Participatory Irrigation Management in Bihar Status and Issues

Transcription

1 Bihar-pim-02/kvraju/ Draft02 for Discussions April 2006 Participatory Irrigation Management in Bihar Status and Issues K.V.Raju Center for Ecological Economics and Natural Resources Institute for Social and Economic Change Bangalore, India kvraju@isec.ac.in April

2 Bihar-pim-02/kvraju/ Contents 1.0 Irrigation in Bihar 1.1 Agencies 1.2 Why this paper 2.0 Irrigation Policies and Legal Frame 2.1 Policies for Government Irrigation Schemes 3.0 Irrigation Management Transfer (IMT) 3.1 Policies and Legal Frame 3.2 Statements of Intention 3.3 Current status 3.4 Role of WALMI 3.5 PIM Cell 4.0 Triggers for IMT 4.1 Growing Financial Crunch 4.2 National Water Policy 4.3 The Bihar PIM Model, Poor Performance of Irrigation Systems 4.5 Donors Influence 4.6 Need for Linkages Participatory Irrigation Management in Bihar: Status and Issues 5.0 Experiments with Transfer 5.1 Paliganj WUA: Trend Setter 5.2 Manjauli WUA : Tail-reach can also prosper 5.3 Narayanpur WUA: Defunct from the beginning 5.4 Other Experiments 5.5 CADA Village Organisations 6.0 Performance of WUAs 6.1 Inadequate support from WRD in the initial stages 6.2 Size Variation 6.3 Season wise irrigated area 6.4 Water fee collection 6.5 Revenue sharing with the government 6.6 System maintenance and establishment 6.7 Book keeping 6.8 Non-WUA areas 7.0 Comparison with other States 7.1 Lessons for Bihar 8.0 Emerging Issues 9.0 Some Conclusions References Annex tables 2

3 Bihar-pim-02/kvraju/ List of Tables Table 1.1a Water resources potential Table 1.1b Sourcewise irrigated area Table Command areas and districts planned to be covered under PIM (includes existing) Table PIM Status in Bihar till February, 2006 Table Steps followed at present (over the last 10 years) to form WUAs in Bihar Table 4.1 Water fee (Rs/ha) in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar Table Performance of Paliganj WUA Table Land holding size of EC members in Paliganj WUA Table 6.2 Main features of WUAs Table 6.3 Area irrigated seasonwise across WUAs over the years Table 6.4 Water fee collection by WUAs in Bihar (as of December 2005) Table 6.5 Amount paid to the government as per MOU by WUAs in Bihar (in % to total water fee collection) Table 6.6 Amount spent on maintenance and repairs and establishment costs out of WUA funds in Bihar (in%) Table 6.7 Records maintained by WUAs Table 6.8 Difference between WUA and non-wua areas in administration and costs Table 7.1 WUAs in Bihar and other states Table 8.1 Difference between before and after WUA formation in RP-5 WUA, Sone Command Area at Naubathpur Table 8.2. Designed and actual discharge levels in selected WUAs Table 8.3 Measuring WUAs performance Annex Tables Annex Table-1. Irrigation expenditure and revenue in Bihar Annex Table 2. Estimated expenditure for PIM implementation (during ) to cover 1.2 million ha in Bihar Annex Table-3. Capacity building efforts for PIM made by Water and Land Management and Training Institute, Patna Annex-Table-4. Key features of WUAs in Bihar (December 2005) Annex-Table-5. Water fee collection by WUAs in Bihar (December 2005) Annex-Table-6. Government share of water fee collection paid by WUAs in Bihar (December 2005) Annex-Table-7. Amount spent on maintenance and repairs and records maintained by WUAs in Bihar (December 2005) Annex Table 8. Comparison of areas with WUAs and non-wuas In Dec 2005 (all in Sone command area) List of Graphs/Charts/figures Chart.4.1 Expenditure on irrigation O&M, engineering and revenue establishment and water fee collocted in Bihar Chart.4.2 Total water fee collection as % of total operational expenditure Chart Amount spent on M&R by WUAs and govt. Chart Amount spent by WUAs on persons hired for water distribution Chart Percentage of farmers paid water fee Chart Pcercentage of designed discharge of water received Chart Collective work carried out by users List of Boxes Box.1 Legal support to irrigation management transfer Box 2. Main objectives of PIM in Bihar 3

