Newsletter #2 Approches to PIM

The approaches taken by various countries in shifting to participatory irrigation management policies can be divided into four broad categories , as follows:

1. The Organizing Approach: A strong emphasis on the organizing process is the key feature of the PIM approach in the Philippines and Indonesia. Social organizers , hired as outside specialists through NGOs' or from within the farming community ( and then trained in organizing) serve as the initial catalysts. Not only do they help farmers establish water user associations, but they also serve as intermediaries between the farmers and the government irrigation agency. The objective of participation in the Philippines and Indonesia is typically joint management of large government - owned systems, rather than complete turnover to farmer management.

2. Management Transfer: Full transfer of management authority to irrigation water users is the approach taken in Mexico and Turkey. In the case of Mexico, the financial constraints on government became so severe, that transferring responsibility to the users became a necessary policy simply to keep the irrigation systems operating at all. Mexico has become one of the "purest" examples of management transfer to irrigation users as a result of the government's inability to maintain systems under its jurisdiction. In Turkey, the government adopted a transfer policy as a part of a strategic management decision that viewed farmers as a better placed than the government agency in performing irrigation management functions. The process of transfer relied more on communication of the new policy to farmers, rather than organizing them directly.

3. Pilot Approach: Many countries experimented with participatory approaches on a pilot basis only. In India and Sri Lanka, a Philippines - inspired organizing approach has been tried in particular systems, But t so far not as a general policy at either the state or national levels. In Colombia, Argentina and Chile, management responsibility in a few systems was transferred to the users, prior to the approach being adopted nation wide. Currently, Nepal is transferring management of several systems from government to farmers with the intent of establishing a new national precedent, and India is embarking on a similar path in the states of Tamil Nadu and Orissa.

4. Partial Approach: In Pakistan ( up to now)., organizing approach has been used to establish water user associations ( WUAs) at the lowest level of the systems where the irrigation agency was in any case not involved in management. The focus has been on strengthening the existing levels of user management rather than transferring new levels to user control.

Of these four approaches, which are not mutually exclusive, there appears to be a growing popularity of the management transfer approach ( #2) often with an initial introduction on a pilot basis ( approach #3). the emphasis on organizing efforts characteristic of approach #1 now tends to be viewed as needlessly slow, with uncertain results in terms of reducing government involvement in irrigation management ( refer to Gradualism or Big Bang approach). In the Philippines, for example after some 15 years of organizing efforts in large government-owned systems, only a handful of relatively small systems have been fully transferred to user management. By comparison, the Mexican government transferred 2/3 or the irrigated area under its management to user associations in a period of only 15 years.

The Partial approach (#4) might also be termed a "joint management" approach , since the irrigation users and the irrigation agency jointly manage the total system. But this approach can also be labeled " business as usual" in that the boundary between government control and user control stays the same. If farmer management is considered useful at the lowest levels of the system, one could reasonable ask why farmers' management input would be also be useful in higher levels of system O&M. We are then brought back to approach #2, that of irrigation management transfer.

.....Excerpts form the PIM handbook, EDI.