First International Seminar on PIM - Mexico

Mexico Hosts PIM Seminar

Mexico played host to an international seminar from February 8-15, 1995, co-sponsored by Mexico's National Water Commission (CNA) and the World Bank Economic Development Institute (EDI). Five countries sent high level delegations to the seminar to see first-hand how Mexican water user associations are managing large-scale irrigation systems.

The seminar constituted the second phase of a multi-country training program which EDI has already initiated in India and Pakistan, with plans to extend the program to several other countries. The 87 seminar participants included 17 from India, 17 from Pakistan, 4 from Morocco, 2 from Egypt, and 2 from Indonesia, as well as some 35 Mexican farmer leaders and agency officials, plus several World Bank staff.

Seminar Program

The seminar opened in Mexico City. Mr. Andres Rosenzieg, Director-General for Research on Agriculture and Forestry (Agriculture Ministry), welcomed the participants on behalf of the Government of Mexico, while Mr. Hatsuya Azumi, Chief of the Agriculture and Environment division of EDI, represented the World Bank. Dr. Peter Sun, the seminar director, highlighted four objectives of the seminar: (1) to learn from Mexico, (2) to learn from each other, (3) prepare country action plans, and (4) establish a self-help Senior CNA officials, including Francisco Ramos (Director for Infrastructure), Jose Trava (Manager for Irrigation Districts) and Enrique Espinosa (Deputy Manager for Irrigation Management Transfer) presented an overview of Mexico's transfer program.

From Mexico City, the seminar venue shifted to Los Mochis, Sinaloa (NW Mexico) for 3 days of field visits and discussions about three irrigation districts that were transferred in 1991 to user management. In Celaya, Guanajuato (Central Mexico), a one-day field visit in small groups was followed by two days of discussion about lessons that could be applied in the participants' own countries.

What they learned

Participants were impressed with the size of the associations and the systems they control. The largest water user associations include up to 10,000 members and cover more than 40,000 ha. But what is even more remarkable than their size is the speed with which they were formed. The first irrigation district was transferred to user management in 1990, and since then, two-thirds of the area of the country's irrigation districts have been transferred to user associations. Some of the key lessons the participants pulled out of their experience in Mexico are the following:

• Commitment of the top government leaders is essential to initiate PIM programs.
• Rehabilitation is not always a pre-condition to PIM; in some cases, PIM can be adopted first as a pre-condition for rehabilitation.
• Legal framework and institutional reorganization go hand-in-hand; both may be pre-requisites to PIM (Morocco)
• Consciousness-raising, communication, and extension need to be part of a PIM program.
• Transfer of government assets to farmer associations is a natural part of transferring management responsibility; the optimal size of a the association can be determined in part by the area needed to support particular types of equipment.
• Water rights can be incorporated into the contract between the agency and the user association. 
• Water trading and sales can be conducted through the association.
• Groundwater can be regulated by the association, if the association owns the wells.
• Government does not disappear under PIM; the agency's role changes to monitoring, advising, and providing technical services

The significance of the seminar was that key policy makers in the participating countries had an opportunity to learn from the people directly involved about Mexico's innovative policies of privatizing irrigation systems. As one participant summed up the experience, "Seeing is believing!" Lessons derived from Mexico were then incorporated into country-specific action plans which each country delegation prepared during the final two days of the seminar. These action plans will be further refined in subsequent national-level seminars to be held in each country.

A further achievement of the seminar was the endorsement for establishing INPIM -- the International Network on Participatory Irrigation Management. On behalf of INPIM, we would certainly like to congratulate the seminar participants for taking this step.