4 Bihar-pim-02/kvraju/ Abstract Participatory Irrigation Management in Bihar: Status and Issues K.V.Raju 1 Bihar state in India is witnessing a slow but a steady progress in participatory irrigation management. Its silent efforts with more depth, if continues with stronger spirits with new regime in place, will herald a new era of irrigation management in India. The emerging picture, though out from the publicity, is quite different from other states of India. Some of the key features are: a) water users associations collect water fee and retains 70%, b) elections are held on time, c) irrigation services are improved, and essentially, e) water users organizations have taken over the distributories (in other states minors) without putting much pressure on the government for system rehabilitation as prior condition. In recent years, these users organizations are demanding for multiple roles, for facilitating better functioning of the organizations and to keep the member-centric interests in frontline. If the government of Bihar can catch up with growing demands of the water users organizations, it can successfully demonstrate another model of participatory irrigation management in India. The recent experience across the state has proved savings to the government in staff costs, operation and maintenance costs, and considerable benefits to users in terms of more area under irrigation in tail reaches, reduced conflicts for water distribution, better equity, enhanced collection of water fee, and better up keep of the canal system to move towards designed level of performance. 1.0 Irrigation in Bihar Bihar irrigation schemes are generally classified into three classes: a) Major and medium schemes - surface schemes irrigating over 2,000 hectares; b) Minor surface schemes diversion or reservoir schemes irrigating less than 2,000 hectares; c) Life schemes tubewell or small river liftirrigation schemes. There are now 27 major and 163 medium completed irrigation schemes, and another 19 major and 31 medium schemes under construction in the state. There are also about 40,000 minor surface irrigation works, of which 747 are formally recognized as schemes and the remainder are ahars 2 (small tanks). There are 2,074 river lift-irrigation schemes, 5,791 deep tubewells, about 600,000 shallow tubewells and about 400,000 dug wells used for irrigation. Bihar s gross sown irrigated area of around 50% is relatively low as compared to 95% in Punjab, 67% in Uttara Pradesh, and 60% for India as a whole. The average groundwater exploitation is 39%, indicating a large unexploited potential (World Bank, 2005). The visionary programme of Water Resources Department (WRD) of Bihar (GoB, 2006) indicates that the ultimate irrigation potential of the state is 10.7 million ha, out of which 5.3 million ha can be through major and medium irrigation projects. However, till the year 2005 created potential is 2.61 million and actual utilization is only 1.6 million ha. Thereby, half of the potential fields are still rainfed. Unfortunately, 76% of North Bihar population and 73% of geographical area is under constant threat of floods. According to the visionary programme of WRD (GoB, 2006), an estimated Rs1500 crores worth of property and hundreds of lives are lost every year owing to floods; the programme planned to achieve, among several things, a) water to all potentially irrigable fields by 2025, b) complete flood free zone by 2025, c) reclamation of water logged area by 2025, and d) to ensure participatory irrigation management transfer of whole command area by 2012 under participatory irrigation programme. 1.1 Agencies: Presently, irrigation in Bihar is the responsibility of the Water Resources Development Department (WRD) headed by the Minister for Water Resources Development. Until 1988, 1 The author is highly thankful to Javier Zuleta, Deepak Ahulwalia, and Rabih Karaky of the World Bank for their useful comments and suggestions on the earlier version of this paper. The author gratefully acknowledges all help provided during the visits and for sharing their experiences by Jayashankar, Commissioner and Secretary, WRD, R.N.Lall, Director of PIM Cell, Pandey of PIM Cell, Umashankar Singh, Director of WALMI and I.C.Thakur, PIM training coordinator in WALMI, and B.N.Singh, Sociologist. Special thanks to M.D.Sohail, Deputy Secretary of WRD for providing all help. Thankful to all senior officials and field staff of the Sone and Gandak command area for fruitful discussions. Any comments and suggestions to improve the current version are most welcome. kvraju@isec.ac.in. 2 Prior to 1870s, there was no government involvement in irrigation in Bihar. Farmers managed all irrigation. Irrigation was mostly carried out individually by lifting water from smaller rivers and from dugwells. Irrigation systems serving groups of farmers were known as ahar-pyne systems. Also see Annexure-1 for more details on history of farmer involvement in irrigation management in Bihar. 4

5 Bihar-pim-02/kvraju/ the WRD was known as the Irrigation Department. The WRD has several sub-divisions, including the Minor Irrigation Department, the Bihar Water Development Corporation, and others. The Minor Irrigation Department is responsible for dealing with minor surface schemes and lift-irrigation schemes. Regional offices of the Water Resources Department manage all the major and medium schemes. Of the minor schemes, about 4,000 ahars, 275 lift schemes, and 8,500 tubewells belong to or are managed by the state government. About 3,000 tubewells are operated by the Bihar Water Corporation; the rest of the government minor schemes are the responsibility of the Minor Irrigation Department. Sourcewise minor irrigation sources irrigates more than 3.2 million ha and major irrigation projects irrigate 1.6 million ha (see table 1.1a and 1.1b). Table 1.1a Water resources potential Source Area in lakh ha 1.Surface Water a. Major and Medium b. Minor 9.84 Total (a+b) Groundwater Total (1+2) Source: WRD, Patna, Table 1.1b Sourcewise irrigated area Source Area in lakh ha 1. Minor irrigation schemes a. Private tubewells b. Other schemes 5.76 Total of MI schemes (a+b) Major and medium irrigation projects 3. Total (1+2) Source: WRD, Patna, Why this Paper? : This paper supported by the World Bank, is an attempt to make a) an overview of the irrigation sector in Bihar, b) review existing institutional framework, policies and legal framework (section 2.0), triggers for irrigation management transfer 3 (IMT) (section 4.0) and its impact through a rapid assessment (section 6.0) with the help of WRD and WALMI, and c) comparison with other states (section 7.0), d) identify emerging issues (section 8.0) for the development of future strategy, particularly to strengthen and expand participatory irrigation management in Bihar state. During December 2005 and February 2006, we visited a total of 12 WUAs and nine non-wua areas to understand their functions, constraints and achievements (section 6.0). The visited areas largely covered Sone command area in Southwestern part of Bihar (covering Sasram, Ara, Aurangabad and Patna districts) and Gandak command areas in Northwestern parts of Bihar (covering Chapra, Siwan, Gopalganj, and Muzaffarpur districts). Extensive discussions were held with office bearers and ordinary members of these WUAs and non-wua areas, senior officials of WRD at Patna, and its various field offices, senior officials of WALMI on its capacity building activities and field interventions, and agriculture department. 3 Irrigation management transfer (IMT) mainly refers to transfer of responsibility (and not ownership) of government managed irrigation systems from the government to groups of farmers or water users organizations or other private entities. Transferring responsibilities has come to be seen by policy-makers as a way to reduce pressures on thinly stretched government finances, while at the same time, improving irrigated agricultural production and ensuring the long-term sustainability of irrigation systems (Geijer et al. 1996, Klozen and Samad 1995, Vermillion 1991, Brewer et al, 1999). Several countries across the world have made major efforts in this direction. The results of these IMT programmes have note yet been widely publicized, yet policy-makers should be aware of the impacts of IMT in various places in order to judge whether and how to proceed with IMT programmes. Clearcut and consistent evidence on the impact of management transfer is only beginning to become available. A review of scattered studies (Vermillion, 1997) at the global level, concludes that the various exhibits show a mixture of positive and negative results but most studies report positive results, particularly improvements in water distribution and finance. 5

