Albania

A national seminar scheduled for April 1997 was postponed due to civil unrest in the country, but will be re-scheduled, probably in the Fall. The work of the World Bank-financed irrigation rehabilitation project --and the establishment of water user organizations -- is continuing. For further information, please contact: Mr. Ylli Dede,Director,Irrigation Rehabilitation Project, Boulevard 'Deshmoret e Kombit' No.3, Tirana, Albania; Fax: (355)-42-23825. 

Central Asia

A regional seminar on irrigation policy development was held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on February 24-28, 1997. The seminar was organized by EDI of the World Bank in collaboration with the Interstate Council onthe Aral Sea, Ministry on Agriculture and Water Resources of the Republic of Uzbekistan, and with the financial support of the Government of the Netherlands.

The seminar brought together senior officials from relevant ministries and agencies from six countries (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) to analyze the existing problems and exchange experiences among the Central Asian countries, to learn about international practices, and to draft country-level action-plans on irrigation policy development. The active interchange of senior policy officials and practitioners greatly contributed to a better understanding of the complex issues facing the irrigation sector in each of the Central Asian countries represented and the urgency to deal with them both at the national and at the regional levels.

The common theme which kept re-occurring - which the participants realized - was the urgent need for a multi-disciplinary approach to solve the problems facing the irrigation sector in each of these countries - if feasible solutions were to be found and the necessary financing were to be made available.

Other conclusions which emerged were:

the need to link the rehabilitation/reconstruction of irrigation projects with land reform and farm restructuring and ensure consistency in the underlying legal framework for land reform and water resources development

the need to form Water User's Associations and implementation of an acceptable and rational water pricing system

the need to implement cost-effective ways for preventing environmental degradation

urgent need to increase Government budgetary resources for agriculture and water resources development

the need to redefine the roles of the public and private sector

For further information, contact Rimma Danakova, World Bank/EDI,1818 H St., NW, Washington, DC, 20433, USA; Fax: 202-696-0977; email: RDankova@Worldbank.org 

China

The Second National Seminar on PIM will be held from May 7-10, 1997 at Jingmen City, Hubei Province, and is being organized by the Ministry of Water Resources. This follows the First National Seminar in Dujiangyen City last September. A field trip to observe a pilot scheme on Water Users Associations (WUAs) in the Bank assisted 2-H project will be included in the seminar. We will include a report on this seminar in our next issue of the Newsletter.

India

A National Conference on PIM was held in New Delhi from January 20-22,1997. More than 200 delegates participated, representing the federal and state governments, farmer groups, NGOs, World Bank, Ford Foundation, AgaKhan Foundation, and others. The Conference was inaugurated by the Union Minister of Water Resources and declared closed by the Union Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources. 

The keynote address was delivered by Professor Norman Uphoff of Cornell University, U.S.A. under the title ``Toward New and Sustainable Models of Organization for Better Irrigation Management." (This is included in the list of papers available from INPIM).

In all 48 papers were received from various quarters. Twenty seven (27) papers were published in a book brought out by the Ministry of Water Resources titled, Management of Irrigation - A New Paradigm-Participatory Irrigation Management. The rest of the papers will be published in the final proceedings of the conference. 

The three-day conference was structured around short presentations by experts on various issues relating to PIM and group discussions on the issues concerning the PIM in various groups. The reports of the groups were presented in the plenary sessions and after discussions the conference made the following recommendations: 

Need for a clear statement by the Government of India for introducing Participatory Irrigation Management through a Government resolution. 

A National Working Group should be set up consisting of officials ofthe Government of India, some of the State Governments, representatives of Non-governmental organizations and representatives of farmers. 

The National Working Group will provide guidelines for the implementation of PIM and help in drafting the policy resolution. 

There is a need for setting up of high-level Working Groups in the States with the same kind of composition as suggested for the National Working Group. This will provide policy guidelines as well as help in drafting the State Government´s resolution for adoption of PIM as a policy instrument. 

There should be a Steering Committee at the State level to coordinate the implementation of the program of PIM. 

