Irrigation tank

An irrigation tank or tank is an artificial reservoir of any size. In countries like Sri Lanka and India they are part of historic methods of harvesting and preserving rainwater, critical in regions without perennial water resources. A tank is often an earthen bund (embankment or levee) constructed across a long slope to collect and store surface water from the above catchment and by taking advantage of local topography. The water would be used primarily for agriculture and drinking water, but also for bathing and rituals.[1] The word tank is the English language substitute for several vernacular terms.[2]

Tank irrigation, or reservoir irrigation, utilizes tanks and connected sluices and channels to direct water to the crops. This surface irrigation method can be used to grow crops like rice.[3] Tank irrigation in Thailand is a newer method of irrigation as compared to peninsular India.[4] Similar small-scale reservoir based irrigation methods using earthen bunds are used in countries like Ghana.[5]

A tank cascade is a system of irrigation tanks in single or multiple chains where water from a higher tank flows into lower tanks. Examples of tank cascades include Sri Lanka's tank cascade system,[6] the Indian city of Bangalore's cascading lakes in the Varthur lake series,[7] and the Indian city of Madurai's Vandiyur tank cascade system.[8]

  1. ^ "Tank management". rainwaterharvesting.org. Centre for Science and Environment. Retrieved 17 October 2006.
  2. ^ "Architecture on the Indian Subcontinent - glossary". indoarch.org. Archived from the original on 6 November 2006. Retrieved 18 December 2006.
  3. ^ Shah, Esha (2003). Social Designs: Tank Irrigation Technology and Agrarian Transformation in Karnataka, South India. Thesis published by Orient Longman as a part of Wageningen University Water Resources Series. pp. 3, 34, 37. ISBN 90-5808-827-8 – via Wageningen University.
  4. ^ Easter, K. William; Palanisami, Kuppannan (1986), "Tank Irrigation In India And Thailand: An Example Of Common Property Resource Management", Staff Papers, Staff Papers Series, University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics: 1, 5
  5. ^ "Chapter 1.1.8 and 1.1.9". Sourcebook of Alternative Technologies for Freshwater Augmentation in Africa (UNEP-IETC). 1998 – via New Zealand Digital Library Project, University of Waikato.
  6. ^ Geekiyanage, Nalaka; Pushpakumara, D.K.N.G. (2013). "Ecology of ancient Tank Cascade Systems in island Sri Lanka". Journal of Marine and Island Cultures. 2 (2): 93–101. Bibcode:2013JMICu...2...93G. doi:10.1016/j.imic.2013.11.001.
  7. ^ Sudarshan, P.; Mahesh, M. K.; Ramachandra, T. V. (2020). "Dynamics of Metal Pollution in Sediment and Macrophytes of Varthur Lake, Bangalore". Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology. 104 (4): 411–417. Bibcode:2020BuECT.104..411S. doi:10.1007/s00128-020-02816-x. ISSN 0007-4861. PMID 32152684. S2CID 212642148.
  8. ^ Srivastava, Aman; Chinnasamy, Pennan (2021). "Water management using traditional tank cascade systems: a case study of semi-arid region of Southern India". SN Applied Sciences. 3 (3): 281. doi:10.1007/s42452-021-04232-0. ISSN 2523-3963. S2CID 234022533.