6 Bihar-pim-02/kvraju/ Policies and Legal Frame Recent policies and government orders issued by the government of Bihar, if followed in the right spirit, will push the state into frontline in promoting PIM. Considering its contextual constraints, the state is seeking to make a long-term impact in its irrigated belt. To provide better livelihood through improved water management, the state is also making provisions, to take care of the critical needs of the water users. Owing to severe shortages in both backward and forward linkages in irrigated areas, through government orders, the WRD is providing WUAs a) powers to procure paddy on behalf of the Food Corporation of India and in turn to collect water fee from all users 4, b) provisions for input supplies, c) making contractors to get work completion certificate for all civil works in the command area, from the concerned WUA, d) merging revenue wing with irrigation wings at all levels of the WRD. All these efforts have clearly enabled the Bihar state to move towards irrigation management transfer. The state is following a phase wise development compare to big bang approach embraced by Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and to some extent Maharashtra. Bihar has also not promulgated an Act separately to form and function WUAs. The visionary programme of the state (GoB, 2006) clearly proposes that 50% of the total irrigated area by 2007, and the entire command area in the state will be transferred to WUAs by To facilitate government management of the Sone System and other systems 5, the colonial government of Bengal had enacted the Bengal Irrigation Act of This law, as amended, still forms the primary legal basis for government regulation of irrigation in Bihar. Subsequently, the state enacted a series of laws concerning irrigation. The most important of these are: a) The Bihar Irrigation, Flood Management and Drainage Rules, 2003; b) The Bihar Irrigation Act, 1997; c) Bihar Private Irrigation Works Act, 1992; d) Bihar Irrigation Field Channels Act, 1965; e) Bihar Public Irrigation and Drainage Works Act, 1947; f) Bihar Lift Irrigation Act, 1956; and g) Bihar Emergency Cultivation and Irrigation Act, Bihar had also formed two Irrigation Commissions to investigate the water resources situation in Bihar. The first came into existence in 1967 and its report was brought out in The Second Irrigation Commission of 1991 issued its report in 1994 (Bihar, 1994). The Second Irrigation Commission s report is an important source of information for the present study. One of the early acts of the Second Irrigation Commission was the preparation of a draft state water policy. This document was modified and circulated as policy in 1993 by the Water Resources Development Department. The Commission also prepared a draft irrigation act for Bihar to replace the amended Bengal Irrigation Act of 1876, valid till Later, the Bihar Irrigation Act, 1997 was enacted followed by the Bihar Irrigation, Flood Management and Drainage Rules, 2003, which are valid even in Policies for Government Irrigation Schemes The Water Resources Department is responsible for the operation and maintenance of headworks and government channels in major and minor schemes. The Minor Irrigation Department and the Bihar Water Development Corporation are responsible for the operation and maintenance of state tubewells and small river lift schemes. Water is allocated first to the assured irrigable command area for each season. The District Collector or responsible WRD official declares this area. The amount of water allocated shall be sufficient for the maturity of the crops in the area during that season. 4 This year ( ), 10 WUAs, at 500 tons each, will procure a total of 5000 tons of paddy. This was a long pending demand of local farmers to keep away from the clutches of middlemen and traders. 5 Prior to the construction of the Sone System, there was no direct government involvement in irrigation in Bihar; irrigation was purely a local enterprise. 6

