Design and Development of Rubber Dams for Watersheds in the Climate Change Scenario

A rubber dam (flexible check dam) is an inflatable structure build across a stream used for water conservation, flood control, and regulating flow of water in the stream. When it is inflated, it serves as a check dam/weir, and when it is deflated, it functions as a flood mitigation device and sediment flushing. Generally, most of the check dams in watersheds are made of concrete, steel, stone, soil, or vegetation. The use of rubber as a construction material is a technological innovation in materials application. At the same time, the check dams are rigid one and they cannot allow more water to flow over it at times of heavy flood/runoff or store sufficient runoff to conserve the rainfall at lean season for use by farmer for different rabi crops like pulses, oilseeds, and vegetables. To give more flexibility in release and control of water flow across the streams, research efforts were made at Directorate of Water Management, Bhubaneswar, in collaboration with Indian Rubber Manufacturers Research Association, Central Institute for Research on Cotton Technology, and Kusumgar Corporate Private Limited, Mumbai, to design, fabricate, and install rubber sheets instead of cement material for check dams and to study their impact on crop performance. Five rubber dams were installed as different hydraulic structures for various uses in watersheds at different locations of Khurda district, Odisha, i.e., Mendhasal, Baghamari, Badapokharia, and Chandeswar with innovative manufacturing, fabrication, and installation technology. This is the first indigenous rubber dam in our country. The installation of rubber dams in watersheds has increased the production and productivity of rice crop, helped in taking second crop thus increasing cropping intensity and net profit of the farmers.