Tren de generación de vapor

At the project level for allocation of water, the operation plan based on its entitlement, agro, soil, characteristics and cropping pattern will be prepared by the competent authority and has to be approved by the project-level committee, according to the provisions of the new enactments. However, project- level committees are not formed so far in both the states. Thus, the gap persists between farmers’ organizations and policy-making levels. Though envisaged under the acts, the project committees are either viewed as threatening to the power structures both in politics as well as bureaucracy, or cannot handle the complex task of management at that level. In KDS in AP, where the political awareness is higher, WUA presidents formed a federation-like organization – an association of the presidents and handled issues of WUA and appointed a president and vice president to negotiate with the government for water allocations and other policy interactions. This informal body was successful in conducting meetings with DC presidents ranging from money payments to WUAs by the government, maintenance works including rehabilitation of the Krishna river barrage, water planning at the project level, to demanding the formation of project-level committee for farmers’ organizations. The federation is an informal organization networking with different actors within the project and outside. For the farmers and officials in the delta it was immaterial whether the association was constituted as per the letter of law or not. In early 2002, the federation co-sponsored an all India meeting of WUAs in Vijayawada and successfully negotiated with DC presidents of lower reaches of a branch canal, and adjusted the then experienced water deficit in the adjacent Godavari System by augmenting supplies from a branch canal of the tail-end of the Krishna system. This involved not only the acceptance from tail-end farmers of the Krishna system but also the irrigation officials of the two different irrigation projects (Sivamohan, Scott 2002).

Water distribution from a distributary level is now brought under the purview of farmers’ organizations. However, the distribution schedules follow the old institutional approaches. The competent authority, an irrigation official from the government, at the DC level prepares the schedule depending on the releases from reservoirs into the canals in the particular year. The acts provide for information dissemination widely to farmers regarding the supply position at different branch (minor) canal off-takes, well before the beginning of the season. The opening and closure of the canals is expected to be intimated well in advance so that WUAs will prepare for their farming activities. The operation of branch canals and distributaries is continuous in both AP and MP. In the rabi season they are rotated in AP. Elaborate rules have been formed in the Acts this regard under the headings “operation plan and water budgeting” and ‘water regulation’. However, there is no evidence in the field indicating the adoption of these rules. As the entire exercise requires a certain level of technical knowledge, the designated competent authority along with the assistance of the irrigation department has to prepare water budgeting for farmers’ organizations and advise and assist on water regulation based on water supplies and seasonal conditions. It is anticipated that simultaneously the capacities of the WUAs are also built in this regard. It is not sufficient conducting training programs alone, but the irrigation officials also have to work with the WUAs to provide them hands-on guidance.

It is observed that the training programs conducted in AP are in the nature of repeat lectures. None of the field-level officials have experience with management at field level.

It is seen in all the irrigation systems studied, nearly 90 percent of the WUAs do not have any operation plan or even records in relation to water supplies. In the absence of required data and records, it is hard for any one to plan and improve the working of a system.

Water distribution is affected by the poor condition of the state of canals, distributaries and minors of the irrigation systems. The drainage canals were not maintained for years before. In KDS, the initial work of the DCs on drainage canals (weed removal, desilting bunds, repair, etc.) for the three initial years was undertaken with World Bank assistance. Minor repairs on water channels and structures were undertaken by WUAs simultaneously, spreading extensively in the entire project. This has vastly improved water deliveries in the canals. Such works were not taken up by WUAs in MP in a concerted manner and the condition of canals is bad at several places of the irrigation network.

For the distribution of water from the outlet to individual farms, the WUAs are given the responsibility of developing the rotational water supply (Warabandi) schedules and implementing them to ensure equity. The field observations as well as discussions with the farmers in all the irrigations systems show the following:

1. The head-end farmers take the water first and only when their requirement is complete do the farmers below get the water.

2. The irrigation is by field to field in all the irrigation systems. By practicing ‘warm and cold’ irrigation - a term used for this practice in MP - a good amount of water is wasted as it flows to the drains from the fields at the beginning of the agricultural season. Apart from the principle of first- farmer-first, the influence or the power of farmer also often determines the priorities in irrigation intake. There are some instances reported in MP (especially when water is scarce) that large farmerstake water first. However, in old systems like KDS, the practices are clearly standardized, size of landholding or influence of a particular farmer makes little difference.

3. The crop varieties chosen by almost all farmers in AP are high-yielding varieties of paddy (HYV), and there is no variation in the number of watering required from field to field. In MP, the head - end farmers grow HYV wheat varieties locally called the Mexican varieties, that require five waterings in the Halali project, whereas the tail ends usually grow local varieties of wheat and gram which require only one to two waterings. Scarcity of water prompts them to choose crops like gram, jower, and pulses. etc.

4. Some sort of dependency relationship exists for the small farmer with the large farmers in the villages. In MP, the small farmers and their family members work on the agricultural fields of the large farmers who provide subsistence wages or small parts of latters’ land for cultivation. In such situations, the large farmer helps the small farmer in getting irrigation not as a matter of right but as a favor. The concept of sharing of available water is not internalized by the farmers.

5. In MP, among villages which are homogenous (landholding-wise) there is greater equity in the sharing of water.

In water allocation as Mollinga24 _{(2002) observes, at all these levels the emphasis is on bureaucratic} allocation (legal and administrative decision reserving X,Y, and Z qualities of water for different sub-

24

Peter P. Mollinga (2002), Power in Motion: A Critical assessment of Canal Irrigation Reform in India. In Hooja, G. Pangare, and KV Raju :Users in Water Management, Rawat Publications, New Delhi.

systems and sectors). Allocation does not straight forwardly translate into distribution, and allocation mechanisms have given very little protection to tail-enders”. And allocations do not conform to the designed quantities. As the rotational scheduling like Warabandi is not practiced in AP there are no codified procedures for managing drought hence, there is no predictability of supplies and equitable distribution to each outlet.

From the foregoing discussion it can be seen that some of the water allocation institutions addressed to the advantage and betterment of tail enders and poor, though are in place, are not implemented due to a variety of reasons—not only because of gross inequity by the head-end farmers but also because of cropping pattern, the nature of very perpetuated large systems and several technical reasons involved.