Water Users Associations in World Bank-Assisted Irrigation Projects in Pakistan

摘要

The report reviews the experience of Pakistan's On-Farm Water Management (OFWM)program in working with and through water users associations (WUAs) in World Bank-assisted irrigation projects. The report is based on in-depth interviews with officials and members of WUAs on 11 watercourses (W/C) in three Pakistani provinces--Punjab, Sind, and North West Frontier Province (NWFP)--during the summer of 1987. The study found that the process of organizing farmers on a W/C into a WUA has had a significant impact in terms of mobilizing the labor and funds required to design and implement projects to brick-line portions of the W/Cs that carry irrigation water from water sources to farmer fields. Overall, farmers on most, if not all, W/Cs visited expressed that the W/C improvement program is the first and only government-sponsored scheme for the agriculture sector that has benefitted the farmer. But the study also found significant variation in the extent to which the WUAs, once formed, continued to be active in facilitating farmer organization and participation in irrigation management (operation and maintenance) and other functions essential for agricultural and rural development.