7 Bihar-pim-02/kvraju/ All landholders within the assured irrigable command area must pay irrigation fees for the season whether or not they take water for irrigation. If extra water is available during a season, the government officer responsible for the area may then allocate water sufficient for the crops to the probable irrigable command area. Landholders in the area allocated water must pay irrigation fees for the season subject to actually receiving sufficient water. The state government may decide not to declare an assured irrigable area within a scheme. Instead, the government may require that every farmer desiring water for a particular season must submit an application to the responsible WRD official who then must grant the water in writing on the applications. If the WRD official receives applications from 75 per cent of the farmers in a given area, he may order delivery of water to all fields in the area and require all farmers to pay irrigation fees. Applications are currently required in the Sone System and under all state tubewells and river lift schemes. The government sets irrigation fees on a per hectare basis. Different fees are set for different seasons. Also, a distinction may be made between a single irrigation and more than one irrigation during the season. The law says that fees may differ from scheme to scheme. However, there are currently two sets of rates only; one for all state surface schemes and another for all state lift schemes. Till 2005, irrigation fees are assessed by the revenue wing of the WRD and collected by the Revenue Department. From 2006, it is proposed to merge the revenue wing with the irrigation wing, and thereby, the local executive engineer will have responsibility of both providing irrigation and collecting revenue. Resolution of disputes among users on the same village channel is left to the village or channel owners to resolve unless any appeal is made to the WRD officials. Resolution of other irrigation disputes is the responsibility of the WRD officials. The Second Irrigation Commission proposed some important changes to the policies listed above. One category of changes are those related to greater involvement of farmers in irrigation management; these have been discussed in detail below. Two other important changes have also been proposed: In government schemes, the Commission proposes requiring that all farmers apply for water each season or over a longer period. That is, the declaration of assured irrigable area would end and fees would be charged only to those who apply for water. The Commission proposes apportion the irrigation fee into two parts. One would be a per hectare fee payable upon application for water in government schemes. The other would be a per hectare cess payable by all holders of land within the command of all irrigation schemes. This later part would be an attempt to recover payment for some of the nonirrigation benefits of irrigation schemes. The first recommendation has incorporated the Commission s wish to resurrect a modified satta system (for more details see Annexure-2). Such a resurrection has been done in part as explained earlier and as shown by the policy provision for requiring applications for water. The Commission s report also recommends restructuring the Water Resources Department, greater funding for maintenance, raising irrigation fees, and various changes in WRD operating procedures to make the WRD more effective. 7

8 Bihar-pim-02/kvraju/ Irrigation Management Transfer (IMT) 3.1 Policies and Legal Frame Irrigation management transfer applies only to the major systems and government operated lift systems. The concerns for the two types of system are somewhat different. Bihar has formally accepted and implemented irrigation management transfer policy for major systems. The state has shown enormous interest in greater farmer involvement in irrigation management and has formulated supportive legal frame and guidelines as indicated in recent years. Four documents are important in this regard: a). Status Paper on Participatory Irrigation Management Bihar Model, September b). The Bihar Irrigation, Flood Management and Drainage Rules, c). The Bihar Irrigation Act, d). Bihar State Water Policy, Box.1 Legal support to irrigation management transfer The Bihar Irrigation Act, 1997, clause 46(1), says the government may transfer any government distributory, minor or water course to the water user association/s formed by the beneficiaries or to a group of persons who may be considered fit by the government of to be owner of the said channels for their maintenance and operation. The Act also assures adequate water supplies to WUAs though clause 46(2): in case the management of distributory, sub-distributory or minor is handed over to the WUA, the WUA shall be supplied with authorized discharge at the head regulator of such channel. The executive engineer will ensure that the water so supplied will be in proportion to the area to be irrigated from that channel. 3.2 Statements of Intention i) The Status Paper on PIM clearly says (in section 1.01), the existing irrigation system was breaking down and that urgent remedial action was called for that the person having the maximum stake in the proper management of irrigation water, namely, the farmer must have participation in the management of irrigation system. One of the nine objectives of PIM in Bihar (also see Box 2) is: to initiate participation of farmers in water management, irrigation scheduling, distribution and maintenance of system at the micro level. Box 2. Main objectives of PIM in Bihar 1. To initiate participation of farmers in water management, irrigation scheduling, distribution and maintenance of system at micro level so as to: i).to improve irrigation as well as water use efficiency or optimal production per unit volume of water; and ii).to make the best use of natural precipitation and groundwater in conjunction with the canal water for increasing irrigation and cropping intensity in the command. 2. To develop a sense of economy in water use amongst the users 3. To facilitate the users to have a choice in selecting crops, cropping sequence, timing of water supply and period as well as frequency depending upon the soils and availability of water, climate and other infrastructure facilities available in the commands such as roads, markets, cold storages etc., so as to maximize the incomes and profits. 4. To delineate responsibility of water distribution and maintenance of system between the users and the department for attaining high serviceable standards of the system. 5. To promote equity amongst the users both relating to allocation and actual supply of water. 6. to facilitate resolution of conflicts among farmers. 7. To entrust collective and community responsibility on the farmers to collect water charges and payment to government. 8. To improve and sophisticate deliveries precisely as per crop needs by the department at the supply points of the minors and thus reduce operation losses. 9. To create healthy atmosphere between the managers and users in the entire operation. Source: GoB, 2005 Paragraph 12 of the State Water Policy issued in May 1993 has included the following statement: Water users associations will be formed by the state government for taking beneficiaries cooperation in the construction, maintenance, and water rate collection for village channels and sub-channels. An attempt will be made to ultimately hand over all the above mentioned activities to the beneficiary 8

