Aly S.A. Abdel-Mawgoud**, Mohamed B. El-Shewikh***, Aly I. Nagib Abdel-Aal* and Mohamed I.I. Abdel-Khalik( 2003). Open Drainage And Moling For Desalinization Of Salty Clay Soils In
Northeastern Egypt
2.3. 9th International Drainage Workshop, September 10-13, 2003 In Utrecht, The Netherlands
Abstract: This work is a part of composite studies dealing with problem marine clay salty lands of low level (0 m MSL), underlain by a permanent saline groundwater, and which had not yet been provided with subsurface drainage system. The study was conducted in the experimental drainage field at El-Serw Research Station, Northeastern Delta, near Lake Manzala with open field drains involving 2 spacing treatments 20 and 40. Later, moling was executed perpendicular to the field drains. The objective of this article is to follow the extent of soil desalinization obtained with the above drainage practices, along 5 cropping seasons. A slow, gradual, non-uniform decrease is observed in the salinity of the profiles of the test plots up to 120 cm. The decrease depends on the initial salinity of the profile layers. The degree of reduction is higher in 20m treatment. Compared to the initial state, highly significant reduction in the mean salinity of the profiles occurred in both spacing treatments at the last cropping season after moiling. Subsurface layers remained slightly saline. The reduction is realized in spite of the persisting high salinity of the groundwater. Moiling could be considered in conjunction with open drainage when dealing with similar soil conditions, which need special water management to raise productivity.
Keywords: (Mole drainage, Open drains, Clay soil, saline groundwater table. )
