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

amount of RS.25 but during the year 1998 the salary of Neergunty has been increased to
Rs.600 per month. Now each farmer is charged at the rate of 50 per month during the
Kharif and Rs.60 per month during Rabi. At the time of creating the system Rs.IOO to
Rs.150 per acre had been collected from each of the farmers. However, during
maintenance, problems began to crop up; there were delayed payments and also defaulters.
This led to the recording of transactions. It started from issue of receipts and gradually grew
to maintenance of records, accounting, verification approval, etc. Now farmers are issued
receipts for payments of the amount and a record is maintained to show the total receipts
and various expenditures. During some years they had a surplus amount, which was carried
over to the next year. During some other years they have faced shortage, which is then
collected from the farmers. The surplus amount is either utilized for development of works
like road repair or used to give concessions in the maintenance charges. The association has
a President and a Secretary who do honorary work for administration, interacts with the
outside agencies, look after tinancial transactions and maintain records.
This system has been functioning for the last twenty-five years. In the mid-eighties the
villagers saw a threat to the system, where some of the farmers in the upper reaches of nala
were trying to divert the water from the nala to their lands. Although farmers are getting
water from DY 3112 they did not want to give up the nala water, moreover they wanted to
protect the irrigation system created and maintained by them. The farmers got their
association registered under the name "Hulkihal Nala Sarabaraju Maduva Raithar Sahakar
Sangha" with the help of CADA in 1997 under section 7 of the Karnataka Co-operative
Societies Act. The farmers now feel that they have got a legal front to protect the system.
The association is hydraulically based with a clearly defined service area and it serves
about 696 acres covering 172 farmers. The functional constituents of the association are
provided in appendix-4.1.
The WUA in the study area though governed by the co-operative society act, has the
authority to define what the irrigation services will be and the authority to arrange for the
provision of those services. Although the WU A is regarded as a more democratic body visa-vis
the government, the internal differentiation within the association perpetuated by the
heterogeneous hierarchical society often hinder the participatory process of social
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