest river, water makes to shape the land, carrying sediment and dissolved materials that drain to watercourses and, in most cases, eventually to the sea. Recently either in China, the watersheds of the Yel/ow River at loess plateau basin or in Eastern Nile Countries EN (Ethiopia·Sudan-Egypt), their main watershed areas, are of the world's mostly badly eroded ones. Due to the increasing problems of population and poverty, it is important to control erosion in these areas. China has already executed a project to overcome these problems in cooperation with World Bank into loess plateau region. The project outcomes show increase of agricultural products and incomes and reduce of erosion and sediment. Into catchment's areas of EN countries, valuable farmland can be created due to construction of some small dams as warping dams through trapping eroded soil flowing down a gully during the flood season in the eroded areas. Not only would the dams conserve soil and water for local economic development, but they also help to reduce excessive sediment deposition in downstream gullies and rivers. Fully implemented a pilot project to construct some warping dams and using the suitable flushing sediment methods may provide a long-term solution to EN watershed and river's sediment problem. How best to utilize the pilot areas to make them attractive as financial investments under a market economy is a key issue to the success of the program. Keywords: Key dam, warping dam, flushing-sediment, watershed, erosion, reservoir sedimentation. Introduction The Necessity for Watersheds Integration Land and water are ecologically linked in a natural system called a catchment area, drainage basin, or watershed. From the smallest droplet to the mightiest river, water works to shape the land, taking with it sediment and dissolved materials that drain to watercourses and, in most cases, eventually to the sea. It includes the land catches all the rain directed to a stream, river or lake, all the humans, plants and animals live in it, and all the things we have added to it as buildings and roads. In general, terms, a drainage basin can be divided into three main zones: an upper erosional zone of sediment production, a middle zone of sediment transport with simultaneous erosion and deposition, and a lower zone of sediment deposition. Flood control projects are more common in the middle and lower zones where the stream overflows frequently onto agricultural or urban land. The longitudinal profile of the stream system tends to flatten through time by degradation in the upper reaches and aggradation in the lower reaches. Figures (1 a. 1b) show drainage basin zones and some channel types through time [5]. 1 Associate professor, Nile Water Sector, Ministry of Water Resources and irrigation, Cairo, Egypt EMail:[email protected] 1 ,,I l!o! :' ~ ., I .. ~ ,-,<:> Figure (1 a); Drainage basin zones and some channel types Figure (1 b); typical longitudinal stream profile through time Everything we do affects our catchments - from washing clothes and growing food to larger-scale activities as mining, commercial farming, and building roads or dams. The reverse is also true: our catchments affects everything we do, by determining what kinds of plants we can grow, the number and kinds of animals that live there, and how many people and iivestock can be sustainably supported by the land. The most important truth about any catchment area is that we all live downstream from someone, and upstream from another. Anything dumped on the ground or released to the air in the catchment can end up in its rivers, lakes, or wetlands. A catchment's water may be made undrinkable by activities many kilometers away. To understand the water quality of a stream, one must look at the entire area it drains. Therefore, the catchments do not respect political boundaries, and in fact can encompass several cultural, national, and economic boundaries. What happens in one country's part of the catchment will affect water quality, quantity, or people who depend on it in the countries downstream Physical Features of the Watershed and its Related Problems A typical catchment is a network of smaller rivers or streams called tributaries, which link to each other, and eventually into a bigger river. Streams can be one of three types, depending on how often they carry water:~ • Ephemeral streams (small, temporary and not defined channels occur only during a rainstorm or after a flood), • Intermittent streams (generally flow only during the wet season), and • Perennial streams (flow year-round, well~defined channel and may have several smaller tributaries). Analysis of the physical features of the catchment leads to understanding of stream catchment relationships and predicts the effects of human influences on different stream types. Slopes influence a catchment's drainage pattern, which very steep slopes coerce 2 rainwater to run off, and increases erosion. In addition, sun and wind affects