IWMI Working Papers

Africaapos;s agriculture sector is vital for food security, employment, and economic growth. Women and young people, who contribute to innovation, diversification, and income, face limited opportunities in the sector due to social and economic power imbalances. This disparity wastes resources and impedes agricultural value chain development (VCD). Inclusive VCD aims to empower women, men and youth from diverse social groups and strengthen the agriculture sector. However, the literature on inclusive VCD in Africa is limited due to urban biases, and the lack of a framework to address gender inequality and poverty. This study explores how livelihood assets, strategies for accessing the assets, and enabling and discouraging factors in the value chain shapes the inclusion of women and youth in on-farm, off-farm and non-farm activities. It is based on the Safeguarding Sahelian Wetlands for Food Security (SaWeL) program that aims to make the market work for the poor through inclusive VCD in the Ziway-Shalla Sub-basin of Ethiopia, and Wegnia and Sourou basins in Mali. A qualitative dataset of 32 focus group discussions, 48 key informant interviews and 40 in-depth interviews were analyzed. We identified investment and cultivation inclusion strategies that demonstrates how women and youth from diverse social groups actualize business opportunities, overcome challenges and create new opportunities for inclusion. Investment strategies involve women and youth from better-off households with good access to natural, social, political and physical capital for capital-intensive roles. On the other hand, cultivation strategies involve women and youth from resource-poor households who can harness natural, social and political capital to participate in off-farm and non-farm activities. Our results show that women and youth who adopt either one of the strategies are encouraged by good support from social networks, cooperatives, Government Organizations, Nongovernmental Organizations and private sector actors. However, access to productive resources and services for women and youth adopting any strategies is hampered by gender and intergenerational norms, poverty and insufficient institutional capacity. We argue that it is essential to understand how social disparities and local environments interact to inform the design and implementation of inclusive value chains. Additionally, inclusive value chains necessitate building capacities of institutions at different scales.

The African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) Secretariat committed to design and implement an African Water Quality Program (AWaQ) in its Strategic Operational Plan (2020-2024) considering the guiding frameworks is uses such as the Africa Water Vision 2025, United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the African Union Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want. AMCOW reached out to the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) to support the development of such a program. AWaQ builds on the rich experiences and lessons learned from past and ongoing regional and subregional water quality initiatives across Africa by different players, including African Union institutions, and the wider members of the World Water Quality Alliance (WWQA), as well as the AMCOW African Water and Sanitation Sector Monitoring and Reporting System (WASSMO). The five phases of developing an African Water Quality Program (AWaQ) are explained in the following papers: 1. State of Water Quality Monitoring and Pollution Control in Africa (phase 1-2) 2. Innovations in Water Quality Monitoring and Management in Africa (phase 3-4) 3. A Framework for an African Water Quality Program (AWaQ) (phase 5) 4. Country Water Quality Profiles This paper is the third in the above list and is the culmination of the development of AWaQ. It provides a foundational structure for developing a framework for AWaQ and is guided by the three principles of state custodianship, co-development, and coordination and collaboration. It has been proposed that AMCOW Member States will retain their sovereignty and become custodians of the data and information generated as part of AWaQ, and will be closely involved in the development of program activities. Further, AWaQ entails coordination and collaboration between regional, global and transboundary institutions and initiatives involved in water quality monitoring, assessment and management. The framework for AWaQ rests on the following four core components which were developed based on stakeholder consultations and literature studies: 1. Governance 2. Water quality monitoring 3. Data management 4. Capacity building AWaQ will aim to deliver within each of these core components. The governance component of AWaQ will build on already existing country governance structures and regulatory provisions through management approaches such as Integrated Water Resources Management and Catchment-based Water Management, with the aim of achieving the goal of improved water quality. The water quality monitoring component will aim to encourage countries to collect basic water quality data to support regional and global indicators. The data management component will make use of decentralized national platforms, where countries submit only final national assessments to AMCOW for reporting and planning while retaining the raw data on their own databases. Lastly, the capacity building component would be coordinated through AMCOW to deliver standardized and tailo

The African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) Secretariat committed to design and implement an African Water Quality Program (AWaQ) in its Strategic Operational Plan (2020-2024) considering the guiding frameworks it uses such as the Africa Water Vision 2025, United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the African Union Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want. AMCOW reached out to the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) to support the development of such a program. AWaQ builds on the rich experiences and lessons learned from past and ongoing regional and subregional water quality initiatives across Africa by different players, including African Union institutions, and the wider members of the World Water Quality Alliance (WWQA), as well as the AMCOW African Water and Sanitation Sector Monitoring and Reporting System (WASSMO). The five phases of developing an African Water Quality Program (AWaQ) are explained in the following papers: 1. State of Water Quality Monitoring and Pollution Control in Africa (phase 1-2) 2. Innovations in Water Quality Monitoring and Management in Africa (phase 3-4) 3. A Framework for an African Water Quality Program (AWaQ) (phase 5) 4. Country Water Quality Profiles This paper is the second in the above list and documents the greatest innovations in water quality monitoring and management in Africa, and proposes interventions to strengthen Africa’s current water quality monitoring and management efforts. Innovations related to monitoring program design, analytical techniques and instruments, deployment of instrumentation and approaches to water quality monitoring are presented together with their applicability and suitability for implementation in Africa. Similarly, water quality management interventions — policy and regulatory mechanisms, catchment-based management, data management and sharing, wastewater reuse and nature-based solutions, among others — are examined. The most suitable interventions are proposed for African contexts using criteria such as affordability, scalability and flexibility. Key findings of this paper highlight the following: 1. There are numerous innovations within water quality monitoring and management. However, not all of them may be suitable for implementation in resource-constrained environments characteristic of many parts of Africa. For example, statistical analysis and modelling may require large amounts of existing monitoring data currently unavailable in most African countries. Nonetheless, other interventions such as the priority monitoring approach can be beneficial in optimizing resource utilization. Similarly, technological interventions such as multi-parameter sensors for basic water quality variables are now widely available and affordable in the provision of in situ results and lessening the need for laboratory analysis. 2. Available and existing traditional methods of water quality monitoring and management offer a good starting point to further strengthen

The African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) Secretariat committed to design and implement an African Water Quality Program (AWaQ) in its Strategic Operational Plan (2020-2024) considering the guiding frameworks it uses such as the Africa Water Vision 2025, United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the African Union Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want. AMCOW reached out to the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) to support the development of such a program. AWaQ builds on the rich experiences and lessons learned from past and ongoing regional and subregional water quality initiatives across Africa by different players, including African Union institutions, and the wider members of the World Water Quality Alliance (WWQA), as well as the AMCOW African Water and Sanitation Sector Monitoring and Reporting System (WASSMO). The five phases of developing an African Water Quality Program (AWaQ) are explained in the following papers: 1. State of Water Quality Monitoring and Pollution Control in Africa (phase 1-2) 2. Innovations in Water Quality Monitoring and Management in Africa (phase 3-4) 3. A Framework for an African Water Quality Program (AWaQ) (phase 5) 4. Country Water Quality Profiles This paper is the first from the above list and is a baseline assessment of the status of water quality monitoring and pollution control in Africa, including the capacities available across countries in the region. This assessment considers various past and ongoing initiatives related to water quality monitoring and management, capacity development, and water pollution control and impact mitigation. Key findings of this paper highlight the following: 1. There is an encouraging availability of national water testing laboratory facilities across African countries. Nonetheless, there are weaknesses that require attention to ensure effectiveness and sustainability. 2. Regular and ongoing training is needed to keep up with laboratory testing methodologies. However, we observed a low trend in regular training, which does not augur well for keeping abreast of the best practices in water quality monitoring. In the context of emerging pollutants, training needs to be more regular than is currently experienced. 3. Water quality monitoring and management capacities are patchy. Capacities related to staff training, laboratory infrastructure and monitoring program activities need strengthening. 4. Pollution control mechanisms are facing challenges. Regulatory mechanisms and wastewater treatment technologies—the most widely deployed pollution control solutions—may benefit from more concerted investment, and the political will and financing to boost their effectiveness.

This paper is a global literature review of anticipatory action approaches in communities hosting forcibly displaced persons. Anticipatory action, or a set of actions taken to prevent or mitigate a potential disaster before acute impacts are felt, is an essential strategy to reduce the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events. However, due to the complexity and diversity of host community environments, it has proven challenging to incorporate this approach into these contexts. This paper provides a review of the available data on water- and climate-related vulnerabilities in host communities to inform and strengthen anticipatory action approaches and climate adaptation initiatives. It also supports future research for the development of a replicable and scalable mixed-methods model called the Integrated Host Community Vulnerability Framework (IHCVF). This paper starts with a background and technical overview of anticipatory action as it is currently implemented by humanitarian and development organizations. This overview highlights the lack of research on how anticipatory action can take into account the specific vulnerabilities of host communities. The paper then provides a detailed definition of host communities, a term the authors use to refer to the context, institutions and structures within which forcibly displaced persons live, and encompasses both the hosts and the displaced. Finally, it reviews the early stages of development of the IHCVF, including operational needs, specific vulnerabilities to consider, and current gaps in the field that need to be covered with future research. Next, the paper analyzes the types of water- and climate-related vulnerabilities in host communities, and the anticipatory action approaches that organizations are undertaking in those communities, using case studies from Bangladesh, Nigeria and Sahel. The data from these case studies show how existing host community vulnerabilities and food, land and water-related stresses can compound disasters for hosts and forcibly displaced people when impacted by extreme weather events, conflict, disease outbreaks, and food insecurity. Finally, this paper ends with a few conclusions about gaps in the data, including a lack of anticipatory action strategies that prioritize long-term outcomes such as resilience building and adaptation, and the need for guidance on how to better implement anticipatory action and forecast-based humanitarian action in conflict situations. It recommends further research on water- and climate-related vulnerabilities in communities hosting forcibly displaced people to provide practical guidance to inform future programming.

Freshwater systems are disproportionately adversely affected by the ongoing, global environmental crisis. The effective and efficient water resource conservation and management necessary to mitigate the crisis requires monitoring data, especially on water quality. This is recognized by Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6, particularly indicator 6.3.2., which requires all UN member states to measure and report the ‘proportion of water bodies with good ambient water quality’. However, gathering sufficient data on water quality is reliant on data collection at spatial and temporal scales that are generally outside the capacity of institutions using conventional methods. Digital technologies, such as wireless sensor networks and remote sensing, have come to the fore as promising avenues to increase the scope of data collection and reporting. Citizen science (which goes by many names, e.g., participatory science or community-based monitoring) has also been earmarked as a powerful mechanism to improve monitoring. However, both avenues have drawbacks and limitations. The synergy between the strengths of modern technologies and citizen science presents an opportunity to use the best features of each to mitigate the shortcomings of the other. This paper briefly synthesizes recent research illustrating how smartphones, sometimes in conjunction with other sensors, present a nexus point method for citizen scientists to engage with and use sophisticated modern technology for water quality monitoring. This paper also presents a brief, non-exhaustive research synthesis of some examples of current technological upgrades or innovations regarding smartphones in citizen science water quality monitoring in developing countries and how these can assist in objective, comprehensive, and improved data collection, management and reporting. While digital innovations are being rapidly developed worldwide, there remains a paucity of scientific and socioeconomic validation of their suitability and usefulness within citizen science. This perhaps contributes to the fact that the uptake and upscaling of smartphone-assisted citizen science continues to underperform compared to its potential within water resource management and SDG reporting. Ultimately, we recommend that more rigorous scientific research efforts be dedicated to exploring the suitability of digital innovations in citizen science in the context of developing countries and SDG reporting.

Small water infrastructure in Nigeria needs to be utilized more efficiently. There are over 900 small reservoirs across the country. Many of these have yet to be put to productive use within the Ogun watershed in the Ogun Osun River Basin. This study investigates the challenges and opportunities for improving the use of small reservoirs for farmer-led irrigation in a sustainable way. The 20 small reservoirs investigated showed varying degrees of degradation of the hydraulic structures, poor embankment maintenance evidenced by the observed erosion, overgrown shrubs, spillway cracks and failures, and siltation of the reservoir. Poor water management and irrigation practices due to weak technical capacity are also observed. There needs to be a precise governance arrangement or policy supporting water use in such a situation. The economic interests and considerations of the farmers determine the irrigation activities around the reservoirs. Regulations and management of the reservoirs were based on what was considered appropriate by the farmers. With the increasing interest in the use of small reservoirs as water sources for farmer-led irrigation in Nigeria, increased capacity building and training, access to agricultural inputs, finance, and the transformation of commodity associations to water users’ associations would contribute to improving the productivity of small reservoirs.

This study evaluates the socioecological consequences of the potential trade-offs between maintaining environmental flows (e-flows) and providing water for sustainable subsistence agriculture and livelihoods to the vulnerable human communities living along the lower Great Letaba River in South Africa. Implementation of e-flows is now generally recognized as an essential part of water resources management as they are designed to ensure that sufficient water is retained in a river to protect river ecosystems and all the beneficiaries of services that arise from those ecosystems. Understanding the relationship between e-flows and the use of water for small-scale agriculture is important for the management of trade-offs. The Letaba River Basin and itapos;s tributary, the Great/Groot Letaba, are located in the eastern part of the Limpopo province in South Africa. This is one of the most important river basins in the region supporting both large-scale commercial and small-scale farmers. The river sustains many vulnerable human communities who depend on the ecosystem services provided by the river. Yet, the water resources of the Letaba River are heavily overutilized due to expanding developments, including upstream dams with associated offtakes mostly for irrigation. The findings of the study indicate that irrigation water demand from subsistence agriculture in the Great Letaba Basin amounted to around 2 million cubic meters annually with median demand not exceeding 300,000 cubic meters per month. This means that irrigation water demand from smallholder agriculture only amounts to about one-tenth of the estimated e-flow requirement. However, small-scale farmers contend with an increasing crop water gap which limits irrigated agriculture, especially during the dry season. Given the need to sustainably maintain e-flows for ecological purposes, crop water gaps are only likely to increase and compromise the sustainability of irrigated agriculture. With active upstream supplementation of river flows from dams to maintain both environmental and livelihoods-oriented river flows, the crop water gap can be fully eliminated. This supplementation is not assured due to competing uses.

This working paper was prepared under a research project from the Future Leaders – African Independent Research (FLAIR) fellowship programme – focusing on understanding hydrological changes in the Lake Tana sub-basin, Ethiopia, due to water abstraction, land use and climate change. FLAIR is funded by the UK government’s Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) through The Royal Society, UK. The study was jointly conducted by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and staff of the Abbay Basin Development Office (ABDO). The paper provides information on the deterioration of streamflow data quality in the sub-basin. It demonstrates how to support the sub-basin by generating primary data and compiling current water abstraction data that are relevant for development planning. The project showed the possibility of conducting such activities with limited financial resources and time constraints but with strong collaboration. This work also demonstrated the need for a data alliance among stakeholders in the sub-basin.

