Organizational Change for Participatory Irrigation Management

ureaucracies and farmer organizations (FOs) and the degree of external assistance. Hence,
the following summary is organized in four parts: the current situation of irrigation
development, organizational setup of irrigation administration, recent developments in PIM and
future prospects.
Current Situation of Irrigation Development
Many countries in the region have had a long tradition of irrigation. And, in the recent
past, water resources development has been assigned a significant priority in public investment
strategies in many of the participating countries. Construction of large systems was the
tradition in such efforts in many countries like Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand. This
trend was reversed in Thailand and in the recent years the focus has been shifted towards
smaller systems. The irrigation potential of India has increased by four folds between 1947 and
1997. In Bangladesh, on the other hand, the recent developments were mainly in groundwater
utilization, especially through shallow tube-wells. Despite such huge development efforts in
recent years, however, there are problems such as inefficiencies in operation, cost and time
overruns, waste of water, water-logging, groundwater pollution and overexploitation, problems
associated with pricing of water and financial losses. In Vietnam, upgrading and rehabilitation
of irrigation system have contributed to increased food production in the recent past.
In many countries, further expansion of area under irrigation is now constrained by
several factors such as decline in donor funding, increased cost of new construction, and
increased demand for meager budgets of governments of developing countries. In many
countries in the region, the easiest and cheapest sources however already were exhausted.
Consequently, the potential for expanding the area under irrigation has diminished rapidly.
There are exceptions, however. For example, in the host country, Philippines, only 43 percent
of the potential irrigable area is being used. In Iran too, only 7.8 million ha out of the potential
irrigable area of 20 million ha has been developed. In India, it was reported that the potential
created for surface water is about 75,853,000 ha whereas its utilization is only 43,897,000 ha.
In general, irrigation still plays a significant role in the economies of most of the
countries. The exceptions are the more advanced economies such as Japan, the Republic of
Korea and the Republic of China. In Japan, even though agriculture accounts for two-thirds
of the total water use, the role of irrigation in the economy has declined. The techniques of wet
rice had been adopted since third century BC, and by about 17 century AD, it had become the
basis of the economy and finance. However, the food self-sufficiency ratio, area of agricultural
activity as well as proportion of population involved in agriculture had continuously decreased
in the past three decades. In these developed economies, a substantial effort has been taken to
consolidate land, improve land and water-related infrastructure and the current tendency is to
establish advanced land and water use methods and decision support systems to enhance the
productivity of these two important natural resources. The paper from the Republic of China
provided an excellent description of such an effort. Malaysia has now taken initiatives in land
consolidation and improving canals and other structures.
Organizational Setup of Irrigation Administration
It was revealed that in many countries, several Ministries, divisions of Ministries as well
as a large number of government institutions are involved in irrigation, directly or indirectly.
In Thailand for example, it was reported that 32 institutions are involved. The number varies
across countries. For example, seven major national level departments deal with irrigation in
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