| Abstract | In Nepal, substantial investments have been made in the past for developing the
irrigation infrastructure of the country. Yet the irrigation development is at the rudimentary
stage and the net area irrigated is not more than forty five percent of the total irrigable area.
Furthermore, there is a growing concern that even most of the existing irrigation systems,
particularly managed by the agency have not functioned efficiently. Some people considered
that this "Performance Deficit" was due to an imbalance between the roles of the government
agencies and the farmers, in all phases of irrigation development including planning, design,
operations, and maintenance. According to this view, which is now widely accepted, the
results of irrigation development shoul.d be much more satisfactory if the irrigator's role in
decision making was increased, in all of these development phases. In this context, currently
there is keen interest in many developing countries in transferring responsibility for operating
large publicly constructed irrigation systems to farmer beneficiaries of the systems. To
understand the implications of such a shift on the performance of a system and the conditions
under which such transfers can take place, a case study was undertaken to document the causes
and likely results of such transfer. The West Gandak Irrigation System ( WGIS ) in
Nawalparasi district of Western Nepal was selected for study.
The WGIS was initially constructed by the Indian government and was developed under
command area development project ( CADP ). The government of Nepal recognized the need
to introduce appropriate management interventions to reverse the deteriorating condition of the
WGIS and initiated joint management program in 1992. An important goal among others was
to build the capacity of the local irrigation community to manage, maintain and operate the
system in a sustainable manner to fully and productively utilize both local and government
resources. The WGIS is one of the first system to fall into the joint management program.
It took about one and half year to form the water users' associations ( WUA's ) at
different levels and register it to give legal status. Now, most of the canals systems at branch
and below it are run by WUA and the main canal management is still the responsibility of the
government, although in consultation with the main committee. Presently, the Nepal gandak
main committee is still too reliant on the department of irrigation and critical task is to take
more management responsibility including that of the main canal of the system .
. Several features of the management transfer process at West Gandak are unique, at least
in Nepal. There has been some progress towards the WUA's taking over management of the
system. The progress has led to the better utilization of water and increased productivity of the
system. While it is too early to judge whether the improvement will sustain, there are at least
some good signs in the farmers enthusiasm, some activities in operation, maintenance and
especially mobilization of labor resources.
However, if there are some initial positive results, there are equally many difficulties
and uncertainties in the process. There is no reason to be more satisfied with the initial results
of the transfer process considering that the initial condition of the canal was almost non
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functional and the farmers had no any organized efforts for it. Though, developing
constitution, electing general assembly of water users, registering it to give lega status and
transferring responsibilities are necessary but not sufficient criteria for self sustaining WUA. It
needs lot of hard work for the capability development of the users mainly at the lower levels.
Though, there are lot of sources of resources identified at this stage, some of them are already
contributing, the collection of most of these are equally difficult as have been proved by the
similar experiences of many countries. One of the most assured sources for Nepalese farmers
is labor mobilization and is expected to be utilized to its maximum extent here in WGIS also
as has been justified by their participation in the previous years. Therefore, the only cash
resource especially to operate, maintain and manage the main canal has to come from the
beneficiaries themselves in the form of irrigation service fee ( ISF ).
There is no doubt at this juncture that irrigation service fee is the only reliable major
source of income for the WUA. The collection of it is less than 25 % and it looks impossible
to sustain the system requiring about 1 million Rupees with only about 15 % of the
requirement fulfilled from the ISF. If we assume to increase the fee collection from this
nominal amount of Rs 60 I ha I crop (a rate levied by the government in Nepal) to Rs 150 I ha
I crop as has been the rate in PPMMC, the collection of Rs 0.8 million of ISF for the OMM
( Rs 0.2 million is assumed to come from other minor sources ) requires at least 60 %
efficiency .
It is very difficult to assess the situation at this stage even when the full transfer of the
system has not taken place. The collection of at least 60% of ISF is not that difficult for an
organized WUA as has been done in small system in Nepal and other farmers managed system
in Philippines. However, for a government managed system and newly formed WUA and
comparatively bigger system in Nepal, this task is not going to be an easy. However, a lot
depends upon the capability development of WUA in managing the system efficiently and the
organizational arrangements needed for it. The better situation comparatively, the continuation
of government support to the system, the enthusiasm of most of the farmers and readiness of
the WUA to take the responsibility of the system are the positive factors which may lead to the
goal of financial stability of the WUA and overall sustainability of the West Gandak Irrigation
System. |