The Constitution of Nepal 2015 enshrines everyone’s right of access to clean water for drinking and the right to food. The common operationalization of the right to water for drinking is providing access to infrastructure that brings water for drinking and other basic domestic uses near and at homesteads. Challenges to achieving this goal in rural areas include: low functionality of water systems; expansion of informal self supply for multiple uses; widespread de facto productive uses of water systems designed for domestic uses; growing competition for finite water resources; and male elite capture in polycentric decision-making. This paper traces how the Nepali government and nongovernmental organizations in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), irrigation and other sectors have joined forces since the early 2000s to address these challenges by innovating community-led multiple use water services (MUS). The present literature review of these processes complemented by field research supported by the Water for Women Fund focuses on women in vulnerable households. Overcoming sectoral silos, these organizations support what is often seen as the sole responsibility of the WASH sector: targeting infrastructure development to bring sufficient water near and at homesteads of those left behind. Women’s priorities for using this water are respected and supported, which often includes productive uses, also at basic volumes. In line with decentralized federalism, inclusive community-led MUS planning processes build on vulnerable households’ self supply, commonly for multiple uses, and follow their priorities for local incremental infrastructure improvements. Further, community-led MUS builds on community-based arrangements for ‘sharing in’ and ‘sharing out’ the finite water resources in and under communities’ social territories. This realizes the constitutional right to food in line with the Nepal Water Resources Act, 1992, which prioritizes core minimum volumes of water for everyone’s domestic uses and many households’ irrigation. Evidence shows how the alleviation of domestic chores, women’s stronger control over food production for nutrition and income, and more sustainable infrastructure mutually reinforce each other in virtuous circles out of gendered poverty. However, the main challenge remains the inclusion of women and vulnerable households in participatory processes.

Freshwater in both natural and man-made stores is critical for socioeconomic development. Globally, cumulative reduction in terrestrial water storage from 1971 to 2020 is estimated to be of the order of 27,079 Bm3. Although insignificant in comparison to the total volume stored, the decrease in ‘operational’ water stored (i.e., the proportion of water storage that is sustainably utilizable by people) is estimated to be of the order of 3% to 5% since 1971. In many places, both natural and man-made water storage are declining simultaneously, exacerbating water stress. Conjunctive use of different water stores is a prerequisite for water security and it is vital that natural water stores are fully integrated, alongside man-made water infrastructure, in future water resources planning and management.

Drought is an almost annual phenomenon in Sri Lanka, occurring at varying degrees of severity and affecting many parts of the country. These droughts cause significant damage to agriculture and other economic and social activities. This paper assesses the effectiveness of satellite-based weather Index insurance (WII) bundled with real-time climate and agronomic advisory services provided to farmers’ mobile phones. The aim is to enhance the drought resilience of diverse groups of farmers by providing solutions and strategies to extend bundled insurance products to more people and address equity issues. In this pilot, an insurance product was introduced to farmers in a village in the North Central Dry Zone of Sri Lanka. WII products are seen as a part of the solution to reducing farmers’ risk to climate change. However, in many places, the structure of insurance schemes in the agriculture sector has failed to reach small-scale and marginal farmers who are most in need of risk transfer mechanisms. Based on a farmer survey, we extracted lessons from implementing a bundled insurance scheme as a pilot project to explore the utility of farmer organizations as an entry point for engaging different farmer groups and ensuring they can understand the WII insurance products and can make informed choices. The survey results show that efforts made at the outset to understand contextual issues and challenges contributed to an effective product design and rollout approach. The rollout was more effective due in part to a partnership with an established local organization while adopting an aggregator model. Covid-19 mobility restrictions prevented full implementation of the rollout. Index insurance bundled with mobile weather and agronomic advisories increased farmer resilience and reached diverse groups. Farmers emphasized that being able to assess the costs and benefits based on understanding how key elements of the product work is key to their future engagement with such products, which highlights the importance of investing in awareness raising through a blend of print, verbal and visual tools that make complex products understandable to stakeholders with low levels of literacy.

This paper assesses how the Huruluwewa tank (HWT) irrigation system in the North Central Province of Sri Lanka adapts to climate variability. The lessons learned in the HWT will be helpful for many water-scarce irrigation systems in the country, which bear high climate risks. Recurrent droughts are the bane of agriculture in the Dry Zone, comprising three-fourths of the land area spread over the Northern, North Central and Eastern provinces. In the HWT, the fifteenth largest canal irrigation system in the country, adaptation to climate variability happens on several fronts: changes made by the irrigation management to the water release regime; changes in the cropping patterns practiced by farmers in the command area; and the use of groundwater, which is recharged from rainfall, reservoir storage and canal irrigation, as supplemental irrigation. Such adaptation measures ensure that the available water supply in the reservoir is adequate for 100% cropping intensity over two cropping seasons, even in drought years, and enhances economic water productivity in terms of value per unit of consumptive water use. Moreover, irrigation management should consider groundwater recharge through canal irrigation as a resource, which brings substantial agricultural and economic benefits not only for the command area but also outside the command area. The adaptation patterns implemented in HWT demonstrate how water-scarce irrigation systems can achieve higher economic water productivity, i.e., generate ‘more income per drop’ to enhance climate resilience for people in and outside the canal command areas.

The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) has recently developed an innovative Index-based Flood Insurance (IBFI) product to facilitate the scaling of flood insurance particularly in vulnerable economies, to provide risk cover to poor farmers against crop losses that occur due to floods. While the product developed is technically very sound, the economics of such an intervention is important to ensure the large-scale acceptance and adoption of the product by different stakeholders and for its sustenance in the long term. This paper attempts at conducting an ex ante assessment of the economics of IBFI from the perspectives of the three main stakeholders: farmers, the insurance company and the government. The paper discusses the methodological challenges and data issues encountered in undertaking an economic analysis of such a product. The issues and processes involved have been empirically demonstrated using a theoretical case study based on a synthesis of information drawn from a host of sources and certain assumptions. Field-based data are now being collected and analyzed from the locations where IBFI has recently been piloted by IWMI. This will help in further refining the process of economic evaluation and identifying the experiences of different stakeholders.

The history of Karamoja, a subregion in the far northeast of Uganda, is complex and scarred by conflict. For centuries, this subregion has been a remote area of agropastoralism situated on the sociological and ecological border between the Nile and Turkana basins. At the far eastern tip of the Nile Basin, a sweeping escarpment from Karamoja runs down into the Lake Turkana Basin with major temperature and rainfall gradients that result in significant patterns of transhumance, as the Turkana people to the east seek access to the more plentiful water and grazing resources in Karamoja to the west. In this paper, we call this complex of relations and resources the ‘Karamoja-Turkana Complex’ (KTC) and examine the political-economy relationships therein. We look at policy on water resources management and development, including choices made on siting and developing water sources, the kinds of narratives employed by the government, and the underlying tensions and conflicts between major social groups sharing these scarce resources. We base our analysis of the situation on a wider assessment of the water management challenges combined with a detailed examination of two large dams – Arachek and Longoromit – recently constructed in the Karamoja subregion. Findings from the study highlighted that (i) interlinked systems within the KTC can generate new disputes and pressures on resources; (ii) water management within Karamoja and Turkana requires a broader view that extends beyond the watershed, because competition for water is part of the wider context of KTC; and (iii) power structures and processes associated with the development of water structures are important but poorly understood despite continued resource allocation. The paper makes four recommendations: (i) catchment management institutions need to take ownership of new developments; (ii) a checklist is provided to achieve more effective outcomes from the siting and design of surface water storage structures; (iii) improve management oversight after completion of projects; and (iv) undertake water-pasture management consultations across the KTC.

Agricultural innovation scaling approaches tend to be empirical but do not sufficiently take into account the complex realities of ‘softer elements’ such as people, supply chains, markets, financing mechanisms, policies and regulations, professional knowledge, power relations, incentives and history. As a consequence, scaling initiatives often do not produce the desired impacts and, in some instances, may even produce undesirable impacts. ; Designing scaling strategies that are adaptive to context and available resources requires an understanding of the enabling environment in which the scaling processes are embedded. This can be achieved by conducting an analysis to identify enablers and hinderers influencing farmers’ adoption of irrigation and water management technologies and introducing measures to ensure success. The tool described in this working paper provides implementers with a structured guide to carrying out this analysis in a specific context.

Irrigation expansion is a critical development intervention to address food security challenges in Ethiopia. However, only a fraction of the country’s irrigation potential has been utilized so far. Information about the location and spatial extent of irrigated and rainfed areas is an important requirement for sustainable water resources development and agricultural planning. Currently, considerable variations exist in the irrigated area estimates made by different government agencies. In addition, irrigated area maps created as part of global mapping efforts have a spatial resolution of anywhere between 10 kilometers and 250 meters, making them too coarse for planning and management at a subnational scale. This study aims to develop an irrigated area map of Ethiopia using satellite images to support agricultural water management practices in the country, using multi-temporal, multi-resolution data sets from 2015 to 2016 with a spatial resolution of 30 m. The total area of croplands was estimated as 21.8 million hectares (Mha), of which only 1.11 Mha were mapped as the irrigated area. This is only around 5% of the estimated total agricultural area. The accuracy of the results was evaluated using geographic coordinates of irrigated areas provided by the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture. The results confirmed that irrigated areas can be identified reasonably well by analyzing seasonal trends in vegetation and moisture levels.

This working paper was produced under the European Union Horizon 2020 funded AGRUMIG project and traces the impact of Covid-19 on migration trends in seven project countries – China, Ethiopia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Morocco, Nepal and Thailand. The context of global migration has changed dramatically due to the coronavirus pandemic. Both within and between countries there has been a substantial curtailment of movement. As a result of multiple lockdowns, economic activity has severely declined and labor markets have ground to a halt, with mass unemployment in industrialized economies looming on the horizon. For both migrant hosting and origin countries – some are substantially both – this poses a set of complex development challenges. Partners of the AGRUMIG project undertook a rapid review of impacts across project countries, exploring the impacts on rural households but also identifying the persistent desire to migrate in spite of restrictions.

The African Water Facility, together with the Water Research Commission, South Africa, as its implementing agent, supported the demonstration project Operationalizing community-led Multiple Use water Services (MUS) in South Africa. As knowledge broker and research partner in this project, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) analyzed processes and impacts at the local level, where the nongovernmental organization Tsogang Water and Sanitation demonstrated community-led MUS in six diverse rural communities in two of the poorest districts of South Africa, Sekhukhune and Vhembe districts - Ga Mokgotho, Ga Moela and Phiring in the Sekhukhune District Municipality, and Tshakhuma, Khalavha and Ha Gumbu in Vhembe District Municipality. In conventional water infrastructure projects, external state or non-state agencies plan, diagnose, design and prioritize solutions, mobilize funding, and implement the procurement of materials, recruitment of workers and construction. However, this MUS project facilitated decision-making by communities, and provided technical and institutional advice and capacity development. Based on IWMI’s evidence, tools and manuals, the project team organized learning alliances and policy dialogues from municipal to national level on the replication of community-led MUS by water services authorities; government departments of water, agriculture, and others; employment generation programs; climate and disaster management; and corporate social responsibility initiatives. This working paper synthesizes the lessons learned about the six steps of the community-led MUS process in all six communities. The step-wise process appeared to be welcome and effective across the board. The duration of the process and the costs of facilitation, technical and institutional capacity development, and engineering advice and quality control were comparable to conventional approaches. However, the respective responsibilities of the government and communities, also in longer-term co-management arrangements, depended on the type of infrastructure. Some communities were supported to improve their communal self supply systems. In other communities, the process enabled an extension of the reticulation of borehole systems owned, operated and maintained by municipalities. Almost all households used water supplies at homesteads for multiple purposes, underscoring synergies in cross-sectoral collaboration between the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and irrigation sectors.

The African Water Facility, together with the Water Research Commission, South Africa, as its implementing agent, supported the demonstration project Operationalizing community-led Multiple Use water Services (MUS) in South Africa. As knowledge broker and research partner in this project, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) analyzed processes and impacts at the local level, where the nongovernmental organization Tsogang Water and Sanitation demonstrated community-led MUS in six diverse rural communities in two of the poorest districts of South Africa, Sekhukhune and Vhembe districts - Ga Mokgotho, Ga Moela and Phiring in the Sekhukhune District Municipality, and Tshakhuma, Khalavha and Ha Gumbu in Vhembe District Municipality. In conventional water infrastructure projects, external state and non-state agencies plan, diagnose, design and prioritize solutions, mobilize funding, and implement the procurement of materials, recruitment of workers and construction. However, this MUS project facilitated decision-making by communities, and provided technical and institutional advice and capacity development. Based on IWMI’s evidence, tools and manuals, the project team organized learning alliances and policy dialogues from municipal to national level on the replication of community-led MUS by water services authorities; government departments of water, agriculture, and others; employment generation programs; climate and disaster management; and corporate social responsibility initiatives. This working paper reports on the local findings of Ga Mokgotho and Ga Moela villages, which had completed construction works. The paper presents an in-depth analysis from the preproject situation to each of the steps of the participatory process, and highlights the resulting benefits of more water, more reliable and sustainable supplies, and multiple benefits, including a 60% and 76% increase in the value of irrigated produce in Ga Mokgotho and Ga Moela, respectively. Women were the sole irrigation manager in 68% and 60% of the households in Ga Mokgotho and Ga Moela, respectively. The user satisfaction survey highlighted communities’ unanimous preference of the participatory process, capacity development and ownership compared to conventional approaches.

This working paper was prepared under a development and conservation project – Societal Development and Ecosystems Conservation in Sahelian Wetlands (SAWEL) – focusing on improving food security and nutrition in the Sahel region by helping to safeguard wetlands through ecologically sustainable agricultural water management. SAWEL is supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). This paper provides an overview of the current situation with regards to hydrological monitoring in the Ziway-Shala sub-basin in the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia, including details of existing river and lake gauging stations in the sub-basin. The study was jointly conducted by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and Hydrosolutions through consultation with staff of the Rift Valley Lakes Basin Development Office (RVLBDO), field trips to gauging stations, inspection of data recording books and reviewing previous studies. In addition to highlighting gaps in hydrological monitoring in the Ziway-Shala sub-basin, opportunities (e.g., remote sensing and citizen science) for novel, non-traditional hydrological monitoring are also presented.