9 Bihar-pim-02/kvraju/ farmers organizations. The government will consider making a portion of the collected water rates available to the water users associations so that such association will become self-sufficient. In the beginning, these activities will be undertaken in the Sone, Gandak, Kosi, Chandan, and Badua commands. Thereafter, it will be spread throughout the state in a planned manner. For districts covered under these command areas see table Table Command areas and districts planned to be covered under PIM (includes existing) Major and Medium Districts covered irrigation scheme Sone Bhojpur, Rohtas, Patna, Jahanabad, Arungabad, Buxar, Gaya, Khemur (all in southwest Bihar) Gandak East Champaran, West Champaran, Saran, Siwan, Gopalganj, Vaishali, Muzaffarpur, Samastipur (all in north and northwest Bihar) Kosi Purnea, Kathihar, Saharsa, Madhopura, Kishanganj, Supol, Arariya (all in north Bihar) Chandan Bhagalpur (in north Bihar) Badua Bhagalpur, Munger (both in north Bihar) The statement that has appeared in the May 1993 State Water Policy should be contrasted with the statement in the Draft Water Policy published by the Second Irrigation Commission in its report (Bihar, 1994: Vol.VI:I/47): Construction, maintenance and operation of the minors, water courses and field channels will be entrusted to the beneficiaries or the water users associations by making them actual owners of the micro-system. Farmers will be involved progressively in various aspects of management of the irrigation systems, particularly in operation, water distribution, maintenance and collection of the water rates. Voluntary agencies will be encouraged to educate the farmers in efficient water use and management. This statement differed from 1993 policy by adding the idea that operations, management, and ownership of minor canals could be transferred to the farmers and in the explicit mention of the use of voluntary agencies to work with the farmers. Similarly, one of the main recommendations of the Second Irrigation Commission (Bihar 1994: Vol.6:V/20) is: Farmers participation in the management through better involvement, i.e., in operation, maintenance, assessment and collection of water rates, is essential not only for the betterment of farmers economy, rather it is a must for the survival of the system as it would meet the aim of both the farmers and the managers. The Commission has also recommends (Bihar, 1994: Vol.6:V/21) that WRD officials be trained to work in cooperation with farmers. These statements are clear in their intention. Interviews with high-level WRD officials indicated even stronger intentions to try irrigation management transfer. The Secretary of Water Resources Department, with five years of experience in that position said, the state is committed to transfer 100 percent of the irrigation systems by the year Further discussion revealed that the higher ups have realized the improvements in improved access to irrigation, better maintenance of the irrigation systems, and significant change in farmers attitude towards canal systems. The Secretary has underlined the importance of restoration of the system to at least 80 per cent of the original design, and this has to certified by the WUA for payment to the local engineering staff or and to the contractor. The Visionary Programme of Water Resources Department (GoB, 2006), has listed out to achieve transfer of whole command area in the state by 2012 under PIM programme, and 50% of the total command area in the state will be transferred to WUAs by In a paper on Participatory Irrigation Management in Bihar (PIM) prepared by a representative of the Government of Bihar (MOWR, 1995:314), the following statement is made: Participatory Irrigation Management Concept should now get utmost importance since there is a resource crunch in all State Governments and PIM is the only option left for the maintenance of the canal system. 9

10 Bihar-pim-02/kvraju/ Current Status Bihar has created irrigation potential of 2.6 million ha (Medium & Major Irrigation Schemes). But the actual irrigation is 1.6 million ha by January However, the ultimate irrigation potential of the state is 11 million ha, of which 5.3 million ha comes from major and medium irrigation projects. Till February 2006, nearly 150,000 ha has been transferred to 34 WUAs under PIM programme, and another 12 WUAs will sign MOU by June 2006 for 35,000 ha. By end 2006, WRD is planning to transfer another 160,000 ha through forming 47 WUAs. To bring 50% of the created irrigation potential, i.e., nearly 13 lacks ha of command area under PIM in the next five years ( ) WALMI has estimated an expenditure of Rs 6131 million (estimated for 1.2 million ha), in which physical restoration systems alone will take away 98% of the budget (see Annex-3). Table PIM Status in Bihar till February, 2006 MOU signed and Transferred By June 2006 July-Dec 2006 (planned) During 2007 (planned) (planned) No of WUAs Total by end 2012 (planned) Area in ha 150,000 35, , , , million# No of farmers* 235,000 70, ,000 1 million 1.6 million 3.2 million Projects covered Sone, Gandak Sone, Gandak Sone, Gandak All projects All projects All projects * Number of farmers is an estimated 0.5 acre per farmer, as per the field staff observations. # By end 2012, the actual irrigated area may increase by another 20-30% owing to planned investments. Source: WRD, Patna, February 2006 Unlike the memorandum of understanding (MoUs) for transfer in other states, till end 2005, Bihar has not promised to repair the channels. But now, the government has planned to invest funds to provide minimum rehabilitation in all irrigation systems before transfer to WUAs. The state is making serious attempts to complete all these works by end However, both at Paliganj and the remaining 11 WUAs minimum rehabilitation works were not carried out, in spite of the farmers demand for such repairs. But their experience with getting the state to carry out repairs finally convinced them that it would not happen. They have now agreed to take over the channels as is, but with the proviso that the state will handle large-scale emergency repairs. But in case of two WUAs (Khajouri in Sone system and Narayanpur in Gandak system) WUAs are stuck with high siltation levels 7, leading to defunct organisations. But the Secretary of WRD stressed that restoring the system up to 80 per cent of the designed level and its certification by the WUA is going to be mandatory in future. Under the existing legal frame in Bihar state, an area can be authorized for irrigation water supplies for 10 years; for the same reason, the MoU between WUA and WRD is for a period of 10 years. However, the state has the option of revising the agreement in case of non-performance or other constraints. In October 1995, the WRD had obtained state cabinet approval of the MoU. By February 2006, 34 WUAs were set up and equal number of irrigation systems (with a total area of 150,000 ha) was transferred to those WUAs, spread over in Sone and Gandak command areas. 6 The government has proposed to fill the gap of nearly one million ha between the created and utilized irrigation potential through system restoration by Eastern Kosi canal system has been restored with the help of NABARD for 3.24 lakh ha and Eastern Gandak for 3.12 lakh ha. Another 24 schemes are under preparation to restore 4.8 million ha. For all these works, a total amount of Rs.700 crores is expected by 2012 from the government of India, under the Command Area Development and Water Management programme. 7 Naryanapur distributory in Gandak system canals are silted up to 70%, leading to its 4 km long canal almost defunct. This is in spite of full supply levels in the parent canal. 10

