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Irrigation
Management in South Asia: Need for Improvement
Khilendra
Basnyat
The majority of the people in south Asia
rely on agriculture. Their economic development and prosperity depend on the
successful performance of the agricultural sector.
Water is
important for any agricultural production. The management of water for
agricultural use is vital to achieve increased agricultural production. Hence,
improved performance of the agricultural sector can be affected through
improved irrigation management. However, the huge investments made in
irrigation development in south Asian countries in the past were rarely
oriented toward improving management. The performance of many irrigation
systems remained well below their expectations. Therefore, it has become
necessary to reconsider their investment and development strategies and adopt
new policies in the irrigation sector.
Several
concerns should be included in these policies which have important purposes. The
foremost is to reduce the cost of operation and maintenance (O and M) of both
existing and future irrigation systems. The second is to improve the O and M of
already existing irrigation systems.
An effective
means of achieving both lower cost and improved O and M is to promote huge
degree of involvement on the part of the water users. Therefore, the policies
should emphasize that O and M responsibilities in existing and future small and
medium scale irrigation developed by the respective irrigation agencies be
turned over to the farmers so that they will manage future O and M activities.
When the
farmers manage their irrigation, the cost of O and M is borne by the farmers
themselves. Hence, the turnover policy should address the need to redirect the
O and M cost responsible to the farmers in irrigation systems managed by the
concerned agencies of south Asian countries. However, adequate O and M costs
are required to maintain irrigation systems and ensure a reliable water supply
for irrigation.
Most
governments of south Asian Countries can not bear the additional costs for O
and M. This is why if adequate finances are to be found to mitigate the O and M
burden to the respective agencies, they must come from concerned farmers benefitting
from irrigation.