FOR SOME years, water has been passing through a critical channel in Pakistan; sources are rapidly dwindling. Water has indeed become a scarce commodity.

The additional pressures placed on the sector by three consecutive drought years have caused misgivings among users across the country, particularly in the provinces of Punjab and Sindh and even triggered an exchange of accusations.

While farmers suffered in every part of Pakistan, tillers of the land in these two provinces that make the main contribution to the national food basket have been through a really tough time. Yield of basic crops haven’t yet declined but, if resources kept shrinking, this frightful possibility could become a tragic reality.

There are three remedial options. They are:

1. Pakistan can build new reservoirs.

2. Conservation technologies can be harnessed with urgency on an extensive scale.

3. Reforms can be introduced at all levels in the water sector. Kalabagh Dam (KBD) is undeniably the best bet. This project’s construction can be undertaken immediately but the KBD stands, most regretfully, struck by a lethal controversy.

The government has announced a number of schemes and projects as part of its vision of the future. They are aimed at enhancing water storage facilities. The plans are neither here nor there. Their implementation would take years and they would not amount to any reportable addition to existing resources after completion.

In any case, most of them, like raising the storage capacity of Mangla Dam, have not taken off so far. Conservation technologies hold a lot of promise. They have been adopted, with visibly positive results, by many countries, including a few falling in water affluent category.

On the one hand, they have created conditions for maximum utilization of available water and have, on the other, helped in producing more from less land. This is besides reducing the burden of labour from farmers and adding to their income. In Pakistan, farmers, particularly small land owners, badly need a break. Conservation technologies can provide that.

However, in the national system, initiatives cannot succeed without backing from the public sector. This limitation is not restricted to agricultural fields or irrigation resources; it permeates all areas of national life.

The water management wing of the agriculture department of Punjab introduced these technologies and worked hard for their adoption by farmers. Gradually, more and more farmers are turning to them. But the pace is slow because conversion to these systems is linked with consistently productive results in fields where they have been used.

Old-fashioned farmers like to bide their time before discarding traditional practices. Further, equipment is neither easily available nor with in the means of all levels of farmers. Which means that conservation tillage is being adopted but not at a rapid speed.

The government has not been unmindful of the third option but the pace of progress has been lethargic, almost somnambulist. Reforms were needed because the delivery of water by irrigation agencies was inefficient, their maintenance of irrigation and drainage infrastructure was poor and they presided over a distribution system that served powerful fuedals to the detriment of the interests of small and tail end farmers.

Besides being inequitable, the system disallowed participation of users either in decision-making or in management. Collection of abiana and cost recovery left a lot to be desired and shortfall in revenue and expenditure in the sector has been on a continuous upward streak. The situation was crying for change.

The government, with the help of foreign agencies, responded with the passage of the PIDA Act in 1997. But the authorities have spent such a long a time for moving from legislation to implementation that questions about its intentions have started agitating people. One should however, not doubt the government; delays are a matter of routine. But the cost is proving high.

The reforms aim at decentralization of the system by transferring its management to beneficiaries, making irrigation and drainage system self-sustainable and creating institutions that can take up the task of assessing and collecting abiana and drainage cess and distribute irrigation water on an equitable basis between big and small land owners as well as ensure that tail-end farmers are not deprived of their share.

This is being done in a ‘phased manner’- the government’s expression for sloth. The actual reason for the slow work is resistance by vested interest elements comprising irrigation officials and influential feudal lords who manage to ingratiate themselves with every administration. This is the training and legacy of many fuedals who owe large land holdings to the former colonial master. These gifts for services rendered have been instrumental in the perpetuation of the colonial legacy and exploitation of the poor.

Implementation of reforms requires extensive training of farmers for taking up new responsibilities, instilling confidence among them to act without being overawed by power brokers, capacity building and wide scale social mobilization. The real issue is empowerment of farmers and that is the stumbling block.

Effective implementation of reforms by placing management responsibilities on farmers would, besides other positive results, produce a change in the thinking of farmers about judicious use of water and taking measures for optimum utilization of water for a maximum number of growers and the largest possible acreage. Reforms can thus be a sure move towards conservation of water.

Such reforms have been introduced in many parts of the world but reference to countries like either the US or China may not be in place because of their standards of management and conditions of equity. However, Spain and Turkey, where social and agrarian conditions are comparable with Pakistan’s landscape, have also handed over responsibilties of water management to farmers.

These nations have carried out water sector reforms to the advantage of users, for the betterment of rural economy and for improvements in the social sector. Needless to stress, these countries have greatly benefited from abandoning traditional practices and democratization of the management.

In the 80’s, Mexico was in the throes of a financial crisis that left it with no resources for investment in the country’s rural economy. As a way out, it resorted to reforms in irrigation schemes to run them more efficiently. Realizing the need for transferring water resources to users, the country undertook a reforms programme in 1989 and established its first pilot project in 1991.

By now it has transferred 58 of its 81 irrigation districts to water users associations (WUAs) that are operating and maintaining irrigation operations with modern technology and trained and motivated staff. The political commitment of the government, despite a powerful feudal lobby, has been one of the major reasons of the success of the reforms programme.

According to the evaluation of international agencies, irrigation performance has improved in the country, water deliveries have become more responsive to demand and the drainage system is functioning better. WUA’s now cover over three million hectares of the total 4 million ha that relies on surface water in Mexico. Turkey started handing over the management of irrigation and drainage to users in 1993.

The result is increased collection of revenue for operation and maintenance (O&M), improved irrigation facilities, radical raise in the recovery of O&M costs from users- jumping to nearly 100 percent from a dismal 20 percent in the pre transfer period, reducing water related complaints, about 64 percent less spending by the government on the system and above all, a substantial increase in crop production.

Pakistan has started the process but a culture of exploitation of the irrigation system has blocked reforms. There is greater urgency to improve the performance of the system in Pakistan than in most other places in the world. One hopes the pace of reforms is quickly brought on a par with the level of needs of the country. That end can however be realized only by committed political support from the government.

It has been lacking so far. If the dispensation is not changed, conditions in the agriculture sector would further deteriorate and availability of water for irrigation would become even more critical.