45
Globally, the existing drainage system is estimated to be 35 million ha within the
irrigated areas (Figure 10.1). COMCEC countries have the majority of this amount
(about 25 million hectares). Asian countries have 20 million ha of drainage system in
the COMCEC Region. Data is unavailable for the African Group countries, hence it
couldn’t be assessed (Annex 9).
Figure 10.1. Distribution of Drainage Areas
Source: FAOSTAT, 2013
A similar situation is observed in non-irrigated cultivated areas (dry farming
areas). Approximately 10 million hectares of agricultural land in the non-irrigated
cultivated area of the world is needed to be drained. Approximately 2 million ha of this
amount is in the COMCEC Member Countries, which is close to that of OECD
Countries (2.5 million ha area). In Arab countries, totally 32 thousand ha of land that is
required to be drained is exist. However, there is an insufficient data for making sound
analysis for this sub-region.
A general evaluation indicates that more than half of the drained irrigated land
area all around the world is in the COMCEC Region when a comparison is made
between the total drained irrigated lands in the COMCEC Member Countries and