After Turkey and Mexico: Big Bang in Andhra Pradesh, India

In April 1997, another Big Bang sounded in irrigation land: the Legislative Assembly of the State of Andhra Pradesh approved the Act on Farmers' Management of Irrigation Systems. The management of close to 5 Million hectares of command was to be brought under the control of several millions of farmers, many of them lacking in literacy and operating subsistence oriented holdings of less than 2.5 ha. The Act seeks to make the management of the State's irrigation systems client driven and operation and maintenance user-financed, over a period of time. Since enacting this law, the Government of Andhra Pradesh, assisted by the Institute of Resources Development and Social Management (IRDAS), has been fueled by this vision and committed itself politically to make this radical reform happen. The government's daring, unconventional, aspects of the reform process and some preliminary results are reported below.

Over 10,000 Water Users Associations were created in July and August 1997. In November 1997, 174 Distributory Committees were constituted in the States Major Schemes. Elections were held using secret balloting. Administrative boundaries were redrawn to give the new WUAs hydrological boundaries and full control over the operation and maintenance of their canals. The area of each WUA was split into four to ten territorial elective constituencies, depending on the extent of command area under a WUA, to ensure fair representation of all upstream and downstream farmers in the Managing Committee of the WUA , a useful idea that may merit replication outside the state.

Most WUA Presidents, appear to be small farmers; 42 percent declare owning less than 2.5 ha and 31 percent declare owning farms of between 2.5 ha and 5 ha. WUA presidents declaring that they own over 5 ha constitute 23 percent of the total. Head end farmers do not appear to be over-represented, possibly due in part to the establishment of the Territorial Constituencies.

Engineers of Irrigation and Command Area Development Department (I&CADD) were made accountable to the Presidents of the new Water Users Associations & Distributory Committees while remaining on the Department's payroll. This, together with the planned user control over the maintenance charges, is the heart of the reform . Assistant Engineers on Government built schemes are now accountable to WUAs, between one to four WUAs in Major Irrigation Schemes and many more on minor irrigation tanks. In both cases, their job performance evaluation depends in part on how their WUA bosses assess them. As the transfer rolls on, Deputy Executive Engineers are made answerable to the federation of WUAs at the secondary level called the Distributory Committee. In due course, the Executive Engineers, formerly in charge of the entire scheme, will be made answerable to the Scheme Committee, called Project Committee.

WUAs at the tertiary and secondary levels were given budgets for maintenance and rehabilitation works at the rate of Rs. 247 per hectare. They were asked to prioritize works on the basis of joint walkthroughs with their engineers (competent authority). The WUAs ended up undertaking 90% of the works themselves, contributing their own labor, hiring labor and hiring excavators from contractors. This innovation broke with the routine in which I&CADD engineers identified the repair and rehab jobs, sent cost estimates to Hyderabad and contracted the work to private contractors whom they supervised themselves. According to I&CADD the quality of the repair and rehabilitation work was at least as high as the work done previously by contractors and the total volume increased considerably. The rationale behind this campaign was that Government expectation that farmer control over maintenance and repair would increase farmer support for the reform, as it appears to have done.

WUAs were given responsibility to not only plan system maintenance and improvement, but to also prepare and implement plans for the distribution of water. The role of the irrigation department has undergone a total reversal from that of a ``doer" to a ``facilitator". During the first year of operation, the served area of the command increased with 200,000 hectares.

This year also marked an increase of 10% in agricultural productivity which was in all likelihood was due both to good rains and the establishment of a platform where the farmers organizations could negotiate and maximize water distribution.

Water was reported to have become available at the tails two to three weeks earlier than usual, which may have been an outcome of the reform through the combined effect of conveyance improved through repairs and rehab and more responsive management. The early arrival allowed earlier transplanting may have increased crop yields with about ten percent.

The irrigation reform process is part of a state-wide policy of administrative reform defined by the Chief Minister. It aims to modernize AP's government's apparatus and to revitalize its economy by making the providers of public services such as primary education and health care accountable to committees of local users, by involving users and other stakeholders in the management of forests, watersheds and irrigation systems and by rewarding innovation. The emphasis has been both on making the reform process itself participatory through extensive consultation of stakeholders and on obtaining quick results, partially in response to the fact that elections were not more than four years away.

The goal is clear: the Government wishes to make the irrigation schemes financially viable through farmer's management. But it also says that it has no road map showing the way. Rather, it prepared and published a `White Paper', in June 1996, to communicate its diagnosis of the irrigation sector. It subsequently discussed it in numerous district level meetings. From these discussions it concluded that farmer empowerment and management had to be at the heart of the reform and that it had to be bold and comprehensive rather than gradual. Extensive discussions took place across the state, and the Government participated in series of workshops seminars with the Press, the Legislature, political parties, District Collectors and Magistrates, farmers, the Irrigation Department etc. Through these consultations, the Government shaped the reform, using the outputs of the consultations to draft a law `` The Andhra Pradesh Farmers' Management of Irrigation Systems Act 1997". As a consequence, this law was adopted unanimously.

During the next phase, a massive public information campaign was set up to establish the 10292 WUAs. In every district, rural rallies were held, assembling 30,000- 50,000 persons who were addressed by the Chief Minister. Workshops were held with WUA presidents and I&CADD staff to establish the new accountability relationship and to define the new procedures. Workshops were also held with the Agriculture and Revenue Departments, for whom the reform had many implications. Most importantly, two state-level conventions were held in 1998 assembling all 10292 WUA presidents. They were asked to fill in questionnaires that were machine readable and tabulated on the spot by scanning, to provide the Chief Minister with their feedback. In addition, questionnaires were sent to WUA Managing Committee members to allow the Government to have their view as well. The most important feedback has been the State level Conferences with WUA presidents. These sessions have led to a new class of leadership which is gradually becoming more vocal and articulate.

All is not yet well, and the reformers are the first to stress that the training component needs serious attention, as does the reform of I&CADD and the reorganization of the collection of the fees. Presently the Water Charges are collected by the Revenue Department and remitted to the Government Treasury. The maintenance grant is being separately given to the Irrigation Department. A linkage is to be forged wherein the WUAs have to be involved in the collection of water charges over a period of time through a mechanism in transition. The process in Andhra Pradesh has now set up a dynamic situation, which is constantly under review. Things are improving rapidly and the Government of Andhra Pradesh has the merit of being as willing and capable to learn, as it is to share its experience with the outside world.

INPIM's national chapter in India is at last beginning to see the fruits of its labor, for its seminars and proceedings had a catalytic effect on AP's reform. One lesson we can learn from the reform in AP is that, no matter how dim prospects for reform may appear, INPIM chapters must hold awareness raising seminars regularly to have updated material ready for use when a government considers reform of its institutions for irrigation management.

Geert Diemer
Executive Secretary (Acting), INPIM
Gdiemer@worldbank.org