Figure 2: The use of water resources in South Africa
Irrigation is an age-old art and in
the words of ND Gulhati of India:
“Irrigation in many countries is an
old art – as old as civilization – but
for the whole world it is a modern
science – the science of survival”.
Irrigation is of first importance in
the more arid regions, but it is becoming increasingly important in
humid regions and although irrigation is one of the oldest known agricultural techniques, improvements
are still being made in irrigation
methods and practices.
Everyone involved in irrigation has a
certain responsibility:
the researcher, developer, and
supplier for providing practical
and useful technology;
the designer, who must adapt
the design so that it is technical-
ly and agriculturally appropriate;
and
the producer, who must use the
system properly and exercise
sound irrigation practices.
the government, who must create an enabling environment for
sustainable development of irrigation
A very interesting concept, Virtual
Water is the amount of water that
is embedded in food or other products needed for its production. Virtual water refers to the amount of
water required to produce a good
from start to finish or it is the volume of freshwater used to produce
the product, measured at the place
where the product was actually
produced. The following is interesting to know:
It requires 13 litres of water to
produce one tomato,
It requires 25 litres of water to
produce one potato,
It requires 50 litres of water to
produce one orange,
It requires 70 litres of water to
produce one apple,
It requires 140 litres of water to
produce one cup of coffee and
It requires 2500 litres of water to
produce one hamburger
In order to conserve water resources, close attention must be
paid to the performance of irrigation systems and continued evaluation and maintenance of irrigation
systems are imperative to keep the
performance on a high level and to
optimize water use efficiency. See
figure 3.