The engagement of communities (non-scientists) in the collection of reliable hydrometeorological data (a citizen science approach) has the potential to address part of the data gaps in Ethiopia. Due to the high cost of establishing and maintaining gauging stations, hydrometeorological monitoring in the country tends to focus on large river basins (gt; 1,000 km2) with little or no consideration of small watersheds (lt; 100 km2). However, hydrologic data from small watersheds are critical for two main reasons: (i) measure the impacts of watershed management interventions on water resources; and (ii) inform local development plans, such as small- and micro-scale irrigation development. Therefore, this paper examines the institutional arrangements for hydrometeorological monitoring and the practices followed by the Basin Development Authority and National Meteorology Agency in Ethiopia. It is important to investigate the possibilities of embedding a citizen science approach into the data collection systems of these two organizations, as this will help to address data gaps, particularly at micro-watershed levels. Based on the assessments, there is potential to embed the approach into the institutional structure of the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) for hydrometeorological monitoring in micro-watersheds, due to the following reasons: (i) MoA has a high demand for hydrometeorological data from small rivers to be used for small- and micro-scale irrigation development, and for measuring the impacts of watershed development interventions on water resources; and (ii) MoA has an institutional structure from federal to community level that supports the engagement of communities in development interventions. However, effectively embedding the citizen science approach into regular monitoring of MoA depends on the clear distribution of mandates; developing legal, ethical, methodological and quality frameworks; and developing clear data sharing and incentive mechanisms involving all partners.

Le Burkina Faso, pays enclave dapos;Afrique de lapos;Ouest, est confronte au defi de la penurie dapos;eau. Le pays sapos;est engage dans des reformes liees a lapos;eau, conformement a l’evolution a l’echelle mondiale en matiere de gestion des ressources en eau, et met en oeuvre la GIRE depuis le debut des annees 2000. Ce document passe en revue l’ensemble de la legislation passee et actuelle sur lapos;eau au Burkina Faso, en mettant particulierement lapos;accent sur lapos;approvisionnement en eau potable et les associations d’usagers de lapos;eau en milieu rural. Le document traite des lois et reglements adoptes entre 1960 et 2014, avec un suivi supplementaire en 2019 pour inclure tout nouveau texte. Il aborde les questions liees a la participation des usagers et a lapos;inclusion des femmes dans les processus decisionnels de lapos;approvisionnement en eau en milieu rural.

Small reservoirs are a critical coping mechanism in water-stressed rural areas in Africa, providing immense livelihood benefits that include improved food and water security, entrepreneurial activities and climate resilience. Challenges associated with the implementation of investments in small reservoirs include appropriate site selection, weak institutions, insufficient maintenance and sedimentation. The findings from this study suggest that the benefits of small reservoirs may be tapped more efficiently by rehabilitating old sites rather than building new infrastructure. However, the findings also point to broader lessons on the need to change the way of doing business, i.e., to adopt a long-term, more holistic approach (or model) to the construction and maintenance of small reservoirs that matches the degree of the challenge associated with sustainably tapping the benefits of the water that they store.

A reliable supply of water is critical for agricultural intensification and yield improvement. Technological devices that lift, transport and apply water contribute to increased yield from improved crop varieties and high input cultivation. The increasing use of motor pumps is a significant contribution to the development of small-scale irrigation. The objective of this study was to identify and analyze the trajectories of technological innovations and uptake for agricultural water management in farming systems in Sri Lanka, with a special focus on identifying impacts, emerging issues and potential responses to the rapid proliferation of motor pumps in the intensification of agriculture in the country. The Government of Sri Lanka promoted the rapid adoption of water pumps through interventions such as the development of groundwater wells for agriculture; provision of subsidies and credit facilities for purchasing micro-irrigation equipment; and government policies on tax, tariffs and extension support. At the same time, the high profit margin realized from cash crop cultivation motivated farmers to invest in water lifting and related technologies. Finally, water scarcity and restrictions on the use of surface water, i.e., canals, prompted a shift to using water-lifting technologies to pump groundwater. The use of water pumps in agriculture has expanded the area under cultivation; increased cropping intensity, especially during the dry seasons; changed the cropping pattern from low-return rice cultivation to high-return cash crop cultivation; and enhanced household incomes. Expanded and intensified cultivation has provided more opportunities for women to participate in agriculture, generating additional income, and enhancing their purchasing power and decision-making at the household level. Some farmers do not have groundwater wells and water pumps because they lack the necessary capital to make the initial investment. Smallholder farmers, in particular, are reluctant to risk their limited income on new technologies. This may lead to the further marginalization of poor farmers. Inclusive intensification will require helping farmers to access irrigation technology, for example, through carefully targeted subsidies and access to credit. Using water pumps can provide benefits to both users and non-users, but uncontrolled groundwater extraction may also create new problems by putting enormous pressure on common property resources. The government will need to take on a dual role to both promote the inclusive growth of small-scale irrigation, and to prevent and mitigate its negative environmental impacts. This second role may include establishing a regulatory system, setting standards for well construction, and monitoring and enforcing standards on extraction and water quality. There is an urgent need for institutional measures and governance arrangements to guide and regulate groundwater irrigation, especially in the context of intensive cultivation us

The Koshi Basin, spread across China, Nepal and India, is perceived as having high potential for hydropower and irrigation development, both seen as ways to promote economic development in the region. This paper quantifies and assesses the past and projected future spatial and temporal water balances in the Koshi Basin. Results show that precipitation and net water yield are lowest in the transmountain region and the Tibetan plateau. The values are highest in the mountain region, followed by the hills and Indo-Gangetic Plains. Approximately 65% of average annual precipitation is converted to flows, indicating high water availability. Actual evapotranspiration is highest in the Indo-Gangetic Plains region due to the presence of irrigated agriculture and a few forested mountain watersheds. As most of the water from the mountain and hill regions eventually flows down to the plains, the mountain and hill regions in Nepal are important for maintaining agriculture in the plains in both Nepal and India. Results from the flow analyses indicate the high temporal variability of flows in the basin. The frequent occurrences of both high- and low-flow events demonstrate the existing vulnerability of the region to both floods and droughts, leading to a very risk-prone livelihood system. Climate change projections show an increasing trend in precipitation and net water yield for most of the basin, except the transmountain region. Therefore, it is important to consider the climate change impacts on water resources in future planning.

The increasing demand for water, energy and food, and the interdependence of these systems could lead to potential human conflict in the future. This was seen in the food crisis of 2008, which stirred a renewed interest in taking a quot;systemsquot; approach to managing resources. The initial flurry of activities led to many nexus frameworks, but there remains a gap between theory and its implementation. This paper tries to look at various frameworks and unpacks the concept of nexus in order to develop matrices to help quantify and understand the interlinkages between the nexus systems. It suggests multi-level and multi-system indices to measure the health of nexus systems and to identify the weak links. It is hoped that such frameworks can be used at country level, and eventually be used to measure and rank countries on the health of their systems. The paper suggests a questionnaire that can be used (after modifying for local conditions) to collect country-level institutional and political-economy data (which is difficult to get from online resources) to be used in the framework.

This paper reviews the evidence available on the provision of financing for African smallholder farmers to purchase irrigation equipment such as pumps, pipes and drip irrigation systems. It sets the scene by first reviewing the literature on experiences with providing microcredit and other microfinance services as a poverty reduction strategy. Based on both case studies and several systematic reviews of the literature, it finds that the outcomes and impacts on poverty, gender equity and broader economic development are mixed at best. Microcredit is not a silver bullet solution to poverty, but it can often help poor households improve their lives. The paper then reviews the demand for and supply of financing for smallholders to purchase irrigation equipment. In surveys, farmers express a strong demand for equipment such as pumps, but often point to the lack of affordable and appropriately designed credit as a critical impediment to gaining access to such equipment. Even where microfinance institutions offer agricultural credit, it is usually short-term seasonal credit to purchase seeds and fertilizer. Credit on these terms is not useful to purchase equipment costing several hundred dollars. Focusing on programs specifically aimed at enabling farmers to purchase irrigation equipment, no credible detailed studies were found documenting the impacts and lessons learned. However, there are currently (as of 2018) numerous promising pilot studies and small projects offering a variety of approaches to enable smallholders to make such purchases. The paper reviews what information is available on these. A major recommendation of this paper is that a research project should be designed to carry out studies of these various experiments to identify what works under what conditions, as a basis for scaling out programs to offer financial services aimed at assisting smallholders to gain access to small-scale irrigation equipment.

Understanding the gender dimensions of community-based groundwater governance is important because men and women differ in their need for and having access to groundwater, and their participation in the development, management and monitoring of the resource. The leading role played by women in obtaining and safeguarding water is not usually reflected in the institutional arrangements for water management. Addressing this gender inequality could lead to the equal participation of men and women in monitoring and sustainable management of groundwater, and women’s empowerment. This paper explores gender aspects of community-based groundwater governance in Dangeshta and Farawocha kebeles in Dangila and Boloso Bombe woredas, respectively, in Ethiopia. The findings suggest that women place a high value on groundwater and could be motivated to play a greater role in governance of the resource. However, the constraints they face in participating in groundwater development and management, particularly exclusion from decision-making, suggest that their effective participation and leadership could be significantly curtailed without specific interventions. Indeed, this is reflected in women’s willingness to participate in groundwater monitoring, as well as men’s reluctance to allow their wives to participate. This is in contrast to a high number of men willing to participate. Citizen science as an entry point for community-based groundwater governance relies on (i) the active involvement of myriad actors (including men and women citizens) whose actions interact with the hydrological processes; and (ii) volunteer interest (i.e., willingness to participate). A gender-sensitive approach to programs, gender awareness training, and partnerships with organizations working for women’s empowerment, natural resource management and adult literacy are recommended to support a citizen science approach to groundwater monitoring.

Laos has vast surface water resources. However, in areas located far away from surface water sources or those that are prone to surface water scarcity, groundwater is gaining recognition as a valuable source of water for agricultural development. Households in Ekxang village on the Vientiane Plain, for example, depend on rainfall for the cultivation of rice during the wet season and a wide range of vegetables and herbs in the dry season. Climate change poses a growing threat to crop production in such villages, altering wet season rainfall and making drought more common and severe. To help find a new way forward, a 2-year pilot study of groundwater irrigation was carried out in Ekxang to assess the technical performance, economic viability and effectiveness of the institutional arrangements. Participation in the pilot was quite modest due to farmers being wary of possible risks related to the costs of the new irrigation system. As farmers gained experience with the high-performance pumps and other equipment, their trust grew, and they came to have a sense of ownership over the system. The irrigation system turned out to be profitable for dry-season irrigation of cash crops. Growing rice under these conditions proved to be unprofitable. Increased profits, however, did not translate into increased popularity. In the pilot’s second year, with the subsidy removed, participation in the groundwater users group declined. Apart from the additional cost for pumping, another reason was a lack of household labor to manage the production of cash crops under groundwater irrigation. This, in turn, stemmed from the availability of other livelihood options (such as small businesses and wage labor), which compete with agriculture and may prove more appealing. Clearly, the future development of such systems will depend, not just on local hydrogeological conditions, but also on a better understanding of the social and economic factors that influence farmers’ decisions. New technologies could make a difference as well, such as solar pumps, which likely reduce farmers’ production costs. Lessons learned from this pilot study should prove valuable for helping realize the potential of groundwater irrigation in Laos.

This paper provides details of soil and water conservation (SWC) investments in Ethiopia over the past 20 years. It presents SWC practices and estimates the level of SWC investments in different regions. The paper focuses on four principal agricultural regions: Amhara, Oromia, SNNPR and Tigray. Primary and secondary data were collected for the analysis, and consultations were conducted at regional levels. Primary data on diverse SWC practices, their numbers and areal extent were obtained from the archives of regional Bureaus of Agriculture (BoAs). The results of this study show that several projects involving significant financial investment have been implemented to reverse land degradation and improve land productivity in Ethiopia since the 1970s. The list of projects is not comprehensive due to a lack of documentation at all levels, but it does provide some insights into the scale of SWC investments and implementation. The projects analyzed in the four regions fall into the following categories: farmland management, hillside management and gully rehabilitation practices, including check dams and cut-off drains. The analysis shows that these practices involved both paid and unpaid labor, together representing an estimated investment of more than ETB 25 billion (or approximately USD 1.2 billion) per year over the past 10 years. It is clear that large investments have been made in SWC activities in Ethiopia. However, the outcomes in terms of impact on yield and livelihood benefits are yet to be fully understood. A comprehensive assessment is needed to measure the impact of SWC activities on farmers’ livelihoods and the environment. A key recommendation arising from the analysis is that more data and information are needed on the successes and failures of SWC practices, which will assist stakeholders to better guide and target future projects and investments. An additional recommendation is to consider the biophysical and financial impact of soil erosion, both on and off farm.

This study reviewed the status of natural resources and the driving forces for change, as well as past and ongoing approaches in natural resource management at the watershed scale in Ethiopia. First, we reviewed established environmental policy tools and the legal and policy framework, and determined whether innovative financing mechanisms are working in other areas with a similar context. We undertook stakeholder analyses and mapping to identify key stakeholders, and to assess their possible roles in the implementation of a sustainable financing mechanism for watershed rehabilitation. We also determined whether opportunities exist for financing mechanisms involving hydropower and urban water supply in payments for ecosystem services (PES), and the global community in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in the context of the Bale Eco-region. The study identified major constraints to designing an appropriate financing mechanism. Finally, the study drew important conclusions and key policy implications that are relevant for Ethiopia and perhaps other areas in a similar context.

Building on existing literature and the analysis of a portfolio of development projects (past and under implementation), this paper reviews the evolution of water user associations (WUAs) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), reflecting on the conceptualization of how they operate, and the promised outcomes related to irrigation development, and the efficient and effective delivery of irrigation services. It also moves one step further from existing studies on WUAs, postulating that additional reflection is needed to understand the limitations of WUAs and proposes alternative, viable and context-based adapted models. This need is particularly strong in SSA where irrigation is incipient, and governments and donors are still consolidating their development approaches. Whereas a growing body of international literature takes into account the sociopolitical context of decentralized irrigation management, practical indication on what remains to be done to address the various limitations found in SSA stays meagre and scattered. The objective of this paper is not to challenge the myth of WUAs but to learn how to better deliver on the promised outcomes. The underlying message is that, if the SSA region is to be made water and food secure while respecting resource sustainability, community development, livelihoods and equality of resource access, the recurrent templates for WUA management and governance need to be revisited and adapted to local needs.