11 Bihar-pim-02/kvraju/ Table Steps followed at present (over the last 10 years) to form WUAs in Bihar Sequence of steps followed Responsibility Duration Remarks 1.Orientation (training for both officials & farmers) WALMI Once in a year for each zone Bihar has 10 zones 2.Follow up with ad-hoc WUA WALMI Two months members 3.Selection of irrigation system Executive engineer & chief engineer One year 4.WUA formation Farmers Two months 5.Registration of WUA Inspector General of Registrations, 6-12 months 6.Capacity building WALMI One year 7.MOU and system transfer Water Resource Department Two years (Paliganj WUA took 4 years) Note: time taken 2 to 5 years 3.4. Role of WALMI The Water and Land Management Institute (WALMI), based in Patna, is a full pledged campus based institute. It was started in 1987 with the support from USAID, under the Indo-US Water Resources, Management and Training Project. As part of this project, WALMI took the lead in initiating the action research project in Paliganj area of Sone command area. In Bihar, this was the first step towards participatory irrigation management in major canal irrigation systems 8. This action research was started in 1988 and Paliganj distributory was one among the four irrigation systems included. The committed team of engineers and sociologists (hired by WALMI), and organizational behaviour specialists from AN Sinha Institute of Social Sciences, Patna, collaborated in this activity for nearly four years. Even after the closure of the USAID funded project, WALMI continued (though on lower scale) to strengthen the Paliganj WUA. Based on Paliganj and other (including Gara Chaube, and Jamunia branch canal) experiences, WALMI continuously pursued to promote WUAs in Bihar. Over the years, WALMI had organized several training programmes for senior, middle, and junior officials, and on the other, a large number of capacity building activities for farmers and WUA office bearers (for more details see Annex table 5). WALMI efforts were focused mostly on enabling WUAs for better performance 9 in terms of a) increase in the irrigated area, b) increase in conveyance capacity of the canals, c) more confidence in farmers on timely availability of water, d) significant decrease in number of breaches during irrigation and obstruction to water flows, e) increase in crop productivity by 1.5 to 2 times. All this was possible, with active support from the Sone CADA, which enabled to construct field channels in 17 villages and in another 35 villages under progress. The state is also encouraging the Water and Land Management Institute (WALMI), which began the effort at Paliganj and other WUAs, to undertake other experiments in irrigation management transfer. To cover 50% of the total CCA of the created Major and Medium Irrigation potential of the State under PIM during 10 th Five Year Plan, farmers are being motivated and trained to take up this programme and the field officers of WRD are also being trained to promote this programme amongst the farmers. A separate wing is functioning in WALMI, which organizes training programmes at Patna as well as in the fields for officers and farmers as well. Handbills and related information, booklets, etc. are distributed during these trainings. Help of media and newspapers are also being taken for wide publication of the programme and to create awareness amongst the farmers PIM Cell The state has set up PIM cell attached to the Secretary, Water Resources Department, to coordinate PIM activities in the State. The cell is headed by a superintending engineer (presently with additional charge). The cell is expected to facilitate activities related to formation, registration, and 8 In minor irrigation systems, and for tubewell-based irrigation, NGOs have taken lead in early 1980s to set up users organizations, and have successfully demonstrated in different parts of the state. E.g, VASFA and GASFA in North Bihar. For more details, see Brewer et al, Also see Section 5.1 on Paliganj WUA. 11

12 Bihar-pim-02/kvraju/ management transfer at the state level and to coordinate with the WALMI. The PIM cell with active cooperation from WALMI is currently carrying out activities related to: a) transfer all distribution system to WUAs; b) monitor the performance of WUAs; c) act as mediator to solve problems of WUA between WUAs and the state government; d) facilitate WUAs with all the facilities as per direction of the central government; e) train WUAs with the support of WALMI; and f) act as secretariat of PIM Programme in the state. 4.0 Triggers for IMT 4.1 Growing financial crunch As was made clear in interviews with government officials and in the Second Irrigation Commission s Report, the primary reason for interest in irrigation management transfer is to help solve the financial problems of the state. Bihar is, on a per capita basis, the poorest state in India. This is reflected in its state government budget. The Government of Bihar has great difficulties paying its bills and state employees report often delayed paychecks. Even when pay is not delayed, funds are not made available for operating expenses. A major problem is that revenues from irrigation fees are far less than the operation and maintenance expenses. Annex Table 1 shows that between 1986 and 2002, the revenue collected in any one year was far below the cost of collecting the revenue, to say nothing of the actual operations and maintenance expenditures. In , for the first time in many years, the amount collected was greater than the cost of collection but still far below the operations and maintenance expenditures. Over the years, expenditure on engineering establishment has zoomed up to three times, while the actual expenditure on O&M has marginally increased. The chart 1 below indicates lower collection levels of revenue and lower efforts made on revenue establishment. Chart 2 provides further declining trend in irrigation revenue as percentage of irrigation expenditure. Over the years ( ) this has enormously increased the operational subsidies to irrigation sector over the years. These subsidies from the state budgetary support have reduced the availability of funds for capital expenditure in irrigation sector. 12

