The drag reduction method by polymer additives is a common strategy used to minimize friction losses when carrying fluids (water, oil, slurries) in pipes over long distances. Previous studies showed that the interactions between the polymer and the turbulent structures of the flow tend to modify the streamwise velocity profile close to the walls by adding a so-called elastic sublayer between the classical viscous and log layers. The gain in linear head losses can reach up to 80%, depending on the roughness of the walls and the concentration of polymers. The application of this technique to sewers and the subsequent gain in discharge capacity motivated this work to quantitatively measure the drag reduction in classical open-channel flows. Three measurement campaigns were performed in a dedicated long flume for several water discharges and several polymer concentrations: backwater curves over smooth and rough channel walls (including velocity and turbulent shear stress profiles) and flows around emerging obstacles. The addition of polymers, even in limited concentrations, allowed a high friction decrease with a typical Darcy-Weisbach coefficient reduced by factors of 2 and 1.5, respectively in smooth and rough walls configurations without obstacles; but without strong modifications of the non-dimensional velocity profiles. Oppositely, when adding emerging obstacles,