Recasting Citizenship for Development - File UPI

Women and Water Policy 249
IMPROVED PRODUCTIVITY AND EFFICIENCY
Irrigation efficiency at both the project and the farm levels has been one
of the important goals of the irrigation sector. However, improved productivity
has hardly been seen in the context of the regenerative and sustainable
use of the water resources. This myopic view has limited the expansion
of the total irrigated area to the pre-defined command area. High productivity
at the level of the irrigation system does not automatically mean that
all the households benefit from their involvement in irrigation, or that
they benefit to the same extent. Nor does a high productivity or income
at the household level always imply that all household members have
contributed equally to this income and have also shared it equally.
Women’s use of irrigation water is seen in uses other than irrigating
the ‘main’ crops. Indeed, informal withdrawal of water for small patches
of vegetables or for domestic uses by women is not uncommon. However,
from the conventional analyses of the irrigation efficiency model, this
distraction from irrigating the main crops would very likely be seen as
wastage. In most irrigated areas, it is evident that the obverse of improved
productivity and irrigation efficiency is increased labour for women.
Although there is a positive aspect to improved labour opportunities,
often the increased burden of work for women does not substantially
improve their status or relieve them of their domestic workloads
(SOPPECOM 2002; Vasavada 2005; Ahmed 2005; Zwarteveen 1998).
DECENTRALISED MANAGEMENT: TRANSFER
OF POWER TO THE PEOPLE OR TRANSFER
OF A SICK SECTOR
In the present paradigm, decentralised management is often viewed as
the acceptable side of economic efficiency. It is considered a human investment
in recovering costs on the physical structure. The state is rolling
back, and has been promoting the idea of decentralised water users associations
(WUAs), which it is hoped would manage the resource better
(see Box 11.1). However, decentralised management is often limited to