Education programmes of job
Nature of work
Irrigation and Drainage installations engineering profession is a profession that benefit the agricultural sector, agricultural Industry ,Modern Irrigation systems reducewater demands for Irrigation, Increasecrop yield and Improve crop quality.
Irrigation Engineer can work alone or with other engineering groups.
He/she is having the authority and knowing agricultural demands for each plant, and through open or covered drainage system.
Tasks of engineer irrigation and drainage are as follows:
In the administrative area:
- Preparing the terms of private and public tenders for irrigation and drainage projects with the study of technical and financial aspects.
- Evaluating the performance of, to identify their training needs, training and skills enhancement.
- Irrigation and drainage engineer study all installations for irrigation and drainage methods, (submerged, sprinkler and drip Irrigation).
- Irrigation and drainage engineer also study all drainage methods. He/she also studies surface and covered drainage systems.
Environment of work
- The Irrigation and drainage engineer works hard in a tough field environment in the average of ten hours a day, seven days a week, early morning to overcome the effect of sun heat , and sometimes he/she works in weekends.
- The appropriate uniform for the engineer is thick cotton cloth, some materials falling overheads in the site.
- He/she needs multi-technological means to accomplish his/her job. He/she needs heavy digging machines.
- Experiments where the materials used conducting various experiments to make sure that the powers of these materials and conformity with design materials.
- He /she can not work alone and all engineering work of projects need other engineering disciplines.
- He /she fulfills the conditions of international standard specifications for all businesses no matter how small or large, to be worked on to ensure the quality of the performance and not the collapse of these vital installations.
- Irrigation and drainage engineer can only exercise within his work team both in the private or general sector. And he is often the head of the team or the group that he works with (in the general sector he starts with monthly salary about 20,000 s. p).
Professional life
- His/her career in irrigation and drainage develops very fast when he /she gains practical and management experience through the career progression from a beginning engineer in the execution department and then to management of large departments in water management companies, when he /she becomes in charge of planning, design and engineering consultancy.
- He/she has to travel away from his/her residence place to undertake some training sessions, conferences and workshops, or sometimes he/she gives the experience about his/her field of engineering, because the field of irrigation and drainage is varied and develops very fast. The engineer needs to gain knowledge about new technologies , because he/she may need to alter the project design with the beginning of the implementation phase in the light of developments. Therefore always he is in need of consultations and transfer of expertise and access to all the new Technology , executive or investment.
Sectors of careers
Irrigation and Drainage engineer can exercise within the following professional sectors:- Agriculture
- Agro-industrial sector
- Food security sector
- Structural Engineering
- Geotechnical Engineering
- Geology Engineering
- Environmental Engineering
Getting the job
Access to the profession can be through:
- Obtaining a bachelor degree (BSc) in hydraulic engineering department of water engineering to have a knowledge about of the topics; water, hydrological and hydraulic engineering.
- There are no national exams for this profession because gaining experience the first place is very important.
- Joining the order of engineers.
- Career progression: this profession requires specialized computer programs, including Excel, Auto CAD and other design programs.
Skills
- Work effectively within a multidisciplinary team and be familiar with the various work environments.
- Demonstrating effective interpersonal skills in the work environment in terms of the ability to devise solutions and put forward innovative ideas .
- Continuous learning and participating in conferences and scientific events are very important things.
- Accomplishment of the required work in a timely manner and with high quality.
- Management of tasks and resources must be cost effective and there should be a scalability.
- Commitment to professional standards and ethics of the profession.
- Ability to evaluate the performance of employees and work to raise their skills permanently.
- Of the most dangerous tasks for Irrigation and Drainage engineer is irrigation withunnecessary large quantities of water
- One of the priorities of work is to invest these facilities and conduct surveillance and studying of various measurements to measure salinityand quantities of the water drained to see the damage in these facilities and to try to repair and mitigation and damages.
Sources and references
- Bylaws of the Faculty of Civil Engineering Department of Water Engineering at the University of Aleppo – 2006.
- Arab Standard Classification of Occupations - Arab Labor Organization –2008.
- National standards of academic reference (NARS) - The Ministry of Higher Education - 2012 .
- Books of Irrigation and Drainage installations at the University of Aleppo and books from , different places in the world.
- System of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
- TGL German and American and British studies of water ..
- Kasaan Mohammad Nezaar : 1989 – Irrigation (1+2) - Directorate of books and publications university - the University of Aleppo.
- Kasaan Mohammad Nezaar : 1990 – Drainage and Reclamation of lands - Directorate of books and publications university - the University of Aleppo.
- B. Z. Kinore-Elsevier :Manual of surface Drainage Engineering.
- H. J. Schaef : Wasserbereitstellung zur Bewässerung –VEB Deutscher Landwirtschaftswerlag – Berlin – 1981.
- James N. Luthin: Drainage Engineering – John wiley& Sons, Inc. – New York – London - Sydney – 1966.L. D. Dumm and R. J. Winger : Designing a Subsurface Drainage System in an Irrigated Area Through Use of Transient – Flow Concept. "Paper presented at the American Society of Agricultural Engineers Meeting. Miami Beach – June – 1963.