Water Users Association and Irrigation Management - Institute for ...

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collection of water cess and presentation of accounts or reports. Another important aspect
discussed during meetings is to do with sheep penning, provision of sand, etc. to mitigate
soil-related problems.
While office bearers regularly participate In the meetings, all others attend when
emergency meetings are held on occasions when adequate water is not available in the
canal or to resolve conflicts or when an urgent action is needed. Small and marginal
fanners sometimes do not attend because, they are employed in wage labor to supplement
the marginal income from their tiny fann holdings. They attend meetings only if they
require any help or infonnation from the WUA. Absentee landlords who are not in the
village are not able to attend meetings regularly. Members who own land in the command
and stay in the village but their primary occupation is not agriculture but business and other
fonnal employment did not show much interest in attending meetings. They, however, get
a regular feed back on the issues discussed in the meetings, and offer suggestions, if and
when required.
Overall performance of WUA
In order to assess the perfonnance of WUA, fanners were asked a number of questions.
According to them, five important factors have led to the sustainability of the WUA. None
of the interviewed fanners expressed alienation from the system of management. They
were asked to rank one for most important factor and five for least important. The ranking
took some tIme but in the end the sample fanners appeared sure about their responses.
Table 7.13 gives the result ofranking of sample fanners.
It can be noted from Table 7.13 that 33 out of 47 fanners ranked water distribution as being
the most Important factor for the sustainability of the WUA. Working optimal water
distrihution schedules and managing uncertainty is one of the most important activities of
the WUA. All fanners proportionally share both excesses and shortfalls in water deliveries
in the system. The distribution policy ensures fairness to all the members of the WUA and
according to the distributive justice theory of Rawls (1971); one policy is superior to
another if the welfare of the worst off individual is better. The fanners recognize control of
free riders as the next most important factor. The WUA has been able to curb free riders
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