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

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PIM policy should not just stops at the entry to the fann. The greatest technical
challenge lies in the integration of soil, agriculture and irrigation water management
strategies that need to be integrated. Hence the crux in a major irrigation project is not
for a reduced agency intervention but for a better intervention, which is more
responsive to the fanners needs.
Some suggestions in the formation ofWUA
• Before the tlmnation of WUA, system rehabilitation becomes crucial. For, none of
the distrihution canals and hydraulic structures has the original design standards. The
fact that fanncrs do not have the requisite technical skills and financial resources to
restore the system to design standards, without which efficient distribution and use
of water remains only as a myth, merits attention of the refonn planners. The spread
and scale of rehabilitation should, to the extent possible, take local conditions and
stakeholders views and suggestions about the ways and means of restoring the
system, including the placement of irrigation structures, to ensure its sustainability.
It should be made clear to fanners that once the system is handed over to them, it
becomes their property and therefore the responsibility of maintaining it rests
exclusively with them.
• The transfer of the system should lead to the birth of the WUA with a built-in
property right to all users. The present study and past experiences show that an
institution born out of users' interests is sustained for generations and those cremed
by the government nonnally or an outside agency invariably is short lived with
limited success. A set of conceptual themes, namely, defining water as an economic
good, decentralized management, delivery structures and participation of the
stakeholders need to be well articulated and implanted in the mindset of the
irrigation engineers and fanners.
• The development process should be participatory based on a logically-framed
stepwise approach, where entry and exit points for water users, irrigation engineers
and the allied agricultural extension agency are clearly spelt out. The role of the
WUAs should he clearly articulated, discussed in the social mobilization process and
should be mutually accepted. Those discussions may include, among others, nonwater
priorities, sharing of system rchahilitation and modernization costs, selection
of operation and management interventions with huilt-in flexibility to adapt to the
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