This study investigated the dependence of three riparian communities on ecosystem services in northern Ghana. Participatory mapping and ranking exercises in gender-segregated groups were used to elicit information on the communities’ livelihoods. The most important ecosystem-based activities (EBA) are farming, fishing, livestock watering and grazing, collection of wild fruits and vegetables, and provision of water for domestic use. The major EBA are dependent on the seasonal flows of the White Volta River, which are under pressure due to climatic and other anthropogenic changes. For example, observed delays in the start of the rainy season are affecting rainfed agricultural activities on the floodplains. Delayed planting on the floodplains results in damage to, or loss of, crops as floods arrive before the harvest. Moreover, the Bagr Dam in Burkina Faso, built upstream of the communities, has impacted the natural river flow. The planned Pwalugu Dam may, depending on the final operations, support or affect EBA. We, therefore, recommend that operations of the Pwalugu Dam should take into consideration the flow requirements of EBA downstream of the dam.

The Tana River is one of Kenya’s most important rivers. It is the principal water source for Nairobi, the capital city, providing water for hydroelectric power generation and irrigation. Several of the flagship projects laid out in Vision 2030 - the blueprint that guides Kenya’s national development – are located in the basin. This report presents the findings of a study to determine the possible impacts of climate change on the hydrology of the basin. Data from seven Regional Circulation Models (RCMs), simulating two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs), were used as input to the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) hydrological model. For both RCPs, rainfall is projected to increase across the basin over the remainder of the twenty-first century. Associated increases in water yield, groundwater recharge and baseflow point to an improved water resource situation in the future. However, declining natural flow regulation, increased variability, and considerable increases in the frequency and magnitude of floods pose a risk that threatens to undermine development opportunities. Water resource management will be much more difficult than under historic climatic conditions.

This paper presents a historical analysis of the different policy tools used to manage and regulate groundwater abstraction in the Western Mancha aquifer. Without much initial regulation and control, groundwater resources and aquifer levels decreased dramatically, threatening agriculture and also highly valuable groundwater-dependent wetland ecosystems. The interplay between sticks and carrots used in La Mancha shows the necessity for regulatory bodies to complement soft management approaches based on incentives with the threat of sanctions and limitations. However, as this case study shows, each policy modality has its legal, administrative and practical loopholes, which can be negotiated and exploited by groundwater users to their own advantage. The paper also studies the distribution of decision-making power and how local dynamics and individual behaviors are linked to higher level policies and their impacts on groundwater management, with an emphasis on the effectiveness and limitations of these tools.

The Bhungroo Irrigation Technology (BIT) is a system designed to infiltrate excess ‘standing’ floodwater to be stored underground and abstracted for irrigation during the dry season. The system was developed in India and piloted in three sites in northern Ghana. This paper documents the implementation of BIT, the operating principles and criteria for selecting appropriate sites for the installation of such systems, as well as the potential benefits complementing existing irrigation systems in Ghana. Essential requirements for the installation of BIT include biophysical features such as land-use type, soil type, surface hydrology and slope of the terrain. The hydrogeological characteristics of the subsoil are also vital, and must exhibit high storage capacity and potential for groundwater accessibility. To be profitable and generate benefits for farmers, the technology needs to be situated in close proximity to markets and must have public acceptance.

This paper investigates the public participation (PP) process in environmental impact assessments (EIA) of three large-scale hydropower plants (HPs) in Nepal, and looks at how the process can be improved to include the interests of citizens impacted. It is the theoretical standpoint of this paper that improvements to the PP process can be implemented only within a given context, wherein the proponent (owner of the HP) allows sharing of decision making with citizens. By comparing the PP process as it is written in the Nepali EIA law, execution of it by proponents and citizen experience with its execution, discrepancies are identified and analyzed to ascertain the difficulties that are experienced and what this implies in terms of decision making. Recommendations for improving the PP process as experienced by citizens are proposed by seeking solutions to overcome the discrepancies identified and also through new methods and timing of PP.

A survey of 76 public smallholder irrigation schemes in the Limpopo Province was jointly conducted by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), South Africa, and the Limpopo Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (LDARD), as part of the ‘Revitalization of Smallholder Irrigation in South Africa’ project. About one-third of those schemes was fully utilized; one-third partially utilized; and one-third not utilized in the winter of 2015; however, no single socioeconomic, physical, agronomic and marketing variable could explain these differences in utilization. Sale, mostly for informal markets, appeared the most important goal. Dilapidated infrastructure was the most important constraint cited by the farmers. The study recommends ways to overcome the build-neglect-rebuild syndrome, and to learn lessons from informal irrigation, which covers an area three to four times as large as public irrigation schemes in the province.

This paper provides the climatic and biophysical context of three watersheds in northern Ghana. The objective of the study is to describe the agro-climatic and hydrological features of the watersheds from a landscape perspective. The analyses show that water surplus occurs about 3 months in a year, with only one month providing a significant surplus. Small-scale irrigation is, therefore, carried out in the dry months between November and June. The quality of water used for irrigation from wells, reservoirs and rivers is good for irrigation and domestic purposes. The soil chemical parameters across the study sites show that the soils are suitable for irrigation and crop system intensification, although it requires substantial fertilizer inputs. The paper concludes that there are opportunities from both a soil quality and water availability perspective to enhance sustainable intensification through small- and medium-scale irrigation in the selected watersheds.

This report summarizes the findings of a collaborative effort to map and assess irrigated areas in the Limpopo Province, South Africa. The study was conducted by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) and the Limpopo Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (LDARD), as part of the DAFF-supported ‘Revitalization of irrigation in South Africa’ project. Based on a combination of Landsat and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite data, previous irrigated area mapping exercises carried out by DAFF and three-field ground truthing (GT) surveys, a total of 1.6 million hectares (Mha) of cropland were identified, with 262,000 ha actually irrigated in the 2015 winter season. The study also found that only 29% of all land equipped with center pivots was actually irrigated.

This working paper was based on the study on multiple uses of small reservoirs in the Volta River Basin of Burkina Faso. The study was conducted in communities using five small reservoirs in Yatenga province. The aim of the study was to document the multiple uses of small reservoirs in the study sites with an emphasis on access to, and use by, livestock, and conflicts that arise over the use of these reservoirs. This paper consists of four main sections: introduction or background to the study, methodology, results and discussion, and conclusion, including practical recommendations.

Sustainable participatory watershed management is an approach promoted by the Ethiopian government to restore natural resources and agricultural productivity across the country. This comparative study between six watershed programs shows that this approach increases farmers’ food security and incomes (around 50% on average), as well as their resilience to drought and other climate shocks. However, the study also confirms that the nature and scale of impact can vary significantly between watershed programs. The success of watershed management depends on multiple factors from the hydrological profile of the watershed to the local social and economic environment. Tailoring watershed interventions to the local context, associating conservation and livelihoods activities, and providing further financial and technical support to watershed committees are among the recommendations of this paper.

Springs are the major source of freshwater in many small mountainous watersheds within the Himalayan region. In recent years, their flow rates have diminished, but the reasons for this are not self-evident, and hence this paper reviews the methods to investigate Himalayan springs. The review reveals that chemical and isotope analyses – mostly water dating and stable isotope (e.g., d18O) analyses – could be an appropriate entry point to commence field investigations, because of their potential to map complex spring pathways, including linkages between aquifers. This should be combined with the building of hydrogeological maps with the available data. Output from desktop analyses, field investigations and hydrogeological maps could then contribute to the establishment of a conceptual model, which could form the basis for a numerical model.

Water cooperation has received prominent focus in the post-2015 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While proposals for measuring water cooperation appear to be converging toward a small set of indicators, the degree to which these proposed indicators draw on past work is unclear. This paper mines relevant past work to generate guidance for monitoring the proposed SDG target related to transboundary water cooperation. Potential measures of water cooperation were identified, filtered and applied in three countries (Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe). Six indicators were ultimately determined as being suitable for measuring water cooperation. As the SDG process turns its focus to the selection of indicators, the indicators proposed in this paper may merit consideration.

Across the globe, the prospect of increasing water demands coupled with the potential for reduced water availability is calling for implementation of a range of technological, institutional, and economic instruments to address growing water scarcity. Hydro-economic models (HEMs), which integrate the complex hydrologic and economic interrelationships inherent in most water resources systems, provide an effective means of diagnosing and devising solutions to water-related problems across varied spatial and temporal scales. This study reviews recent advances in hydro-economic modeling and characterizes the types of issues that are typically explored in the hydro-economic modeling literature. Our findings suggest that additional efforts are needed to more realistically account for the range and complexity of interlinkages between water systems and society, particularly with regards to ecology and water quality, and the food and energy sectors. Additionally, the forces that depend on water and operate on the broader economy, for example in interregional trade should be investigated further. Moreover, effects on the distribution of income within countries, and on migration should be considered in basin management modeling studies.

Le projet WISE UP to climate vise a demontrer lapos;utilite des infrastructures naturelles comme une solution basee sur la nature pour lapos;adaptation au changement climatique et le developpement durable. Dans le bassin de la Volta, les infrastructures naturelles, comme les construites, offrent des benefices pour la subsistance des personnes. Comprendre les interrelations entre ces deux types dapos;infrastructures est une condition indispensable a une gestion et un developpement durables des ressources en eau. Cela est particulierement vrai dans un contexte ou les pressions sur les ressources en eau sapos;intensifient, et ou les impacts du changement climatique augmentent. Ce rapport donne un apercu des caracteristiques biophysiques, des services ecosystemiques, et de leur relation avec les moyens de subsistance dans le bassin.

The ‘WISE-UP to climate’ project aims to demonstrate the value of natural infrastructure as a ‘nature-based solution’ for climate change adaptation and sustainable development. Within the Volta River Basin, both natural and built infrastructure provide livelihood benefits for people. Understanding the interrelationships between the two types of infrastructure is a prerequisite for sustainable water resources development and management. This is particularly true as pressures on water resources intensify and the impacts of climate change increase. This report provides an overview of the biophysical characteristics, ecosystem services and links to livelihoods within the basin.

The ‘WISE-UP to climate’ project aims to demonstrate the value of natural infrastructure as a ‘nature-based solution’ for climate change adaptation and sustainable development. Within the Tana River Basin, both natural and built infrastructure provide livelihood benefits for people. Understanding the interrelationships between the two types of infrastructure is a prerequisite for sustainable water resources development and management. This is particularly true as pressures on water resources intensify and the impacts of climate change increase. This report provides an overview of the biophysical characteristics, ecosystem services and links to livelihoods within the basin.

With increasing change of traditional diets, and the emergence of new supply and marketing chains, urban food consumers in low-income countries are faced with multiple food safety challenges, among which microbial contamination and pesticides are key concerns for fruits and vegetables sold on urban markets in West Africa. Although consumers have a genuine interest in healthy food, and are willing to pay premiums, their interpretation of food quality and risks deviates from scientific health risk assessments and does not translate into recommended risk mitigation behavior. To safeguard public health, alternative measures are needed to support consumers’ risk awareness and decision making. The review looked at common and less-common options to trigger and support behavioral change, including safety labeling (certification), corporate social responsibility models, incentive systems and social marketing of safe practices, to address potential food safety risks from farming in urban and peri-urban areas. Overall, it appears that regulatory measures for risk management, including certifications, will be – for now – less effective in the West African setup due to low educational levels in view of chemical and microbial risk, diverse and often informal food chains, poor safety supporting infrastructure and weak institutional capacities for compliance monitoring.

The report summarizes key results from surveys carried out on urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) in Tamale (Ghana) and Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) in 2013. The aim was to provide a broad overview of the state of UPA in the study cities and a basis for future research endeavors. The randomized sampling approach used aerial photography to identify 10 sites in different categories of farm in each city. Farmers provided information on their cropping and livestock-rearing activities. There were similarities between the cities, but the differences in the expression of UPA in Tamale and Ouagadougou were more intriguing, as in farm sizes, crops grown and livestock ownership. Farmers were particularly concerned about diminishing access to land in Tamale, where sales by chiefs to private investors were accelerating. In Ouagadougou, formal reallocation of land to homeowners by the state had similarly decreased available farmland. Water availability was a universal concern, and the quality of water used for irrigation was potentially more questionable in Ouagadougou than in Tamale. The results point to the need for further work on uncontaminated, perennial water sources and soil fertility management, alongside focuses on commercialization of animal production, and the legal, political and institutional context of UPA in different West African cities.

The purpose of this paper is to synthesize the available knowledge and lessons learned from past experiences in promoting kitchen or home gardens for food production, with a special emphasis on water management. The benefits of home gardens for better family nutrition, health status of children and mothers, and as an entry point for empowering women have been documented in some studies. However, there is very little specific evidence to confirm these benefits. The paper also reviews some of the water management practices and garden technologies used in home and market gardens. It recommends building on current home gardening practices, starting with diagnostic appraisals of actual gardening practices, and moving on to participatory action research focused on evaluating promising water management technologies and testing implementation of strategies that empower women.

Exposure to arsenic and the use of arsenic-contaminated groundwater in agriculture causes serious health issues. Complete or partial contamination of groundwater is reported worldwide, especially in the Eastern Gangetic Basin (EGB). This study aims to create an overall assessment of arsenic contamination in the EGB based on existing literature, demarcate the extent of the affected area, highlight the impacts on the food chain and human health, and hopes the research will help in the better planning and management of groundwater. Although several studies have evaluated arsenic contamination of groundwater in the EGB, (a) there is no proper long-term monitoring being done in affected areas; (b) there is a debate to identify the exact source and transport processes of arsenic occurrence in this region; (c) there is no comprehensive method to estimate the level of arsenic contamination in soil, water and the food chain; and (d) Arsenic contamination in Bihar and Nepal is not evaluated systematically, especially arsenic accumulation in the food chain and human health issues. Data scarcity and accessibility are the major challenges in this region. Thus, this review recommends systematic monitoring and analysis of arsenic contamination in groundwater, soils and food across the EGB.

Cost recovery from irrigation in almost all the countries presents a dismal picture. Low cost recovery coupled with declining government finances has led to the deterioration of both the quality of the built infrastructure and institutions managing and governing such infrastructure. This has created a vicious circle of low cost recovery, poor maintenance of infrastructure, inadequate and unreliable water supply, inefficient and corrupt institutions, and unwillingness of the farmers to pay. Breaking this vicious circle primarily requires identifying ways to improve availability of financial resources. Improving cost recovery from all users, including irrigators of the water, offers one of the most important avenues for raising financial resources. The present study examines some of the important issues that impinge on improving the cost recovery in canal irrigation, and assesses the feasibility of some of the efforts being made to improve cost recovery in irrigation to revitalize canal irrigation.

