LAHORE, July 21: The World Bank is threatening the Punjab Irrigation and Drainage Authority with withdrawing finances unless it sticks to the agreed working model.
The PIDA has decided to adopt the Andhra Pardesh model, at least for the time being — handing over control of irrigation minors but not distributaries and canals to Pani Panchayats (water fora).
However, the World Bank which supported the Andhra Pardesh arrangement, has been resisting the change of working model in Pakistan. Inestead, it wants the Irrigation and Power Department to stick to the plan it had originally agreed to.
The plan adopted by the Authority immediately after its formation in 1997 provided for an autonomous PIDA, area water boards, farmers’ organizations and khal panchayats (watercourse fora), all of them having clearly defined roles and responsibilities. In about four years, those managing the programme realized some of its inherent weaknesses and decided to abandon it in favour of the Andhra model.
The pilot programme for the original model, in which three farmers’ organization were formed in Bahawalnagar district, ran into trouble when the Irrigation and Power Department took its hands off them. The organizations were expected to control water distribution, collect abiana (water rate), resolve disputes and document water economy. Their one-year evaluation pointed to problems in all these areas.
The problems were largely because of misplaced emphasis. The planners concentrated on social mobilization with relatively less stress on capacity building. Farmers received some training in upkeep of distributaries but were totally ill-equipped to deal with vital areas of dispute resolution and assessment and collection of abiana (water rates). The department took the FOs as its repalecment and took its hands off, thus depriving them of crucial institutional support. The stress shifted to managemnt of such issues rather than maintenance of outlest etc.
The realization then crept in that the top-down model was abrupt and placed too much reliance on the ability of the farmers to work independently — which was simply not there. The search for a replacement brought in the Indian model. In Andhra farmers had been successfully roped in for participatory management. The government retained operational control. According to new model, farmers would be trained in preparing and implementing plans for efficient and equitable distribution of water with technical assistance from the department, regulation and promoting economy in use of water, preparation of budgets, resolving water and irrigation-related disputes among farmers, assisting the Revenue Department in collection of rates and promoting coordination among farmers.
The managers are arguing that in Pakistan’s socio-political set up, drastic institutional changes could result in more harm than good. Risking the century-old irrigation system for undefined objectives is not a chance worth taking. It is, therefore, necessary to keep the pace and extent of change to a manageable level. The starting point now would be a khal panchayat (watercourse forum) rather than area water board.
There is a realization among PIDA managers that most of the problems faced by the farmers relate to distribution of water through watercourses and if remedies are to be made available to them at their doorsteps, a forum at watercourse level would be most beneficial.
WORLD BANK: According to PIDA officials, the World Bank has taken a narrow view of the new model and threatened to stop finances. They say the proposed model is equally participatory in nature and completely in line with original objectives. The only differences are in the approach and pace of implementation. Instead of starting from the top and creating everything in one go, the new model starts from below and creates upper layers over a period of time. A two-year period has been proposed for piloting the system of participatory management. Based on the results of the pilot project, additional functions could be assigned to the FOs. Currently, it has been decided to extend legal backing to the newly formed FOs, define their jurisdiction, guarantee them a three-year tenure and a structure of a chairman and four members each — preferably literate.
The new model has its own critics. This exercise is doomed to fail, says an Irrigation and Power Department official. The basic idea of the PIDA, he says, is privatization of irrigation water and delinking it from land. The concepts are not made for Pakistan. How could one expect farmers to pay commercial rates for irrigation water. Once the water is commercialised, farmers would be expected to buy it like other farm inputs.
The FOs cannot increase supply of water to a farmer even if he wants to buy more because no water is available in the country. Nor could the FOs punish an individual defaulter because watercourses are designed to carry water for, say 100 farmers. The World Bank came up with the idea and the then government agreed to it to get the loan. Otherwise, he said, the suggestions have never been taken seriously.
But the PIDA is already on its way. By May 2002, it had initiated work on 70 distributaries in Lower Chenab Canal (East) Circle, Faisalabad. Out of these, 50 FOs have been registered. Election are being held for the remaining 20. It has also formed 2,503 khal panchayats in the LCC (West) Circle. In addition to it, five nehri panchayats (canal fora) have also been registered and training manuals prepared for farmers.