Beneficiary Participation in Irrigation Water Management: The Kerala

use of water users associations elsewhere (in other States like Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra
as also in other counties) were not at all made by the BFAs in our study area.
BFAs are statutorily obliged to summon the general body meeting before 15 March every
year. This is considered important since the general body is the barometer of the ‘activity
status’ of the association. The general body (i) reviews the audited statement of accounts of
the year; (ii) approves the budget for the ensuing year, and (iii) elects the new officebearers.
It is observed that out of the total 457 respondents, 58 to 74 percent of respondents
held the view that these things were never carried out, 9 to 14 percent claimed them to have
been carried out ‘some times’, 4 to 13 percent were emphatic that they happened ‘often’
and 6 to 19 percent were sure that they were held ‘always’ (Table 4.13a).
Our field investigations and perusal of documents indicate that all these rival claims are
correct and justified. It is natural that respondents of the defunct BFAs deny these formalities
to have been done since they are unaware of any such happenings; as for the few functioning
BFAs, they were carried out, ‘sometimes’ in a few, ‘often’ in some others, and ‘always’ in
the rest. Among the three functions to be carried out by the general body, the one that is
done in all cases is election of the new office-bearers; and the least performed function is
presentation of the budget for the ensuing year. The fact is that the same office-bearers used
to be elected in successive years in most cases. Since the recurrent sources of finance are
almost zero, most of the BFAs had practically no statement of accounts to present and for
that matter no new budget. They were involved only in a limited number of activities, and
whatever small amounts were required, were met from the private funds of office-bearers.
They had relatively large holdings of land, were relatively better off than others, and were
elected from year to year. As between OBs and OMs, their opinions about the performance
of these functions showed broad agreement (Table 4.13 b).
Partial performance
Conflicts among farmers, factional feuds and disputes among regions in the project command,
concerning the operation, management, and distribution of irrigation water in the canal net
work are acknowledged to be universally common. And they have remained an insurmountable
problem, lacking effective solution for irrigation authorities, at all times and in every place.
Water users associations were formed, therefore, in many countries, taking recourse to the
experience of irrigation administrators that, success in irrigation, if at all, could be achieved
only through enlisting the mass participation of beneficiaries in the every-day operation and
management of the distribution system. BFAs, formed in the study area were based on this
philosophy and resolution of conflicts among the farmers was therefore one of their cardinal
functions. The extent to which this purpose was achieved by the sample BFAs may now be
examined.
Here again, claims are varied; while a few claim frequent and successful intervention in
conflicts, another section admits that performance was adhoc and inter-periodical; there
were several others (72 per cent) who denied any performance at all. About 5 percent of the
respondents exposed their ignorance of BFA having any such function at all. Thirty-one out
of 48 OBs, (constituting 65 percent) reported total inactivity on the part of BFAs in this
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