As climate change becomes accepted as a reality in the scientific community, it is critical to continue to understand its impact on the ground, particularly for communities dependent on agriculture and natural resources. This report reviews the extensive literature on the vulnerability to climate change in South Asia, with a focus on gender. It highlights how vulnerability is intricately connected to existing social structures. With respects to gender inequalities, the report reviews how men and women are affected in different ways by climate shocks, while differing access to resources and cultural ideologies mean that their capacity to ‘adapt’ is also not equal. The report also notes the importance of other axes of inequality (caste, class and ethnicity) in shaping gendered vulnerability. It concludes by offering insights into potential ways forward to promote more equitable adaptation to change through improved policies and practices.

This manuscript undertakes a review of current published information (peer-reviewed and grey literature) on Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown Etiology (CKDu) in Sri Lanka. It attempts to provide an overview of the possible environmentally-induced causal factors that have been implicated in the development of the disease, and identifies the gaps in research and recommends potential areas for future research. The review specifically captures the potential role that agriculture and water resources may play as causal factors in the development of the disease, and calls for a systematic approach and stresses the need for an integrated multi-disciplinary research effort to address the problem.

The Ganges Basin is a part of the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) River Basin and is one of the most populated (600 million) river basins in the world. This study focuses on the Eastern Ganges Basin (EGB) and covers India (Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal), Bangladesh and the Nepal Terai. Poverty is acute in the EGB, where household incomes are low, food security is not assured and devastating floods (and also water shortages) occur too often. The EGB is underlain by one of the most prolific aquifers in the world. Yet, farmers struggle to cope with dry spells and droughts because of their inability to access groundwater. Huge untapped groundwater, surplus surface water, and enormous plains and fertile lands highlight the requirement of proper planning for groundwater management and governance to reduce poverty and assure food security. The aim of this report is to assist planners/policymakers in the planning and management of groundwater resources in the EGB. This report mainly discusses about hydrogeology, groundwater potential and challenges, and groundwater quality issues in the EGB. Moreover, it is an attempt to form a base for future work related to groundwater development, management and modeling in this basin.

Les restrictions sur l’acces a l’eau sont la principale raison des difficultes qu’eprouvent des millions d’agriculteurs pauvres a faire pousser suffisamment de cultures alimentaires et commerciales pour ameliorer leurs conditions de vie. Les organismes du secteur prive, les organisations de la societe civile et les bailleurs de fonds qui cherchent a ameliorer l’acces des petits agriculteurs aux ressources en eau sont confrontes a une insuffisance des donnees sur l’emplacement et l’accessibilite des ressources en eau. Cet article comble cette lacune en proposant une methode eprouvee d’evaluation des ressources en eau auxquelles les petits agriculteurs pourraient acceder de maniere durable et abordable. Il facilite egalement le choix de technologies appropriees pour acceder aux ressources en eau disponibles et les appliquer. La methode decrite est rapide et relativement peu onereuse, elle se fonde sur une approche progressive pour l’evaluation d’une zone a grande echelle (ex.: un pays ou une region), puis rassemble davantage d’informations sur les emplacements les plus favorables a un acces abordable a l’eau pour les petits agriculteurs.

Limited access to water is a key reason why millions of poor farmers struggle to grow enough food and marketable crops to improve their lives. Public sector agencies, civil society organizations and donors seeking to improve small-scale farmers’ access to water resources face limited data on the location and accessibility of water resources. This paper addresses this gap by providing a tested method to assess water resources that small-scale farmers can access affordably and sustainably. This paper also supports the selection of appropriate water access and application technologies for available water resources. The method described is rapid and relatively inexpensive; it uses a phased approach to assess a broad-scale area (e.g., a country or region); and then gathers more information in locations that have higher potential for affordable water access by small-scale farmers.

En ameliorant l’acces des agriculteurs et agricultrices aux eaux souterraines, il est possible de contribuer a un accroissement de leurs revenus, a une augmentation de leur securite alimentaire et a une amelioration de leur acces a l’eau pour leurs besoins domestiques et ceux de leur betail. Dans de nombreux contextes, le forage manuel de puits initie par le secteur prive est un moyen fiable et abordable d’acceder aux eaux souterraines peu profondes, mais il est peu repandu en Ethiopie. Les donnees, informations et cartes realisees pour des operations pilotes de forage manuel de puits dans des zones ciblees d’Ethiopie ont indique que la technique permettait aux agriculteurs d’acceder aux eaux souterraines peu profondes a un cout abordable et demontre une forte demande des agriculteurs pour des puits fores manuellement, ainsi qu’une bonne profitabilite pour les entreprises de forage. Les auteurs de cet article suggerent que l’investissement dans la creation d’une base de donnees spatiales des zones favorables sur le plan hydrogeologique et dans des formations en forage, ainsi que des investissements connexes dans la dynamisation des activites de forage, pourraient catalyser l’industrie du forage manuel de puits et ameliorer considerablement les possibilites d’un acces abordable des petits exploitants agricoles aux eaux souterraines peu profondes.

Increasing female and male farmers’ access to groundwater can contribute to increased incomes, improved food security and improved access to water for livestock and domestic needs. In many contexts, private sector manual well drilling is a reliable and affordable means to access shallow groundwater, but it is not widely available in Ethiopia. Data, information and mapping on pilot manual well drilling efforts in selected areas of Ethiopia indicated that the technique provided affordable access to shallow groundwater for farmers and demonstrated high demand among farmers for manually drilled wells, as well as profitability for drilling businesses. The authors of this paper suggest that investments in creating a spatial database of hydrogeologic suitability domains, investments in driller training, and associated investments in accelerating the drilling industry could catalyze a manual well drilling industry and significantly improve smallholder farmers’ affordable access to shallow groundwater.

During the past decade, smallholder groundwater irrigation with motor pumps has increased considerably in Zambia. The present study analyzes an important, but hitherto ignored, factor for adoption: the supply chain of imported motor pumps. Findings include types of pumps; organization of import, wholesale and retail, including after-sales services; fiscal measures (import duty waiver and VAT zero rating); prices of pumps; and financing facilities to the farmers. The main obstacles for farmers were found to be: the highly centralized supply chain and financing facilities in urban hubs; lack of information, also about prices, which vary significantly even for the same make and model of pump; lack of information and training about proper use and maintenance; and lack of financing facilities. The Zambia National Farmers Union seems best placed to remove these obstacles.

This Working Paper presents methodological and substantive findings of gender-differentiated quantitative farm household surveys about smallholders’ private irrigation technology adoption in Ghana and Zambia. Focusing on three gender variables, household headship, labor provision and plot management, the paper examines adoption rates, types of technologies and gendered labor provision in female- and male-headed households; compares adoption rates on women’s own plots with overall rates; compares women’s decision-making on irrigated plots and rainfed plots; and examines impacts of targeting strategies. Findings suggest that women are proactive irrigation adopters in spite of the many obstacles they face. Removing those obstacles serves both gender equality and irrigation policies.

The AgWater Solutions Project, carried out between 2009 and 2012, focused on resolving water issues faced by smallholder farmers. The project examined existing Agricultural Water Management (AWM) solutions, together with factors that influence their adoption and scaling up. The project aimed to identify investment opportunities in AWM that have high potential to improve the incomes and food security of poor farmers. The work was undertaken in the African countries of Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia, and in the Indian States of Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. This Working Paper series summarizes results and recommendations from the research carried out in each of these countries and states.

The AgWater Solutions Project, carried out between 2009 and 2012, focused on resolving water issues faced by smallholder farmers. The project examined existing Agricultural Water Management (AWM) solutions, together with factors that influence their adoption and scaling up. The project aimed to identify investment opportunities in AWM that have high potential to improve the incomes and food security of poor farmers. The work was undertaken in the African countries of Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia, and in the Indian States of Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. This Working Paper series summarizes results and recommendations from the research carried out in each of these countries and states.

Le projet AgWater Solutions, mis a execution entre 2009 et 2012, sapos;est interesse a la resolution des problmes dapos;eau auxquels sont confrontes les petits exploitants agricoles. Le projet a examine les solutions existantes de Gestion de lapos;eau en agriculture (GEA), ainsi que les facteurs qui influent sur leur adoption et lapos;elargissement de leur utilisation. Son objectif etait de definir les opportunites dapos;investissement dans la GEA les plus prometteuses pour ameliorer les revenus et la securite alimentaire des agriculteurs pauvres. Les travaux ont ete entrepris dans plusieurs pays africains, Burkina Faso, Ethiopie, Ghana, Tanzanie et Zambie, et dans les etats indiens du Madhya Pradesh et du Bengale occidental. Ce document de travail resume les resultats et recommandations decoulant des recherches menees dans chacun de ces pays et etats.

The AgWater Solutions Project, carried out between 2009 and 2012, focused on resolving water issues faced by smallholder farmers. The project examined existing Agricultural Water Management (AWM) solutions, together with factors that influence their adoption and scaling up. The project aimed to identify investment opportunities in AWM that have high potential to improve the incomes and food security of poor farmers. The work was undertaken in the African countries of Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia, and in the Indian States of Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. This Working Paper series summarizes results and recommendations from the research carried out in each of these countries and states.

The AgWater Solutions Project, carried out between 2009 and 2012, focused on resolving water issues faced by smallholder farmers. The project examined existing Agricultural Water Management (AWM) solutions, together with factors that influence their adoption and scaling up. The project aimed to identify investment opportunities in AWM that have high potential to improve the incomes and food security of poor farmers. The work was undertaken in the African countries of Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia, and in the Indian States of Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. This Working Paper series summarizes results and recommendations from the research carried out in each of these countries and states.

The AgWater Solutions Project, carried out between 2009 and 2012, focused on resolving water issues faced by smallholder farmers. The project examined existing Agricultural Water Management (AWM) solutions, together with factors that influence their adoption and scaling up. The project aimed to identify investment opportunities in AWM that have high potential to improve the incomes and food security of poor farmers. The work was undertaken in the African countries of Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia, and in the Indian States of Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. This Working Paper series summarizes results and recommendations from the research carried out in each of these countries and states.

The AgWater Solutions Project, carried out between 2009 and 2012, focused on resolving water issues faced by smallholder farmers. The project examined existing Agricultural Water Management (AWM) solutions, together with factors that influence their adoption and scaling up. The project aimed to identify investment opportunities in AWM that have high potential to improve the incomes and food security of poor farmers. The work was undertaken in the African countries of Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia, and in the Indian States of Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. This Working Paper series summarizes results and recommendations from the research carried out in each of these countries and states.

Agriculture is at the forefront of the development objectives of the republics of Central Asia (CA). Since independence in 1991, these countries have undergone transitions from being centrally planned economies to market-oriented systems, which did not include the creation of agricultural extension systems. This paper provides information on the current status of the agricultural extension systems in CA with special reference to Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. We reviewed the existing extension strategies, donor- and state-driven initiatives to revitalize the agricultural extension systems, informal linkages that nongovernmental organizations play in helping a limited number of farmers, and provided recommendations on ways to further improve the agricultural extension services in CA. The information related to each country was analyzed separately. This is because, after independence, each republic in CA had initiated their agricultural reforms with specific objectives and has now established their unique agricultural systems that differ contextually. However, due to having the same history and agricultural system that existed during the Soviet times, we tried to give a historical perspective to the unified agricultural extension system that existed before independence.

The Niger River Basin covers 7.5% of the African continent and is shared between nine riparian countries. The human population of the basin is growing at an average annual rate of about 3%, which makes the Niger River Basin one of the areas with the highest fertility rates in the world. The desert margin is expanding; climate change is negatively impacting rainfall; and urbanization, industrialization, and the human and livestock population are threatening the quantity and quality of available water resources. The basin population already suffers from chronic poverty. Based on a literature review, this paper suggests some key water-related and other interventions that are capable of easing the basinapos;s development challenges.

Agriculture is the most significant contributor to Ethiopia’s economy. Most of the agricultural production is under rainfed conditions and thus extremely sensitive to rainfall variability. Irrigation development, including smallholder irrigation, is used by the Ethiopian Government to attempt to mitigate the effects of rainfall variability. In this study, we look at smallholder irrigation - modern and traditional irrigation systems. A detailed description of the cropping patterns is given. The stochastic frontier production function approach is used to estimate technical inefficiency, and constraints to production are analyzed. Since the traditional system is found to be efficient but on a lower production frontier, the study shows that significant gains can be made by raising the frontier of the traditional systems and increasing the efficiency of the modern systems. Among the production constraints studied were land preparation, soil fertility, weed control, pests and diseases, soil erosion, input access and moisture deficiency. The most significant constraints on the irrigated systems were input access and moisture deficiency.

Interest in African irrigation investment is growing. However, irrigation is not a monolithic concept, and the opportunities and risks can vary substantially by approach. To help provide an understanding of the variation, this paper builds on previous work to provide a detailed typology of irrigation systems as currently used in Ghana.

Thanks to farmers’ resistance to provide land for constructing watercourses below the outlets, India’s famous Sardar Sarovar Project is stuck in an impasse. Against a potential to serve 1.8 million hectares, the Project was irrigating just 100,000 hectares five years after the dam and main canals were ready. Indications are that full project benefits will get delayed by years, even decades. In this paper, IWMI researchers advance ten reasons why the Project should abandon its original plan of constructing open channels and license private service providers to invest in pumps and buried pipeline networks to sell irrigation service to farmers.

For agriculture there is a continuum of water storage options, ranging from groundwater aquifers, soil water, natural wetlands and small ponds and tanks to large reservoirs. In any situation each of these has its own niche in terms of technical feasibility, socioeconomic sustainability and impact on public health and the environment. Planning storage requires insight into impending needs and also a good understanding of what already exists and what was, and was not, successful, in the past. This report provides an inventory of existing and prospective water storage in the Ghanaian Volta and the Ethiopian Blue Nile basins. It provides as much quantitative data as possible, but highlights both the dearth of readily available information and the lack of integrated planning of storage in both basins. Recommendations are made for improved planning in the future.

The impact of climate change (CC) on water resources is likely to affect agricultural systems and food security. This is especially true for Nepal, a least developed country, where a high percentage of the population is dependent on agriculture for its livelihoods. It is thus crucial for Nepal’s leaders and resource managers to draft and begin implementing national adaptation plans. This working paper aims to create a more comprehensive understanding of how the impacts of CC will be realized at different scales in Nepal, from household livelihoods to national food security, and the many institutions governing the ultimate adaptation process.

