INDONESIA

The country's total irrigated area is about 5.6 million ha, of which about 4.6 million ha is operated and maintained by public sector, including about 3.9 million ha of irrigated rice field taking its water from about 6,700 major schemes, or in total of about 18,000 including small schemes. Measures are being put in place to reduce central government's burden in Operation and Maintenance (O&M) costs. The goal is for the irrigation water users to contribute to, and eventually fully fund, the O&M of the system.

The government of Indonesia issued a new set of policies on irrigation O&M and cost recovery. More effective funding O&M mechanism has been developed through:

Turn over to farmers in schemes irrigating less than 500 ha. As the first step, until 1995, around 224,000 ha of irrigation schemes less than 150 ha were turned over to farmers. (This figure is in keeping with the size of tertiary units which, according to the Government Regulation No. 23/1982, is legally the responsibility of the farmers/water user associations.)

Introduce the Irrigation Service Fee (ISF) to water users for all schemes irrigating more than 500 ha per individual scheme. The ISF is a contribution of the farmers in the form of money to finance irrigation O&M. Until 1995, around 600.000 ha of irrigation schemes have been covered under the ISF program.

Through the gradual expansion of ISF, turn-over of smaller systems and encouraging greater participation of water users in the O&M, it is expected that the irrigation management will be become more effective and sustainable.

For more information please contact Dr. Hafied Gany, Ph.D, Directorate of Water Management and Conservation, DGWRD, Ministry of Public Works, Jalan Pattimura No. 20/Perc No. 7, Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta Selatan 12110, Indonesia. Phone: (62-21) 726-8618; Fax: (62-21) 725-1666.

National Seminar

The first national seminar on PIM was held in Jakarta, Indonesia from November 4-8, 1996, and was co-sponsored by the Ministry or Public Works and EDI. Nearly 100 participants attended from the Ministry of Public Works, BAPPENAS, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture, Provincial Irrigation Services, local governments, universities, water user's associations, NGO's, consulting firms, and professional organization. Foreign participants who participated in the seminar were Dr. Jose Trava of Mexico and Mr. Mustapha Baskan of DSI, Turkey. Both were invited under the INPIM Fellowship program, and made presentations of the PIM programs in their countries.

The seminar was divided into four parts. The first day was devoted to concepts of PIM and international experience; the second day was spent on presentations and discussions of Indonesia's experience with the ISF and turnover programs; the third day was a field visit, and the fourth day was spent formulating an indicative action plan for PIM. On the last day, some final changes were made to the action plan, which will now form a basis for ongoing dialogue within the government concerning how far to go with PIM. The consensus was that the progress already being made could be accelerated through a large number of pilot efforts aimed at large-scale management turnover to water user associations. Copies of the 7-page Indicative Action Plan are available upon request to the INPIM Coordinator (Anju Sharma); a 35-page background paper prepared by Bryan Bruns (Consultant) and Helmi (Andalas University, Indonesia) is also available.

For further information about the seminar, or to request a copy of the Proceedings (now under preparation) please contact Dr. Hafied Gany at the address listed above.

JORDAN

A national seminar on PIM will be held in Amman from December 2-5, 1996. The seminar is being sponsored by the Jordan Valley Authority and EDI, with financial support from the United States Agency for International Development. We will provide a report in the next issue of this newsletter as to the outcome of this seminar and the prospects for PIM in the Jordan Valley. For further information, please contact Mr. Suleiman Ghezawi, Director of Irrigation Department, P.O. Box 214, Amman, Jordan (Tel: 962-6-681340; fax: 962-6-697902).

PAKISTAN

National Seminar

A three week in-country Training Workshop on PIM was organized at the On-Farm Water Management Training Institute Punjab Lahore from July 21-August 10, 1996. This workshop was followed by National Seminar on Participatory Irrigation Management in Pakistan from August 11-13, 1996 also in Lahore. The training workshop has the dual objective of (1) developing a home grown model of PIM for subsequent discussion in the national seminar, and (2) enhancing the capabilities and competencies of the workshop participants who are responsible for managing the irrigation system at various levels. The training workshop was planned for 20 participants from the provincial Irrigation & Agriculture Departments and from WAPDA.

The National Seminar on Participatory Irrigation Management in Pakistan was organized by INPIM-Pakistan with financial assistance from the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock and the Punjab On-Farm Water Management Programme. The goal of the seminar was to develop a consensus on the modalities and time-frame for increased participation of beneficiary groups in the management of irrigation and drainage systems and to identify new roles for the concerned government institutions.

The seminar resulted in the following recommendations:

• Follow the pilot project approach at distributary command level for initiating the PIM programme.
• The farmers institutions should develop democratic processes for the selection of their representatives.
• Legal frameworks have to be prepared to clarify formation of water users institutions and their functions and responsibilities.
• The functions of water user groups should include:
• Revenue assessment and collection, improvement of water management, O&M of the systems, Warabandi, Linkages with apex organizations, Linkages with the departments such as OFWM, Irrigation Department, Agriculture Extension etc.
• The mechanism for distribution of water rates (abiana) between the organizations at different levels of the system needs to be evolved.
• Capacity building of farmers institution and follow up for continuity will be essential. Resource for the formation and sustainability of farmers institution must be provided.
• There is need to move from Project to Programme Approach. Multidimensional water user institutions using an integrated approach will be required which will also link these institutions with the line departments.

Institutional of OFWM needs to occur through:

Development of career structure for all discipline; reorienting field teams to address social, engineering and agriculture issues; providing technical back-stopping support role to farmers institutions; developing appraisal and needs assessment capabilities; development of flexible structure to respond to users needs; development of coordination committees; and training monitoring and evaluation systems.

Education requirements need to be developed including PIM curricula for agricultural engineering universities and curricula for in service training in PIM for field assistants, sub engineering etc.

Developing Linkages:

Provide effective linkages between Area Water Boards (AWBs) and Water Users Organizations at lower levels.

Arbitrators need to be identified and their roles defined.

Linking water users institutions to other line departments and other agencies on a need basis.

OFWM to be represented on AWB management boards as ex-officio members.

For further information, contact: contact Mr. Mushtaq Gill, INPIM Board Member & Director General, Agriculture (Water Management) Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. Tel: (92-42) 6315224; Fax: (92-42) 6366156.

VIETNAM

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and EDI of the World Bank will co-sponsor a national seminar on PIM in April, 1997 in Sam-Son district, Thanh-Hoa Province. The objectives of the seminar would be to review policies for irrigation O&M and tertiary system development with case studies in Vietnam, to review concepts on PIM and experiences of other countries; and to formulate guidelines on PIM for the Government's consideration. For further information, please contact Dr. Peter Sun at the INPIM Secretariat office.