For better implementation of the program of PIM, there is a need to induct other disciplines such as social science and economics at appropriate places in the hierarchy of Irrigation Agency. 

There is an urgent need to create awareness among the farmers and the officials of the Union and State Governments about PIM. This can be done by using various media and techniques of mass awareness by the Union Government and the State Governments. The Irrigation Agencies, WALMIs and other institutions concerned with the development of water resources could be used for this purpose. 

Rehabilitation is an important aspect of implementation of the program of PIM. It is suggested that the rehabilitation should be such that system should be reasonably good and in running situation. Rehabilitation need not be a pre-condition for transfer of the system to WUAs but there should be an assurance that it would be taken up within a reasonable period. The cost of rehabilitation should be shared by the Government of India, the State Governments, and the WUAs. 

There should be amendments in the State Irrigation Act to give legal status to WUA's. 

The NGO's can be vehicles for organizing and mobilizing the farmers. It should be done in the spirit of mutual trust and respect between the NGO's and the Irrigation Agencies.

NGO's could also train the departmental staff for mobilization and organization of farmers. Training is a key input for implementation the idea of program of PIM.

Training has to be imparted to the officials of the irrigation agency, farmers, functionaries of WUA's and NGO's. There is need to build up capacity of and for strengthening the existing training institutions suchas WALMIs for training for program of PIM. 

Monitoring and evaluation are necessary to take corrective steps during the implementation of the program and suitable mechanism for qualitative and quantitative monitoring should be evolved. 

It is felt that no program of social transformation can succeed without the involvement of women. It is necessary, therefore, that women should be involved in this program. 

For more information, please contact Mr. L. K. Joshi, Joint SecretaryCAD), Government of India, Ministry of Water Resources Shram ShaktiBhawan, Rafi Marg. New Delhi 110001, India. Fax: (91-11) 3710253.

Indonesia

A large number of irrigation pilot projects, especially in the eastern part of Indonesia, are being handed over to WUA's. These include 14 schemes covering an area of about 16,000 ha in the provinces of South Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi, East Nusa Tenggara, Maluku, East Timor, and Irian Jaya. Ten of these schemes have command areas of more than 500 ha. 

A regional seminar on turnover and PIM was held in Semarang, Central Java on March 11-14, 1997 with the purpose of assessing the experience of the turnover program thus far, and applying the concept to larger schemes. Plans for turning over larger schemes, on a pilot basis, are being prepared for East, Central, and West Java. A similar seminar will be held in Padang, West Sumatra in collaboration with the University of Andalas. 

So far about 49,000 WUA's have been established in the country, of which only 15% are considered to be in satisfactory condition. To improve this record, starting this year a National Award will be given to the best WUA in the country. This will be done in coordination with the National Development Planning Board, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Public Works/DGWRD, and Provincial Governments. 

For further information, please contact Dr. Hafied Gany, Director, DGWRD, Jl. Pattimura 20, Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta 12110, Indonesia.Fax: (62-21) 725-1666.

Jordan

The Jordan Valley Authority decided to transfer the operation of the farm turnout gate valves to the farmers in the Northern area. An official announcement requested the farmers to install a gate valve at the entrance of their farms on the main pipeline, within one month so the operation of the system at the farm level will be the farmers' responsibility.

The Jordan Valley Authority will remain responsible of the operation of the main pumping stations at King Abdullah Canal. The irrigation efficiency in Jordan Valley in 1995 was 68% and in 1996 became 73%. The expectation through the experimental area in the North is to raise the irrigation efficiency by 10% which represents good savings of water in a drought year. If this 10% is achieved, then the PIM approach of this trial will be extended to cover the entire valley. The efforts ofthe Jordan Valley Authority to introduce PIM is being supported by theRegional Mission for Water and Agriculture of the French Embassy in Jordan and the ongoing USAID/DAI project. 

For more information please contact Eng. Suleiman Ghezawi, Director,Irrigation Department, JVA, Amman, Jordan. Tel: (962-6) 681-340; Fax:(962-6) 697-902.