The Buried Diffuser and the Draining Floater: New Technologies for Irrigation

The buried diffuser and the draining floater are new technologies invented and tested at Arid Regions Institute (Tunisia) during about 27 years.

Since 2013 , both technologies are  manufactured and sold by Chahtech SA an innovative SME(Djerba Tunisia).(www.chahtech.com)

The buried diffuser is an underground irrigation method for the permanent conventional irrigation of :

• trees (fruit trees, forest trees, ornamental trees) and shrubs,
• vegetables in fields and in green houses,
• plants in containers, pots or boxes,
• landscaping ,
• Annual crops such as sunflower, soybean, sugar cane, millet, sorghum, cassava, corn etc.

The diffuser is also a solution for drought mitigation by "anticipating the irrigation" of the trees" or by

"Injecting and storing the rain water in the deep soil layers of the trees plantations."

• the "anticipated irrigation "   is a new concept for seasonal drought mitigation . In rainfed agriculture , It allows  to save and conserve the huge of water received during the wet season, for the next dry season. in irrigated agriculture,  the “anticipated irrigation’’ allows to irrigate(only 1 irrigation) in winter instead of  the dry season.   The amount of water of the “anticipated irrigation” should cover the total need of the crop during the hot or dry season (spring and summer). This water amount is stored in the deep soil layers will be used by the deep or sub surface roots systems of the crops.
• The "Water injection in the deep soil layers", is also a new concept for long duration (2 till 4 years) droughts mitigation. The “water injection in the deep soil layers” is useful especially for trees crops. The injected water comes from: dams, rivers, and springs. The amount of the injected water could cover the need of the trees for several years (2 to 3years) when the soil below 50cm is thick (1 meter or more). This injected water is conserved (stored) in the deep soil layers (50 cm below the soil surface) and used later by the deep root systems of the trees during a long drought period: six months till 3years. During the Drought the trees produce normally using the injected and stored water.    A simulation of water injection has been done in a farmer field in the arid region of Matmata (South of    Tunisia) in February 2013, using the 15/30 diffuser model. The soil is 4 meters thick and contains 15% clay, 30% loam and 55% fine sand. The injection duration is 52 days none stop (days and nights. The water flow during the injection is 8 litters per hour.  In July, 3 months after stopping the injection, a trench has been dug, just 10 cm beside the diffuser. This trench is 10 meters long, 70cm large and 3 meters deep. This trench showed that the moistened soil volume has the shape of a “bulb” with 6 meters diameter and 2 meters deep as illustrated in following shortcut. According to long injection period (15 days to 90 days none stop: days and nights), it is recommended to use our “energy less” system of water “pumping” and distribution using the gravity. This system uses our second product: “the draining floater”.

The buried diffuser has several important advantages:

• Great saving(70% less than drip irrigation) of water, energy, fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides, manpower,
•  important reduction of the number of irrigations: 1 irrigation instead of 4 irrigations,
• important growth and crop productivity and irrigation water efficiency : for the same amount of water the buried diffuser produces 2 til 4 times more than drip irrigation  

The draining floater

The Draining Floater allows to «pump» » and to distribute the water using the gravity. It uses " the siphon principle ". This principle works with a inversed « U » shaped pipe. This siphon pipe has a section with orifice immerged in the water of the reservoir to be emptied.  The second section connected with the atmosphere. This second section should be 2 times longer then the first section. This second section is connected to water flowing regulation tap. 

The first section is connected to a draining floater allowing the filtration of the “pumped” water. This draining floater is always floating even when the water level decrease. A second tap is connected to the siphon pipe in continuity with the vertical part of the second section. This tap is used to prime the “pumping” by filling the second section of the siphon through the orifice of the second tap (Siphon priming tap). When this section is filled the Siphon priming tap is closed. 

To begin the pumping and the distribution of the water using the gravity, the Water flowing regulation tap is opened and the water is pumped and distributed continuously without any intervention. The “Water flowing regulation tap” could be closed and opened at any time without priming the siphon.

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Taxonomy

• Irrigation
• Irrigation and Drainage
• Water Access
• Access
• Water Supply
• Consumption
• Drinking Water