The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) has been working in Nepal since 1986 with the objective of undertaking research in water management and to strengthen the research capabilities of concerned government agencies. The research helped to develop appropriate mechanisms for providing support to Farmer-Managed Irrigation Systems (FMIS) and the initiation of participatory irrigation management (PIM). The river basin studies helped policy formulation for integrated planning and management of water resources besides the methodological contribution through the development of appropriate tools for water management studies. It also contributed to enhancing the capabilities of agency officials and local researchers through their involvement in research activities.

Many farms in tropical countries suffer from droughts in the dry season and sometimes even in the rainy season. In order to significantly increase the capacity to store water, the grassroots Farmer Wisdom movement in Northeast Thailand innovated pond construction on homesteads. This Working Paper first documents how pond water is mainly used to irrigate crops and fruit trees, and is also used for livestock or fish, and for domestic uses, even if ample piped water is available. Households were also found to harvest rainwater from roofs; take water from canals and streams; lift water manually from shallow wells and with electric pumps from deep wells; channel run-off from roads to paddy fields; use precipitation as green water on fields; and buy bottled water. Most households combine at least six of these nine water sources. The second part describes scenarios and some outcomes of a new simulation model, BoNam. This model provides guidelines for the optimal size and site of such ponds according to biophysical factors (weather, soil and crops), socioeconomic factors (prices, availability of labor and off-farm income) and household aspirations.

In Burkina Faso, at least 1,700 small reservoirs have been constructed, most of them during the last 30 years. Numerous and scattered, these beneficial multipurpose systems combine productive with domestic water uses. However, their environmental and health impacts remain insufficiently documented. This report combines data from different sources into syntheses and national maps, with a focus on water-related diseases. The mitigation of negative impacts requires an integrated approach to specifically identify the enhancing and limiting factors that influence environmental impacts and the transmission of diseases around reservoirs. Public awareness campaigns need to accompany the promotion of preventive and curative measures and the development of alternative water sources for domestic supply.

The Karkheh River Basin is the third largest basin in Iran after Karoon and Dez, and occupies a strategic position on the western boundary of the country. The basin has seen remarkable ancient feats of engineering, and has a long history of wheat and barley production, complemented by horticulture. With the growth of the modern nation-state of Iran, water development has progressed steadily in tandem with rising populations and urbanization. The report aims to understand the historical setting and present situation of water development and allocation, in relation to rural development and agrarian policy. It provides the contextual backdrop for further research on the management of water to improve livelihoods in the basin through integrated and sustainable management of land and water resources. It provides further information on the changes in surface flows out of the component subbasins and looks at the development, use and consequences of groundwater abstraction.

The aim in this paper was to present the details of an economic modeling exercise conducted on the Musi Catchment of the Krishna Basin. The model has the unique characteristic of being able to value the water used on individual crops and in different regions. Thus, the individual values of water used to produce different crops, grown over two different seasons and over five very different regions within a catchment, were determined. This is a significant improvement over previous attempts, where a single value of water in a catchment was derived regardless of what it is used for, when it was used and where it used in the catchment. In addition to the agricultural valuation process, some account was made for the other uses of water and how they should be valued. The worth of these findings cannot be underestimated as the results are useful to those who need to allocate scarce water supplies between competing uses within a catchment. The assumptions underlying the model, the data used and the results and implications drawn are fully detailed in this paper. This model was connected to a hydrological model and used to simulate various scenarios on the water situation facing users in the basin. This model is the forerunner of similar modeling attempts on similar problems in other regions of the Krishna Basin and in the Murray Darling Basin of Australia.

Focusing on mixed crop-livestock farming systems of sub-Saharan Africa, this review brings together the available knowledge in the various components of the livestock and water sectors. Through an analysis of livestock-water interactions, promising strategies and interventions to improve Livestock Water Productivity are proposed. In the biophysical domain, the numerous interventions relate to feed, water and animal management. These are interlinked with interventions in the socio-political-economic domain. The paper identifies critical research and development gaps in terms of methodologies for quantifying water productivity and integrating different scales, and also in terms of institutions and policies.

Through rapid assessment of existing literature and review of policy and other official documents, the report synthesizes the existing knowledge and gaps on policies and institutions and identifies key research issues that need in-depth study. The report provides an overview of the range of key livelihoods and production systems in the Blue Nile Basin (BNB) and highlights their relative dependence on, and vulnerability to, water resources and water-related ecosystem services. It also makes an inventory of current water and land related policies and institutions in the BNB, their organizational arrangements, dynamics and linkages and key policy premises. It highlights the major problems in institutional arrangements and policy gaps and makes suggestions for an in-depth Policy and Institutional Studies to be done as part of the Upstream-Downstream Research project.

This working paper has been prepared as one of the outputs of the apos;Improved water and land management in the Ethiopian Highlands and its impact on downstream stakeholders dependent on the Blue Nileapos; project, supported by the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF). It provides a comprehensive literature review; identifies types, sources and provides geo-referencing of data in the basin; compiles information of hydrology, sediment, and water resources and its uses. It also provides a review of applicable models for watershed and water allocation simulation, research methods, past studies and published material related to the Blue Nile. Extensive reference material and previous studies are compiled.

The paper reviews the existing methods used in India for estimation of flow characteristics at ungauged sites. It focuses on low and high flows, long-term mean flow and flow duration curves. Since it lists the actual formulae, it can be used as a quick reference guide for selecting a suitable technique for various geographical regional and/or river basins in India.

Use of un-treated/partially treated wastewater for irrigation in the dry countries of Asia and Africa and recycling of treated wastewater in the water scarce developed countries has become a common practice due to various reasons. While the lack of wastewater treatment to appropriate levels before use is a major problem in developing countries, the high cost of wastewater recycling is the major problem in developed countries. The current paper is part of a doctoral research and presents the conceptual framework for the research and the methodology that can be used to tackle the problems associated with wastewater recycling.

With issues of climate change, increase in urban population and the increased demand for water from competing sectors, wastewater recycling is becoming an important strategy to complement the existing water resources for both developing and developed countries. There are lessons, experiences, data and technology that can be shared for mutual benefit. The current paper is part of a doctoral research and presents a comprehensive literature review on the following issues in India and Australia: some key statistics of wastewater use and recycling; rationale for wastewater use; problems in promoting recycling; research gaps; economic characteristics of wastewater; wastewater markets and its future potential.

The Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) is a remarkable achievement towards the cooperative management of the common Nile water resources. Based on a Shared Vision Program and a Subsidiary Action Program, the NBI has numerous ongoing projects on the ground. Research on the Nile water resources has been recognized to be crucial for successful implementation of the NBI projects. Therefore, IWMI and other research centers have worked together with the NBI to identify knowledge gaps pertinent to the Nile water resources. This report presents prioritized research questions, pertinent ongoing research projects and the implementing institutions; and available databases on the Nile.

In West Africa, especially in the Sahelian countries of Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali and Mauritania, erratic rainfall sequences within and between years has often led to a high uncertainty in rainfed crop production. Over the past three decades, severe food shortages attributed to drought have been frequently reported in several Sahelian countries, most of which are amongst the least developed of the world. Innovative and indigenous ways to achieve improved crop yields through integrated land and water management such as rainwater harvesting and soil water conservation have been successfully tested and, in some cases, adopted in West Africa. This paper highlights the successful interventions of improved indigenous rainwater harvesting/soil water conservation technologies such as Za or tassa, stone rows and half-moon in the Sahelian zones of West Africa over the past 10 years, and their contributions to enhancing food security and alleviating poverty. The potential for adoption of these technologies at the farm level and their outscaling to areas with similar agroecological zones are also discussed.

Approximately half of the irrigated area of Iran falls under different types of salt-affected soils and average yield losses may be as high as 50 percent. Slightly and moderately salt-affected soils are mostly found on the piedmonts at the foot of the Elburz (Alborz) Mountains in the northern part of the country. The soils having severe to extreme salinity are predominantly located in the Central Plateau, the Khuzestan and Southern Coastal Plains and the Caspian Coastal Plain. The process of salinization of the surface water resources is mainly due to natural conditions, and to a lesser extent, to the discharge of drainage water into the river systems. Estimates show that about 6.7 km3 of brackish water flow annually through 12 major rivers. There is no straightforward solution to the complex problems of salt-induced soil and water resources degradation in Iran. The approaches addressing the management of these resources need to be multidimensional and must take into account biophysical and environmental conditions of the target areas as well as livelihood aspects of the associated communities

The groundwater present in the hard rock region of the dry zone of Sri Lanka is made up of the shallow apos;Regolith Aquiferapos; and the deeper fracture zone aquifer is now clearly recognized. However, up to now no study had been carried out or reported in this country on the dynamic nature of this shallow regolith aquifer. This is the very first study carried out and reported in this regard. As part of the study, the impact of the Mau Ara trans-basin canal on the groundwater conditions below the area of influence of this trans-basin feeder canal has also been examined.

Many decisions on water allocation in river basins are made on economic grounds. Environmental and social benefits of water should also be considered in river basin management, and attempts should be made to value them similarly. This is not a straightforward task and very few studies have directly addressed this issue to date. In this paper, the Menik Ganga (River) in southern Sri Lanka is used as a case study to attempt and evaluate the costs and benefits of environmental water allocations, referred to as ‘environmental flows’ (EF). In this study, a broad definition of EF is used: the components of EF evaluated include the requirements of the religious festival, the requirements of the Yala National Park, the requirements of the Pilinnawa Coastal Wetland and the requirements of the Yala Fishery Management Area, off the coast. Almost all estimates are based on use values of EF such as marketed goods and recreation. For some components multiple estimates have been attempted. The religious EF requirement is estimated using the cost of alternative water supplies. The benefits of the EF requirement for the Yala National Park are estimated using the forgone value of tourism in the dry season and the benefits of avoiding the Human-Elephant Conflict. The Additional expenditure for the park in the dry season is also presented as another proxy estimate of the benefits of EF. The Benefit Transfer method was used for the Pilinnawa Wetland and grassland due to data constraints. The market prices of lobster and income of chank divers are used as proxies for the economic benefits of EF to the Yala Fishery Management Area. Finally, the cumulative value of the individual components is presented and discussed. The paper intends to stimulate discussion and further research on the complex subject of valuing the social and environmental benefits of water – whether it is in the Menik Ganga, elsewhere in Sri Lanka or elsewhere in the world.

In the past decade the Tanzanian government, with a loan from the World Bank, designed and implemented a new administrative water rights system with the aim of improving basin-level water management and cost-recovery for government water-resource management services. This paper evaluates the processes and impacts after the first years of implementing the new system in the Upper Ruaha catchment. In this area, the majority of water users are small-scale irrigators and livestock keepers who develop and manage water according to customary arrangements, without much state support. Although water resources are abundant, growing water demands intensify water scarcity during the dry season. Contrary to expectations, the new system has failed as a registration tool, a taxation tool, and a water management tool, and has also contributed to aggravating rural poverty. As a taxation tool, the system not only introduces corruption by design, but also drains government coffers because the collection costs are higher than any revenue gained. As a water management tool, the new system aggravates upstream-downstream conflicts, because the upstream water users claim that paying for water entitles them to use it as they like. However, unlike these and other counterproductive impacts of the new system, the taxation of the few private large-scale water users according to negotiated rates appeared to be feasible. The paper argues that the root of these paradoxical results lies in the dichotomy between the apos;modernapos; large-scale rural and urban economy with its corresponding legislation and the rural spheres in which Tanzaniaapos;s majority of small-scale water users live under customary water tenure. While the new water rights system fits the relatively better-off minority to some extent, it is an anomaly for Tanzaniaapos;s majority of poor water users. This paper concludes by suggesting easy adaptations in the current water rights system that would accommodate both groups water users, improve cost-recovery for government services, mitigate water conflicts and alleviate rural poverty.

Although many irrigation systems in the dry zone of Sri Lanka have water shortage problems, water consumption is very high during land preparation. This paper analyzes the impact of institutional interventions on efficient water management, especially during the land preparation period. It provides a comprehensive understanding of the factors behind prolonged periods of land preparation so that system managers and farmers communities can develop appropriate interventions to reduce water consumption

This paper is a collaborative research between the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the Agricultural Engineering Research Centre of Taiwan. This study contributes to IWMI’s program on the Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture. The research in 2003 consists of two components. First, research in Taiwan continues on estimating the positive and negative externalities of paddy-rice production. Second, research is being conducted in Sri Lanka to assess more broadly the impact of water resource development. In addition, two extensive literature reviews have been completed

Enduring low agricultural productivity is one of the major causes of rural poverty in South Asia. Based on a review of recent empirical studies, this paper focuses on three key questions: (1) why is agricultural productivity low in the region?; (2) what are the key constraints and opportunities for enhancing agricultural productivity; and (3) what are the effective mechanisms to improve access to key productivity enhancing technologies, factors and services. Two major points raised in the paper are: (a) improved management of land and water is important for increasing productivity, but equally important is farmersapos; access to non land and water-related inputs and services, which through their complementary relationships with water, increase the productivity and value of water. Even if most of the constraints related to land and water are removed through improved management, the resulting gains in productivity may not be sufficient-in the presence of constraints related to other factors and services-to have any significant impacts on poverty. Therefore, in order to generate any major increases in productivity, farmersapos; improved access to non land and water-related factors and services is also important; (b) access to these factors and services can be improved by providing them in an integrated manner with public-private sector partnerships. Based on examples of various models, initiatives and practices from Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, China, Sub-Saharan Mrica and other countries, the study suggests a framework for integrated services provision in the agriculture sector, and raises key research issues and questions to be explored.

This exploratory study was designed to capture the main features of agrarian change in the upper part of the basin that depends mostly on anicuts. These anicuts amount to 59 percent of the total basin anicuts in terms of numbers, but to only 43 percent in terms of irrigated area. They are generally very old (the history of some of them goes back to 2000 years; see below) and obviously, many changes have occurred during this time. The study does not allow the reconstitution of all past transformations but offers some insight on recent changes: changes in population pressure over resources and changes in hydrology, crop choice, livelihoods and collective action. The analysis is based on exploratory surveys carried out by the authors and by students of the University of Sabaragamuwa and is not a detailed or in-depth investigation of agricultural systems in the Upper Walawe basin. However, it provides a useful outline of the situation in this part of the basin.

This paper discusses methodologies applied in the Deduru Oya river basin, the basin selected from Sri Lanka for the regional study on the development of effective water management institutions. The study was funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to assist the five countries, Indonesia, the Philippines, Nepal, China and Sri Lanka to work out methodologies and develop effective water management institutions (ADB-RETA 5812). The Deduru Oya basin in which the empirical studies were carried out is located in the northwestern province of Sri Lanka. The methodology discussed in this paper includes mainly the approaches adopted for stakeholder consultation and other data collection methods for identifying water resources management problems in the basin. The findings of the various special studies carried out are not included in this paper and instead, the relevance of information generated through such studies to hold useful participatory stakeholder consultations are highlighted. The information generated through special studies became useful, facilitating inputs for the successful implementation of stakeholder consultation activities.

