The importance of the topic addressed should no longer be questioned, if we only take into account the current state of irrigation systems in Romania, the current decline of national agriculture, a decline aggravated by the droughts of the last decade, the alarm signals raised by local specialists in the field and the need to take the first steps towards functional efficiency, at least of the irrigation systems still usable. Among these are the irrigation systems in the west of the country, the Fântânele – Şag Arad irrigation system, being just one of the systems taken into consideration as an analysed case study.