Spate Irrigation

Spate irrigation is a traditional water diversion and spreading technology under which seasonal floods of short duration – springing from the rainfall-rich highlands – are diverted from ephemeral rivers (wadis) to irrigate cascades of leveled and bunded fields in the coastal plains. Floodwater is distributed from field to field: when a field is completely flooded, water is conveyed to the immediate downstream field by breaching one of the bunds. This process continues until all the water is used up.