An Irrigation Grand Challenge: Salt management and drainage water disposal in irrigated areas

It is estimated that close to 100 million hectares of irrigated land suffer from moderate to severe salinization and waterlogging. This is considered to be one of the major impediments to sustainable irrigation management and to food security more broadly. Irrigation water mobilizes salt in the root zone, and this impairs both downstream and ground water quality. There are few irrigation schemes that have effective salt management and saline water disposal strategies. The seminar will discuss some basin wide approaches in various parts of the world, and incentives to promote better water and salt management.

Co-sponsored by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Abdul Latif Jameel World Water and Food Security Lab