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

mentioned the effective training of farmers in the latest technology to mitigate such adverse
effects.
Studies on impact of Irrigation Management Transfer on environment
Irrigation Management Transfer (lMT) is one of the increasingly emerging concerns of
irrigation planners globally. Some of the key elements of the recent literature, which are
relevant to the study, are summarized below. Only a few studies refer to the impacts of IMT
on the environment and these are mostly qualitative.
Yap-Salinas (1994) reports that irrigation transfer in the Dominican Republic, through the
establishment of local organizations to regulate land and water use, has halted and reversed
land degradation and loss of soil, which in tum has reduced health risks previously
associated with waterlogging from poor drainage. But detailed analysis of the benefits
derived from improved drainage in terms of economic or agricultural productivity is not
done. Howcver, in the absence of comparative data it is ditlicult to assess the relative
contributions of the installation of new drainage facilities and institutional reform in
reducing these risks.
In Chile, water users' associations, which took over the control of irrigation systems, was
empowered by the transfer and by the 1981 law water code. They successfully motivated
paper factories to invest in pollution reducing equipment, by threatening to cut off water to
industrial users (Meinzen-Dick et al. 1997). Farmers in the districts of Saldana and Recio in
Colombia where irrigation management was transferred complained that, deforestation over
the previous 10 to IS years had dramatically increased the silt load in the water diverted
into their schemes and had also caused a steady decline in the stream flow at the diversion
weirs. They organized coHectively to prevent further deforestation in the water catchment
areas above their irrigation districts (Vermillion & Garces-Restrepo 1996).
There are instances where IMT has not been very successful in maintaining the drainage
infrastructure that is very important to mitigate salinity and waterlogging problems. In Peru,
the operation and maintenance (O&M) of not only irrigation but also drainage systems was
transferred to water users associations in 1989. Since then, they are responsible for the
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