13 Bihar-pim-02/kvraju/ Chart.4.1 Expenditure on irrigation O&M, engineering and revenue establishment and water fee collocted in Bihar Rs.in Lakhs O&M Work Engineering Establishment Revenue Establishment Total Revenue collected in Rs Chart.4.2 Total water fee collection as % of total operational expenditure in% Both at the state level and project level irrigation sector has been facing declining financial allocations over the years. It is reaching its nadir in many cases. E.g, the Chief Engineer s office at Siwan (with CCA 13

14 Bihar-pim-02/kvraju/ of 240,000 ha) is part of the Gandak command area. Its total expenditure 10 is Rs.247 million (during ), while revenue collection is just Rs.0.8 million. Its backlog gone up to Rs.117 million and its current year demand estimate is around Rs.9 million. In another case, the executive engineer of a division (including Gara Choube canal with a CCA of 59,000 ha) in Sone command area, based in Dehri has reported only 20 per cent of the annual demand (Rs.20 million) gets collected. The concerned executive engineer has clearly in favour of transferring irrigation systems to the WUAs. This would save Rs.9.5 million to the department; it includes Rs.3.5 million spent annually on maintenance and expenditure, Rs. 5 million on establishment and another Rs.1 million on other items. Thus, a rupee saved was rupee earned for the department. One has to wait and watch the impact of transferring revenue collection responsibilities (along with revenue field staff) to water resources department from the year In spite of low water fees (Rs.88/acre in Kharif season and Rs.75/acre in rabi season) users are refusing to pay, and the administration is unable to collect it owing to various deficiencies in the system. On the other hand, the same farmers are buying water at Rs.500/acre per season from tubewell owners. Across the state, tubewell owners sell water at Rs.65-75/hour from 5 hp diesel pump, up from Rs.22/hour in Elsewhere in India, it is Rs.25/hour from electric pump. Many rural areas do not even have electrical wires in the present circumstances. Water Fee 11 : Over the last 15 years water fee has been revised twice in Bihar. Once in 1990, and the next was effective from The revised water fee levels were: Rs.88/acre for kharif crops, and Rs.75/acre for rabi crops. Separate for two-season crops. However, the revised water fees were much lower than in many other states (as shown below), which had revised water fee around the same time. Table 4.1: Water fee (Rs/ha) in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar Crop Karnataka (effective from July 2001) Andhra Pradesh (effective from July 1997) Bihar (effective from 1998) Paddy Kharif (for all kharif crops) Paddy Rabi Paddy Summer Jowar Kharif Jowar Rabi (for all rabi crops) Jowar Summer Maize Wheat Sugar cane Chillies Betelnut Groundnut Sunflower Soyabean Cotton This includes establishment costs of Rs140 million and maintenance and repair costs of Rs.108 million 11 The guiding principles of water pricing from public sources are (Rao, Dhawan, and Gulati, 1997): a) resource generation for better maintenance of irrigation structures and further investment through cost recovery; b) inducing efficient use of water; d) ensuring inter-regional and inter-personal equity; and d) protection of the environment through sustainable use of water resources. These objectives are interrelated and generally reinforce each other. Rational pricing of water would generate sufficient resources for the maintenance of projects and discourage wasteful use of water thereby prevent environmental degradation in the form of water logging and salinity caused typically by excessive water use. Theoretical and practical considerations in the pricing of canal water are more complex. There has been a debate as to whether it is a public good or a private good or somewhere in between. It is often regarded a private good with some characteristics of a public good (GoI, 1992). Pricing of canal water is a state subject and hence tends to differ wider across states. In addition, canal water prices also vary across crops within the same state and across the seasons for the same crop (Raju and Amarnath, 2002). 14