on catchment area by temperature, evaporation, and transpiration that in turn affect on soil moisture and plants. Most Eroded Watersheds Recently. the most badly eroded watersheds in the world are; in china, the watersheds of the middle basin of the Yellow River (loess plateau region), and in Eastern Nile Countries EN (Ethiopia - Sudan - Egypt). Due to the increasing problems of population and poverty. it is important to conserve soil and water resources into these areas. In 1993, China government in cooperation with the World Bank started executing a project for conservation of soil and water at the loess plateau basin. It was to increase the agricultural products, incomes and to reduce erosion, sediment through an efficient and sustainable use of land and water resources in the tributaries of the yellow river. In 1999, the Nile basin countries launched an initiative to fight poverty and make socio economic development. EN countries initiate a regional integrated multipurpose program to ensure cooperation, and jOint action between them. They identified seven projects for efficient water management, optimal use of the resources, which include the integrated watershed management for their basins to reduce erosion and sediment. Integrated watershed management in China Yellow River and the problems of Loess plateau basin 2 The total drainage area of Yellow River (YR) is 795,000 km , and the total length is 5464 km. The annual average precipitation of the whole basin is 452 mm, which progressively reduces from 600 mm in the southeast to 200 mm in northwest (2). YR is suffering from deficient water resources, serious water and soil erosion, which has led to frequent basin wide drought and tremendous flood disasters in the lower reaches. The loess plateau in middle basin of YR is one of the world's most badly eroded regions, extending for an area of 430,000 km2 Figure (2). It contributes over 90% of the 1.6 billion tons of the total sediment carried by YR annually. To control sediment production and prevent flooding in the downstream densely population region, targeting was for the "severe eroded areas". That have annual erosion rates exceed 5000 ton/km2, for a total area 56000 km2, which contribute to 83% of the river's sediment load. Some areas have erosion rate 30000 tons!km2. Figure (2): Yellow River and Loess Plateau Project, after [2] 3 Sediment Control through Multi-Purpose Dam The YR is well known as sediment-laden river so soil conservation work has been done on the area of its upper and middle reaches. Many large/medium-sized multi-purpose projects of Longyangxia, Liujiaxia, Sanmenxia, Xiaolangdi and Wanjiazhai etc on the main stream were completed. When the Sanmenxia dam located in Henan province in the YR's lower reaches was completed in 1960, sediment accumulation in its reservoir threatened to deplete its storage capacity in a few years. Consequently, the Sanmenxia dam was modified to include sediment-flushing facility to clear its reservoir from accumulated sediment. Roughly, 1/3 of Yellow River's annual flow was used for sediment flushing. Therefore, 3/4 of the total sediment flow was flushed to sea, leaving behind 1/4 of it, the coarse-grain sediment, to silt up the downstream river channel steadily. After thirty-some years of sediment accumulation, Sanmenxia dam's reservoir no longer had the capacity to temper a flood peak. Consequently, the Xiaolangdi dam was built downstream Sanmenxia dam to afford safety to the densely populated downstream region. This Dam is located at the exit of the last gully of the middle reaches of the Yellow River. This large-scale dam has several functions for sediment and flood control, hydropower production, maintenance of minimum flows of the Yellow River downstream reaches, irrigation downstream, and water supply. Even with sediment-flushing provision, the Xiaolangdi dam is expected to have a very limited useful life, if sediment deposition in the river remains unchecked. Sediment Control through Land Utilization The region had probably irregular landform, some rocky terrains would be more uneven, and so it was necessary to devote an extensive labor in leveling the field before farming. The climate in the loess plateau is too dry to support a reasonable vegetation cover, and the loess soil is too loose to be protected from water erosion due to severe rainstorms during the monsoon season by such a sparsely covered surface. So the sediment-control program was based on limited goal of preventing eroded soil from leaving the gullies before it enters any drainage system. How best to carry it out differs as doing of; , • A comprehensive water and soil conservation program over the entire land surface as mentioned later and limiting human activities to prevent the destruction of forests and herding of sheep and goats, • On the other hand, simple proposals to stop sediment flows of the gullies and minor river tributaries, preventing them from reaching the major rivers.