**3.5 Dug Well (DW) irrigation for severely water-stressed area**

A dug well is typically built in a severely water-stressed environment with no sources of surface water or aquifer that produces groundwater. By a dug well, low water consuming crops, such as tomato, cauliflower, chilies, eggplant, and other

*The Unique Approaches to Water Management for Transforming Bangladesh's Drought-Prone… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.105840*

### **Figure 7***.*

*Buried pipeline system: (a) pipe laying stage, (b) header tank for raising pressure head, and (c) outlet with air vent (source: [22]).*

**Figure 8.** *A dug well in a vegetable field (source: [12]).*

vegetables, can be cultivated. During rainfall, rainwater (RW) is collected by the solar panel cum rainwater harvesting device and stored in the dug well. A solar-powered pump lifts the stored water to an overhead tank; it is then fed to the crop area for irrigation. The details of DW are shown in **Figure 8**.

### **3.6 Prepaid metering in irrigation management**

To avoid the overuse of valuable water, BMDA has introduced a prepaid metering system in irrigation management. Each farmer has a prepaid card (user card) that can be recharged by paying a certain amount of money to the BMDA local office or recruited dealer. When a farmer needs irrigation water for his crop field, he inserts his card into the irrigation equipment's prepaid meter, such as DTW or LLP. If the card has a balance, the irrigation pump automatically starts and distributes irrigation water. The

## **Figure 9.**

*Prepaid metering system: (a) a woman inserts her prepaid card into the irrigation equipment's prepaid meter, and (b) the system is monitored over the internet network from the BMDA's headquarters (source: [22]).*

### **Figure 10.**

*BMDA Mohanpur office campus MAR model: (a) schematic view of whole MAR model, (b) longitudinal sectional image of FU and RW, (c) photo of FU with RW, and (d) GWL hydrograph illustrating recharge performance with rain water infiltration (source: [12]).*

DTW automatically turns off when the balance on the inserted card is zero or the card is removed from the meter. Farmers only use irrigation water for the actual needs of crop fields because it is a prepaid system. As a result, by lowering irrigation expenses, the overuse of irrigation water is reduced. The irrigation actions of this system can be monitored

*The Unique Approaches to Water Management for Transforming Bangladesh's Drought-Prone… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.105840*

centrally through the internet using a digital method. Now, for all farmers of an irrigation scheme, it is possible to cultivate crops with less water. **Figure 9** depicts the system.

## **3.7 Application of MAR model to enhance groundwater recharge**

In 2016, at the BMDA Mohanpur zonal office site, a recharge well (RW) with a water filter unit (FU) was built as a modified MAR model taking into account the lithology, as well as the aquifer condition and maximum daily rainfall (**Figure 10**). The uPVC pipeline collects rooftop rainwater from the office building and a training shed, filters it via the FU's sand-gravel filtration media, and then recharges the groundwater through RW. To monitor water level fluctuations, an observation well (OW) with an auto water level recorder (AWLR) system has been installed. The rainfall data is recorded at a rain gauge station. The water level may now be automatically monitored from the BMDA headquarters in Rajshahi via the internet network every day of the year, which is the pioneer attempt in Bangladesh [17].

### **3.8 Drinking water supply**

There was an acute shortage of drinking water (DW) in this area. So, finding no way, people had to collect pond water for drinking, domestic and other usages faced multifarious water-borne diseases like cholera, diarrhea, dysentery, etc. About 15% of irrigation wells of BMDA are located near the villages. A 25,000 liter capacity overhead water tank with a 2400 m pipeline network is constructed to supply drinking water to the rural people from this irrigation well alongside irrigation. **Figure 11** shows the drinking water supply system in detail.

Through the analysis of collected data and different studies following observations can be mentioned:

• The buried uPVC pipeline system has a mean conveyance efficiency of between 94.46 and 95.37%, with a rate of water loss of between 5.45 and 6.11%, and about 80% of farmers commend it [23]. For the 15525 DTW schemes, a total of 2000 hectares of land have been saved [24].

### **Figure 11.**

*(a) An overhead water tank close to an irrigation DTW, (b) women are collecting water for drinking purposes, and (c) using the system's water, a woman is washing utensils (source: [22]).*