This report is based on a research project financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to conduct a regional study for the development of effective water management institutions (ADBRETA no 5812). Research activities were conducted in five river basins in Indonesia, the Philippines, Nepal, China and Sri Lanka for a period of three years commencing from 1999. The river basin studied in Sri Lanka was the Deduru Oya river basin in the North Western Province of the country. This report contains the findings of the Deduru Oya basin study. The overall objective of the case study conducted in Sri Lanka was to help the government of Sri Lanka to improve the institutions managing scarce water resources within the frame work of integrated water resources management. This case study included a comprehensive assessment of the existing physical, socio-economic and institutional environment in the river basin and also the long term changes that are likely to take place.

The Special SIMA Seminar on Malaria in Irrigated Agriculture at the 18th ICID International Congress on Irrigation and Drainage was one of the activities aimed at increasing awareness in the agricultural community on the potential of environmental interventions to reduce malaria under Output 4 of SIMA. This document contains papers and abstracts submitted for this seminar in Montreal, Canada. The authors themselves are responsible for their contributions and it is hoped that the publication of these proceedings will stimulate discussions among participants of the seminar as well as in the wider SIMA Network. This seminar is organized by SIMA, the CGIAR Systemwide Initiative on Malaria and Agriculture, in collaboration with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). This and subsequent scientific seminars will gather experts on malaria and agriculture to contribute to the development of a comprehensive knowledge base on malaria and agriculture.

The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) has, for many years, been involved in research on pesticide poisoning to analyse the reasons for the high number of pesticide poisoning cases in Sri Lanka and discuss ways of controlling the problem through changes in agricultural practices and community involvement. More recently, research has focused on risk factors for deliberate and occupational pesticide poisoning and on the impact that a shift towards Integrated Pest Management (IPM) will have on the health of farming families. A workshop on “Pesticides: Health Impacts and Alternatives” was held at the Colombo Hilton Hotel on 24 January 2002. The workshop marked the end of IWMI’s research on pesticide poisoning in Sri Lanka and provided researchers and policy makers from various disciplines such as health, environment, and agriculture an opportunity to share and discuss recent findings and to discuss strategies to reduce pesticide poisoning. This paper presents the workshop proceedings and includes a resource handbook for Sri Lanka on health impacts of pesticides and alternatives by listing names of relevant institutes, addresses and annotated references.

The extension of the Uda Walawe irrigation scheme in southern Sri Lanka may have a significant ecological impact on the development area and its downstream wetlands. The evaluation of this impact is the subject for a long-term study that is presently being carried out by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). In this study, the pre- development environmental conditions in the area are being investigated and the changes caused by the new irrigation system will be monitored in the future. Part of this study is a hydrological assessment of the coastal lagoon (Karagan Lewaya) and its small catchment to the south of the evelopment area. The lagoon is likely to receive high quantities of drainage flows from the future scheme. This could deteriorate its water quality and hence affect the suitability of the lagoon as a habitat for migratory birds and might lead to flooding of adjacent settlements.

This working paper gives an overview of the available global datasets on irrigated areas and an evaluation of their strengths and weaknesses. From these analyses an outline on how to develop a global irrigated area map, based on a generic methodology, is be presented. Some examples are given for the area covering India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. These countries offer a broad range of irrigated areas in different environmental settings, ranging from deserts to humid tropics

The study was on the performance of the decision support system for agrotechnology transfer (DSSAT) and the soil water atmosphere plant (SWAP) under an acid sulphate soil. The comparison of these models was done as a prerequisite to the selection of an appropriate model, which is capable of simulating water management scenarios, water balance and crop growth, to be coupled with an adaptive optimization algorithm that can be used to explore water management options

This paper on Water for Rural Development is divided into two parts. The first part outlines the most important issues from IWMIapos;s point of view on water for rural development, with a focus on developing countries. This part identifies, discusses and provides recommendations for key areas for interventions in water resources development and management in the context of rural development. The second part of the document provides analyses of present and future water resources in the World Bankapos;s defined regions.

This report is based on the Taiwanapos;s irrigation systems.The first part of this report gives a brief introduction to the Taiwan irrigation systems. Based on the visit and discussions by two IWMI staff members from 25 September to 4 October 2000 with the Association Managers, staff of the Agricultural Engineering Research Centre (AERC) and staff of the Council of Agriculture (COA), certain issues were identified in the two systems, which are detailed. In the second part, the results of analyses of the performance of these two irrgation systems of Taiwan are compared with a irrgation system from Sri Lanka.

This working paper contains the proceedings of the workshop that was organized on 14 March 2001 in Hanoi, gathering experts from the various disciplines such as health, environment,water resources management, irrigation, agriculture, soil sciences, water quality, etc. to discuss the findings of 16 papers on different aspects of wastewater reuse. The proceedings of this workshop are presented here in summary form, which we hope will provide a birdapos;s-eye view of the current knowledge in Vietnam on this subject to a wide spectrum of interested persons.

This working paper contains the proceedings of the workshop on “Malaria risk mapping in Sri Lanka—implications for its use in control” that was held on May 25, 2001 at IWMI Headquarters in Colombo, which was a follow up to the workshop conducted on March 29, 2001 in Embilipitiya (Klinkenberg 2001). The workshop in Embilipitiya was organized at the local level to discuss the results of the malaria risk mapping work carried out by IWMI in the Uda Walawe region of Sri Lanka. Participants at this workshop were local health staff involved in malaria control work in the area and officials from the Land Use Planning Offices and Divisional Secretariats.

The literature review on quot;Institutional arrangements for land drainage in developing countriesquot; provides an overview over irrigation and drainage development, drainage problems and, in particular, displays the institutional arrangements in selected countries (Egypt, India, Peru, the Philippines and South Africa). India, the Philippines and South Africa are countries where IWMI is interested in carrying out research on the relationship between the effectiveness of institutions and performance; Egypt has developed institutions capable of addressing drainage needs; Peru is in the process of establishing Autonomous Hydrological Basin Authorities for catchment-wide management of water resources including drainage.

This paper presents a Benchmark Basin initiative which was proposed in IWMIapos;s Strategic Plan 2001-2005 as an approach to understand and beneficially influence water resources development in selected basins in a variety of agro-ecological zones.The initial task represented by this workshop is to conduct a dialogue among partners and stakeholders in the Ruhuna Basin,Sri Lanka. A major objective is to identify these issues and research and also development activities considered to be of highest priority to partners and stakeholders.

This paper presents an approach for analyzing the socioeconomic, health, and environmental aspects of urban wastewater use in peri-urban agriculture, using typical characteristics of a major city in a developing country. Peri-urban area of Faisalabad is chosen to represent this context.

The study examines some of the major components of water cycle in the Upper Indus Basin (UIB) to look for evidence of climate change. An analysis of hydrometeorological data has been performed for UIB. An Additive Decomposition Model was used for analyzing the time series data from ten meteorological stations in the Mangla (Jhelum River) and the Tarbela (Indus River) catchments and the long-term flow data for the three major rivers, the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab. The model decomposes a time series into trend, cyclical or periodic, autoregressive and irregular components. Furthermore, spectral analysis is done in order to display these components of the time series and examine the results of the removal of the components. This approach makes use of the fact that a change in climate, if it has occurred, will have a magnified effect on hydrologic time series. By detecting trends in such series, it should be possible to work backwards and identify the causative climatic change. In case of flow data for the three rivers, which was available for a longer period than the meteorological data, the ‘F’ and ‘t’ tests for stability of variance and mean, respectively, were also performed. The annual cycle dominated all the temperature series i.e., large periodic components, and none explained by the periodic component and a dominant random component. In case of stream- flow data, the annual temperature cycle was dominant and no trend components were found in any of the flow series. The F-test and the t-test indicated the variances and means for different sub- periods of each flow series to be stable at 5% level of significance. The analysis of time series of river flows and associated climatic data did not find any pattern of trends likely to be caused by ‘greenhouse warming’ in the Upper Indus Basin.

Proceedings of a workshop held in Embilipitiya, Sri Lanka, 29th March 2001. Presents preliminary findings on malaria patterns and possible risk factors and describes the progress of IWMI research towards developing a risk map for Sri Lanka. It also contains presentations by Regional Malaria Officers, and other officials involved in malaria control, on areas of high malaria risk within their districts.

A global estimate of the potential for rain-fed agriculture could provide an answer to the question quot;How much irrigation is required?quot; Global studies done to date have relied on course resolution climate data (0.5-1 degree arc). In this study a high-resolution climate dataset (10-minute arc) was combined with a soil water storage capacity map and a dynamic water and crop model to estimate the potential for rain-fed agriculture. The methodology applied here, based ona high-resolution climate dataset, allows analyses on a global scale without losing the smaller regional-scale issues.

This paper reviews the conditions and progress towards empowerment of farmer organizations under the Farmer-Managed Irrigated Agriculture Project in the Sindh Province of Pakistan. It discusses the conditions necessary to achieve the goal of an empowered and vitalized farmer organization, the issue of legal status, skill-building activities to build the capacity of the members to manage their own affairs, and institutional issues.

The study is reported in two Working Papers. Working Paper 17 reports the findings of the HIM exercise. This paper contains the policies, legislation and organizations relevant for understanding of the HIM for the Olifants river basin. It also includes the historical development of the institutional framework in the basin, as this history has left a profound imprint on the South African society at large and is still dictating, in many cases, the interactions between the different organizations. This background on previous and current institutions and policies at the different government levels is used to shed light on the current relationships between different organizations in the basin. Although focusing on the Olifants, the description provided is applicable to the rest of South Africa in broad terms.

Volume 1 of the study on Hydro-Institutional Mapping of the Olifants River Basin. This study aims to give an overview of water users and influences on water use by institutions in the Steelpoort river basin, a sub-basin of the Olifants. Describes a general methodology and framework for setting out the HIM for a river basin and presents findings from case studies in the basin. The hydro-institutional interactions among all types of water users in a South African river basin are also described.

Based on a project in which IWMI assessed the training needs of the farmers under the Farmer Managed Irrigated Agriculture (FMIA), the study highlights the importance of training in areas such as; effective communication strategies and conflict resolution, equitable water distribution, optimum use of water, financial management and developing a business plan.

Examines the gendered organization of irrigated farming and identifies processes of inclusion and exclusion of women irrigators and women leaders in water users committees. The research evaluates the success of efforts by the newly formed Water Users Association to include women. Recommendations based on the findings are made to address the problems faced by the women irrigators and leaders in the West Gandak scheme.

This study highlights the gender aspects of a community-based irrigation program supported by the NGO, Sadguru. It focuses on the intra-household organization of irrigated agriculture, the gender dimensions of scheme-level irrigation management, and Sadguruapos;s efforts to strengthen womenapos;s participation in irrigation cooperatives.

Documents a quot;best practicequot; - a successful gender-balanced irrigation intervention in which women were given control over an irrigation technology. The study evaluates the approach taken by the implementing NGO, the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme, in terms of its replicability in other areas where women share in farm activities and decision making.

Analyses the participation of female farmers in the farmer organizations (FO) of minor irrigation systems and identifies factors that hamper the participation of women in decision-making processes with regard to land, cultivation and irrigation. The paper argues that participation does not necessarily result in equity and that other forms of equity interact with gender inequity in the FOs.

Provides a socioeconomic analysis of Minor Irrigation (MI) investments in North Bengal. The study addresses the following questions: whether there is justification and rationale for MI subsidies in North Bengal; whether the North Bengal Terai Development Projectapos;s current subsidy policy achieves the Projectapos;s MI objectives in an efficient, sustainable and livelihood intensive manner, and if there is scope for modifying the current policies for better impact.

This report is intended to serve as reference and guide for researchers and policy makers linked to water resources development in Turkey and elsewhere. The topics covered include: recent developments in the water sector, the epidemiology and control of malaria and schistosomiasis, the use and effects of pesticides in irrigated agriculture, water quality issues and standards and the relationship between irrigation and wetlands.

As a consequence of green revolution in 1960s, though irrigated areas and agriculture production has increased considerably, yields are still less as compared to various countries of the world. Furthermore, huge spatial variation in cropping pattern and productivity of land and water within irrigated agriculture of Pakistan has become a chronic issue. There are various reasons causing low production. These include farmersapos; investment potential, physical environments, market mechanism and availability of water, which is the most precious input in farming. The role of irrigation water resources and its management is extremely important. The sustainability of agriculture can be largely insured through proper and better management of water resources. Indus Basin Irrigation System (IBIS) is basically supply-based by its design which means water is not supplied according to crop requirement. Low gross production is an inherent limitation of this supply-based system. The research activity aims to see the spatial variation in production across canal commands using gross production indicators i.e. Gross Value of Production (GVP) per unit of land and GVP per unit of water. Give of major network of 12, inter-linked and a total of 23 canals out of 45 canals of IBIS. The analysis is performed at the canal command level.

Addresses remodeling of outlets to achieve equitable water distribution where studies have shown considerable inequity. Recommendations are made for the implementation of remodeling that involve the farmer organizations. This process is to be undertaken jointly with the area water board staff.

This study looks into the unsatisfactory indications canal and structure dimensions and levels of water distribution equity. These changes result in conditions that do not permit regime to be established and result in high variation between the head and the tail of the distribution.

The concept of equity of water distribution is widely used in assessment of irrigation water management performance; but in reality there is considerable confusion between the concepts of equity and equality. This research forms part of a larger study of Farmer Managed Irrigation in Sind Province.

Presents a framework for institutional analysis, focusing on the three main pillars of institutions - laws, policies and administration. The report provides a brief set of guidelines, supported by an outline of some issues, constraints and prospects for institutional change.; Also published in Bruns, B.; Bandaragoda, D. J.; Samad, M. (Eds.), Integrated water-resources management in a river basin context: Institutional strategies for improving the productivity of agricultural water management. Proceedings of the Regional Workshop, Malang, Indonesia, January 15-19, 2001. Colombo, Sri Lanka: IWMI. pp.3-18.

