Participatory Irrigation Management in India: Implementations and Gaps

Abstract

During the last decade, most of the major states of India have undertaken profound reform measures in the irrigation sector to facilitate farmers' participation in irrigation management either under externally aided irrigation development and agricultural intensification programs or through state government initiatives. These states emphasize decentralization of water management and empowerment of water users by encouraging the farmers to form Water Users Associations (WUAs) to take over the responsibility of operation and maintenance of downstream parts of the irrigation system, distribution of water among water users, and collection of water rates. Although thousands of WUAs have been formed across India and these have taken over the management functions of irrigation systems, the functional efficiency of WUAs in ensuring efficient water use and equitable water allocation is far from satisfactory. A careful examination of the implementation of participatory irrigation management (PIM) in India reveals that the process is fraught with many difficulties due to heterogeneity of farmers, caste-class cleavages, physical system inefficiency, half-hearted support from the irrigation bureaucracy, lack of committed local leadership, inadequate capacity building, and lack of proper incentives. The ultimate success and sustainability of the PIM movement depends on some fundamental factors, such as cohesiveness, common interest and collective efforts of water users, effective leadership of the office bearers of WUAs, political will of the party in power, bureaucratic commitment of irrigation executives, governmental patronage, legal support, financial viability of WUAs, and the catalyzing role of the change agents. To achieve the intended benefits of PIM, an integrated and comprehensive reform is necessary.