15 Bihar-pim-02/kvraju/ The Second Irrigation Commission was asked to deal with several aspects of this problem: One aspect was that rates were very low. Prior to 1995, the irrigation rates were last revised in At that time, canal rates were set at Rs per hectare for kharif season, Rs per hectare for rabi season, and Rs per hectare for hot weather season. Reductions were also identified for those who took only a single watering during the season and for those served by non-perennial canals. Rates for water from public tubewells and state lift systems were about 40 per cent higher. The Commission recommended raising the rates. But the state retained Kharif season rate same, and increased the Rabi season rates to Rs.75 per ha from 1 November 1995 as the first step toward increasing them to the point of covering costs. The Irrigation Commission also recommended raising fees for non-irrigation uses of water supplied through irrigation works. The Irrigation Commission noted that farmers who took irrigation water were not the only beneficiaries of irrigation development, particularly development of large-scale surface systems, which included road development and other infrastructure development. Therefore, they also suggested instituting a irrigation cess on all land within the boundaries of an irrigation system. The Commission made recommendations to improve the rate of irrigation fee collection. Over the period, the rate of fee collection varied from 5per cent to a high of 17per cent (Bihar 1994: Vol.IV:11). The recommendations include reviving the satta system, having the WRD collect the fees or, where WUAs exist, entrusting fee collection to WUAs. Most importantly, a Commission study entitled Introduction of System Management for Self- Financing of Projects ((Bihar 1994: Vol.VI: part V), has pointed out that making the irrigation schemes self-sufficient financially would require improving performance, reducing costs, and involving farmers in the management of the system. In particular, this paper advocated creation of WUAs, giving them various sorts of agricultural and other assistance, and turning over various aspects of management to them. Irrigation management transfer thus was an integral part of the Second Irrigation Commission s recommendations for resolving the financial problems of irrigation in Bihar. 4.2 National Water Policy The National policy seems to have had effect on the interest and the form of proposals for irrigation management transfer in Bihar. First, as noted above, the earliest experiments with organizing farmers for transfer occurred in the context of the Command Area Development programme. This was and is a national programme. In Bihar, however, unlike many other states, the state has not been able to make use of central funding for some of the activities, such as the support of WUAs. The reason is that central funds for these activities are given on a matching basis. Bihar has rarely been able to come up with the required state funds. A second factor is the National Water Policy, which advocates gradual involvement of farmers in various aspects of irrigation management. The exact working (MOWR, 1987: paragraph 12) is Efforts should be made to involve farmers progressively in various aspects of management of irrigation systems, particularly in water distribution and collection of water rates. Assistance of voluntary agencies should be enlisted in educating the farmers in efficient water use and water management. This policy is, of course, not binding on the state governments since water is constitutionally a state subject. However, the Second Irrigation Commission report frequently quotes, paraphrases, or simply copies the wording of the National Water Policy s rather vague statement on farmer involvement. Finally, the recent effort of the central government to promote Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM) has had some effect. This is currently being pushed by the central Command Area Development agency within the Ministry of Water Resources. As of June, 1995, Bihar was classed by the central CAD agency as one of the states least advanced in promoting PIM. However, they were invited to take part in a World Bank supported information programme on the subject and contributed a paper on 15

16 Bihar-pim-02/kvraju/ the status of PIM in Bihar to a workshop (MOWR, 1995). Statements in interviews and the paper in the workshop imply that the primary importance of the national effort to promote PIM is to give greater legitimacy to the theory that transfer is a way to help solve the state financial problems. 4.2 The Bihar PIM Model The Water Resources Department, Bihar has introduced the Bihar PIM model in 2005 (GoB, 2005). This was based on the guidelines prepared for implementing the participatory irrigation management by the WRD in the year The task was led by the then Commissioner WRD, Radha Singh, a senior IAS officer; Earlier, she had a rich experience of working as additional secretary in the Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India and also in the World Bank. The Model basically suggested to made organizational changes both at the state and lower level to implement PIM in the state. It has envisaged setting up of a) state organizations and b) farmer organizations. At the state level, a steering committee headed by the Chief Secretary/Development Commissioner to guide and co-ordinate the activities with the concerned departments. At WRD level, establishment of PIM cell headed by a superintending engineer. The cell is supposed to make annual as well as a perspective programme for PIM in the state and need to ensure effective implementation. In addition, there are a) PIM advisory committee to advise PIM cell, b) WALMI, to provide capacity building of stakeholders, c) PIM Unit at the chief engineer level, and d) Field implementation team (FIT), at the executive engineer level. But till December 2005, owing to severe shortage of staff and resources, these units/cells are handicapped to perform effectively. At users level, the model had envisaged farmer s organizations (FO). Each FO comprises: a) village irrigation committee (VIC) wherein, every water user of the village will be a member. The executive committee of the VIC comprises 5 to 11 members through election; this executive committee is responsible for proper management of irrigation through all the outlets within the village, in accordance to the decisions taken by the SLC. b) System level committee (SLC). Here system refers to distributory, sub-distributory or minor, where the management transfers of the system takes place. SLC are registered bodies under the Societies Registration Act, As of December 2005, there were 12 active SLCs, popularly known as Water Users Associations (WUAs) in Bihar, spreading both in Sone and Gandak command areas. 4.4 Poor performance of irrigation systems Adding to misery, nearly 50 per cent of the lower level posts are vacant. At the state level, overall vacant positions are around 60per cent in the water resources sector alone. Most of the systems are unable to carry the designed discharge; both at the main and distributory canals. These technical deficiencies impact ultimately on access and adequacy of water at the farm level at all reaches, except head reach. Impact is more so in tail reaches. Since, take off points are unable to take designed discharge, water can t run till the tailend. In some cases, like Gandak system, WUAs assigned distributaries are silted more than 50 per cent right at the entry level. In these cases, water is unable to flow even 20 per cent of the designed length of the canal. E.g, Western main canal of the Gandak system, designed for 8560 cusecs discharge, while, it is unable to take more than 6000 cusecs, even during surplus water situation. The Gandak system is also faced with accumulating water logged area of 52,000 ha and low duty of 30 acres/cusec. The Naryanpur sub-distributory, which is transferred to WUA receives only 5 out of the 42 cusecs designed. Water flows only till 400 feet of the designed feet length of the canal. 4.5 Donors influence The World Bank has been influential in getting the Government of Bihar to adopt the policy of transferring the management of state lift systems to users. In particular adoption of this policy has been discussed as a condition for receiving additional funds for groundwater development. The fact that the initial model for transfer of state lift systems was the West Bengal model is a direct result of the World 16