These notes present the impressions gathered by a team of Indian and Pakistani economists on contemporary issues in irrigation management in these two countries. The authors suggest that the two countries can learn important lessons by comparing notes on several issues: [a] what would work best in ensuring equitable access to irrigation - physical rehabilitation being tried out in Pakistan Punjab with the help of the army under the military rule offers interesting possibilities in terms of scale and impact as does the Andhra Pradesh model of irrigation reform, [b] the experience in both countries so far defies the uncritically accepted premise that under farmer-management, irrigation systems will be more equitable, [c] why farmers in Pakistan Punjab have to use 16-20 horsepower (hp) diesel engines to pump groundwater from 25-40 feet while north Indian farmers have been doing the same with 5 hp engines—if it is because of compulsion of habit, appropriate policies can save Pakistan substantial diesel fuel per year, [d] India needs to ask why diesel engines in Lahore cost only 40-50 percent of the retail price they command in Lucknow or Ludhiana—we suggest allowing free imports of Chinese pumps will do away with the need for pump subsidies that keep diesel engines over-priced in India, [e] both Pakistan and India need to pay serious attention to promoting simple pump modifications that can increase fuel efficiency of their pumps by 40-70 percent, [f] India and Pakistan need to compare notes on their rich experience of electricity pricing policies to achieve viability of electricity supply to farmers and to achieve important goals of groundwater management and policy.

Report 1 documents key data affecting crop budgets and water supply costs in several Olifants Basin irrigation schemes. The data will be used to develop an irrigation water-pricing model to describe supply-side and demand side forces. Report 2 investigates the management and operations of these schemes. It compares farming and irrigation practices in several different types of schemes - a government-run scheme, a private commercial scheme and two small irrigation schemes managed by black farmers.

This report describes the hydrological aspects of a CGIAR project to model the effects of water flows on aquatic resource production in the Mekong Basin. The project was carried out by the International Centre for Living Aquatic Resources Management (ICLARM, Penang, Malaysia) and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI, Colombo, Sri Lanka) in cooperation with the Mekong River Commission (MRC, Phnom Penh, Cambodia) together with other institutes and national and regional agencies working in the riparian countries of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam. The project commenced in January 2000 and finished in December 2000. The land cover analysis for the Tonle Sap area was carried out, and the data on existing and proposed dams were collated, by Dilkushi De Alwis, IWMI, Colombo.

This report investigates how much water is required to maintain the freshwater reed beds that are the main shelter and breeding place for threatened bird species. The ability of Gediz basin to fulfill this requirement and the effects of this requirement on irrigated agriculture, the major competitor for water in the Gediz basin were subsequently examined.

Analysis of the spatial and temporal relationship between malaria incidence and selected water-related environmental parameters . The analysis is based upon the use of secondary information. GIS was used to generate input into statistical analysis and to map out the parameters for a visual analysis. The paper discusses the quality of the data used and the possibilities for using GIS in healthrelated research.

The increasing international awareness about the strengths of participatory approaches and methods for research and development has led international development banks, NGOs, donors and research and training institutes to adopt Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and other participatory approaches to implement new projects and programs. At IIMI, PRA approaches and methods have alsoapos;been incorporated in a number of research activities. The present Working Paper explores the opportunities of PRA in irrigation management research through an analysis of selected case studies in which IIMI attempted to practice the PRA approach.

Since time immemorial, people in South Asia have collected rainfall runoff in small storage reservoirs (called tanks) for later use in agricultural production, for domestic use and watering of livestock. A unique feature of the tanks in Sri Lanka is that often several of the tanks are linked together through a canal. The resulting cascade of tanks should then be managed as one system. The Thirappane cascade, which is the topic of this study, falls within the catchment area of a much bigger reservoir, Nachchaduwa. The latter was built around 900 AD, and restored in 1906, when many of the tanks still in use now were surveyed and restored to use. Cascade management, however, was not always carried out properly and restoration work not done, that the skills to do so were lost. The management of these interconnected tanks presents many interesting questions, the answers to which hitherto have not been fully explored. The effectiveness of storage-based irrigation systems was such that over time more and more people were attracted to the command areas of the tanks and many of the systems became unsustainable due to overcrowding. The objective of this study was a limited one, i.e., to explore through simple water balance modelling several improved management options for a particular set of tanks in the Thirappane Cascade and to examine how the tank cascade can be stabilized through structural modifications. The water balance model developed for this purpose has deliberately been kept simple, requiring only data that can be easily collected in the field.

This working paper is the outcome of a data collection process initiated under the advice of Dr. Shigeo Yashima of the International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI). The objective of this data collection process was to make a preliminary assessment of irrigation performance in Sri Lanka using irrigation systems with different backgrounds to identify areas for further research.

The impact of information techniques in all economic activities has been tremendous during the past decade. However, the potential of the multiple management methods and technologies derived from this field has not been fully realized in the irrigation sector. One area of application of information techniques concern the design and installation of Decision Support Systems (DSS). This area, used for the particular activities relating to the management of water in irrigation schemes, constitutes the theoretical background of this paper

This paper presents the results of a study on water markets in the Fordwah/Eastern Sadiqia Area, Punjab, Pakistan. The study stresses and quantifies the importance of water markets in the area. A first attempt is made to evaluate the the impact of water marketson the quality of irrigation services.

Study of three traditional farmer-developed and -managed irrigation systems in the Chitral region of Pakistan which adds to the existing inventory of information available about indigenous irrigation institutions , technologies, performance, and development needs .

The Directorate of Land Reclamation (DLR), which was set up in 1945, is a special unit of Punjabapos;s Irrigation and Power Department for undertaking research and field operations to combat the problem of salinity. Approaching the end of five decades of existence, the directorate is yet to demonstrate its effectiveness in its assigned task; its inability to fully cope with the conditions of a fast changing irrigation environment makes this rather an illusive goal.; In the selection of lands for reclamation, the Directorate is heavily dependent on the visual salinity survey (Thur Girdawari) carried out every year by the Irrigation Departmentapos;s field staff. This visual survey appears to be a quick and cost-effective method of assessing surface salinity, but its exclusive use as the criterion for selection of affected land is a questionable approach. According to original departmental procedure, reclamation activities were confined to only two of the five classes of soil identified by the visual salinity survey, but the current practice of including all the types of salt-affected soils in reclamation operations has made the selection process more subjective. Surprisingly, the DLR is not using its existing laboratory facilities optimally to better identify the salt-affected lands. Soil testing in visually identified lands could also help define the reclamation operations more scientifically in addition to improving the selection methods being used.; While formal procedure requires the Directorate to communicate to farmers the details of planned reclamation schemes, farmer awareness of the reclamation program seems to be poor and only a few farmers in the study area readily acknowledge agency assistance in obtaining relevant information. In practice, the proposals for reclamation schemes are often initiated by some influential farmers.; It is a requirement that the amount of water made available for reclamation be over and above the design supply of a given distributary, and special reclamation outlets can be given from a distributary only on the basis that its tail will not suffer. However, the study shows no evidence to show that extra water was made available during the operation of reclamation outlets; further, tail-end shortages were observed in all the distributaries under the study.; In a context where the tendency is to give scant consideration to irrigation rules and procedures, it is unlikely that the Directorate of Land Reclamation in its present form and status will succeed in implementing an extensive program of reclamation operations. For the Directorate to be effective in its legitimate functions and to make it an operationally viable and socially acceptable organizational unit, adequate policy and institutional support seem to be necessary.

This paper analyzes the tubewell data collected by IIMI-Pakistan over a period of 4 years. While the main emphasis remains on the operation of private tubewells, public tubewells and canal water supplies are included in the analyses to give a more comprehensive picture of the conjunctive use environment, a characteristic of most of the irrigated areas of the Punjab, Pakistan.

IRRIGATION Management Institute (IIMI) and the Tropical Agriculture Research Center (TARC), Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan, initiated a collaborative study in August 1991. This joint study is focused on small-scale tank irrigation systems which are spread over the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka, and is conducted with the assistance of Sri Lankaapos;s Department of Agrarian Services.

The research activity described in this working paper is a joint effort undertaken by the International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI) and the Irrigation Department of Sri Lanka. Two of the authors, S. Mohanrajah (Resident Engineer, Irrigation Department) and M. H. Junaid (Additional Engineer, Irrigation Department), were responsible for the management of the Right Bank Main Canal (RBMC) in Kirindi Oya during the season, maha 1991/92. The monitoring network introduced under their supervision, with the active collaboration of the field staff, proved to be of significant benefit for the effective accomplishment of their day-to-day tasks of canal management. This led the authors to the conclusion that disseminating this experience even at an early stage could be of some interest to others seeking the improvement of the management of manually operated irrigation canals. Emphasis has deliberately been put on methods rather than on thorough, a posteriori analysis of data. Thus, ideas suggesting how to use simple flow data to compute indicators and derive management information has been preferred to the in-depth analysis of the data. The authors also hope to convey their intimate conviction of the usefulness of real collaborative action-research between quot;outside catalystsquot; and managers in charge of irrigation systems through this paper.

Part of a thesis titled: quot;An expert system for the diagnosis of tank irrigated systems : a feasibility studyquot;. This working paper is an analysis intended to bring understanding of the system, to provide an evaluation of its performance with reference to some stated objectives and optionally to recommend how the expected objectives can be achieved by removing the bottlenecks in the system.

The Village Tank Rehabilitation Program of the National Freedom From Hunger Campaign (FFHC) Board is assessed in this paper as a parallel study to the Anuradhapura Dry-Zone Agriculture Project (ADZAP) which was carried out by the International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI) in 1988. Following a nongovernmental approach, the FFHC Board has implemented tank rehabilitation programs in several districts in the island. The Thanthirimale cluster in Anuradhapura District is the largest tank rehabilitation project implemented by the Board. In this study, the Boardapos;s program in Thanthirimale was assessed through a sample survey, following a similar survey methodology used to assess the Tank Rehabilitation Program of ADZAP

This report documents part of an operational experiment in Kalankuttiya Block of Mahaweli System H during the 1987 yala (dry season). The experiment or quot;action researchquot; was conducted by the International Irrigation Management Insti tute (IIMI) in cooperation with the Mahaweli Economic Agency of the Mahaweli Authority of Sri Lanka. The experiment was the outgrowth of studies which focused on constraints to non-rice crops during the dry season. Careful monitoring of irrigation and cropping patterns in selected areas of the system, conducted from yala 1985, had documented three important constraints to di versified crops: 1) inadequate water control at the secondary and tertiary levels of the system, 2) lack of organization for water sharing from the secondary level downward, and 3) poor conununication between farmers and agency staff regarding water delivery schedules

This report is one of several IIMI publications addressing the issue of irrigation management to promote diversified crops during the dry season. As Sri Lanka approaches self-sufficiency in rice production, a target already achieved by some other countries in the region, there is little logic in growing rice using land and water resources which could support higher- value non-rice crops, using less water. Thus, one of the incentives in improving irrigation management is to find ways of stretching water further during the dry season in water-deficit systems, when rice is relatively more expensive to grow than during the wet season, and when other crops which can be grown only during the dry season (when there is less danger of water-logging) offer the farmer and the country a comparative advantage.

The International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI) in cooperation with the Department of Agrarian Services (DAS) conducted a study of 31 ADZAP tank schemes, focusing on the irrigation component of the project. The study was conducted during June-September 1988, and forms part of the Instituteapos;s ongoing research to document alternative strategies for assisting the minor irrigation sector. This report provides an overview of the study and its findings.

This paper presents a set of guidelines for rapid evaluation of an irrigation system, developed by IIMI staff in cooperation with staff from the Regional Development Division and Badulla District office of the Integrated Development Projects. A one-day workshop on rapid assessment methodologies suitable for minor (small-scale) irrigation systems in Sri Lanka was held at IIMI Headquarters in August 1988. Representatives who participated in ongoing projects to improve minor irrigation systems were from the three Sri Lankan agencies, the Irrigation Department, the Department of Agrarian Services, and the Regional Development Division of the Ministry of Plan Implementation, which oversees the district-level Integrated Rural Development Projects.

Field research on water flows and agricultural production in the Kalankuttiya Block of Mahaweli System H was initiated by IIMI staff in mid-1985 during Yala (dry season). The primary focus was to understand the effects of irrigation management practices on crop diversification from rice to quot;other food cropsquot; (OFCs) such as chili, lentil, soybean, and onion. Faced with immanent self-sufficiency in rice production, but continuing large-scale imports of non-rice food crops, the government is trying to promote the cultivation of OFCs, which require intermittent irrigation, in schemes designed primarily for rice cultivation and more or less continuous water flows.

The purpose of this paper is to document the field measurement campaign carried out in the Kirirrli Oya RBMC with a view to calibrating the mathematical model. The preliminary analysis leading to estimates of some of the hydraulic parameters needed by the model is also described.

This paper is a substantially revised version of a draft paper previously circulated to some officials in Sri Lanka. The title of that paper was quot;Testing a New Field Channel Design: A Pilot Project of the Uda Walawe Rehabilitation Project, Sri Lanka. It was reviewed by the International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI) - Sri Lanka Consultativequot; Consultative Committee at its January 1988 meeting; as the minutes of that meeting indicate, the Committee members recognized- the significance of the main findings of the draft report, and agreed that physical rehabilitation by itself could be counter productive unless supported by proper institutional changes. The paper is based on periodic observations (approximately weekly) of farmersapos; use of a rehabilitated pilot field channel (FC), and interviews with both farmers and field level officials, over two seasons in the Uda Walawe Scheme, Sri Lanka.

Proceedings of a Workshop sponsored jointly by ARTI and IIMI, 11-12 December 1987.

This document is meant to present a framework for analyzing the institutions related to water management in a river basin context. The design of the five-country regional study undertaken by IWMI on “Development of Effective Water Management Institutions” provided a new methodology and a framework for river basin studies. It consists of four key components of diagnostic investigations related to water resources management in a river basin, which are interrelated. These key components are the physical system, water accounting, socioeconomic situation and performance. This study design is given in the Study’s Inception Report of 15 June 1999, and the Methodological Guidelines of 1 October 1999. This document takes one step further, and provides a conceptual framework for analyzing the institutional framework for water resources management in a river basin. The major thrust of this framework for institutional analysis is that the four key areas of diagnostic studies in a river basin are shown to be closely linked to the institutional frame work for integrated water resources management in the context of a river basin.

The International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI) began research projects in Dewahuwa Tank and Mahaweli 11-2 during the Yala season (May-Aug.) of 1985. The research focussed initially on agricultural economics (e.g., farmersapos; use of agricultural inputs and returns from different crops) and on irrigation engineering (water distribution and flow rates). In the second season (Maha 1985/86) of research a social science component was added to address issues of farmersapos; management decisions and the institutional arrangements by which farmers and agency officials operate and maintain the irrigation works. This report summarizes the research results of the social science component for the Maha season, from October 1985 to April 1986.