Irrigation Management: Principles and Practices

Irrigation Management

Principles and Practices

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Irrigation Management

Principles and Practices

Martin Burton

CABI is a trading name of CAB International

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© M.A. Burton 2010. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced

in any form or by any means, electronically, mechanically, by photocopying, recording or

otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owners.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library, London, UK.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Burton, Martin, Dr.

Irrigation management: principles and practices/M.A. Burton.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN: 978-1-84593-516-0 (alk. paper)

1. Irrigation–Management. 2. Drainage–Management. I. Title.

TC812.B87 2010

333.91’3–dc22

2009033245

ISBN: 978 1 84593 516 0

Commissioning editor: Nigel Farrar

Production editor: Shankari Wilford

Typeset by SPi, Pondicherry, India.

Printed and bound in the UK by CPI Antony Rowe Ltd.

About the Author vii

Preface ix

1 Introduction 1

2 Components of Irrigation and Drainage Systems 11

3 Management 36

4 Operation of the Main System 64

5 Operation at the On-Farm Level 122

6 Maintenance 180

7 Training 218

8 Irrigation Management Transfer and Organizational Restructuring 248

9 Performance Assessment, Monitoring and Evaluation 293

References 347

Appendix 1. Scheduling Irrigation Water Exercise 351

Appendix 2. Checklist for Assessing the Performance of Water Users 359

Associations or Federations of Water Users Associations

Index 369

Contents

v

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vii

My interest in irrigation management stems back to an assignment in 1977 as a junior

professional on the East Java Design Team, Indonesia, working as part of a team helping to

modernize the operation and maintenance (O&M) procedures for the East Java Irrigation

Service. For 18 months I worked with an experienced Indonesian colleague, Arief Effendi,

in the Mojokerto office inspecting all irrigation and drainage systems in the 32,000 ha com￾mand area, and then worked with the O&M engineers and technicians to introduce updated

O&M procedures for these systems. At the same time we worked with the Juru Pengairan

(Irrigation Service water master), village leaders and the jogotirto (village water master)

of the 108 ha Blendren tertiary unit on measures to improve on-farm operation and main￾tenance. I am indebted to Arief Effendi and our colleagues in Mojokerto for sharing their

knowledge and experience with me, and hope that in some small way this book repays the

debt I own them.

This interest in irrigation and drainage management developed over the years with vari￾ous assignments as an O&M Engineer and a return to East Java as the Training Officer on

the World Bank-funded East Java Irrigation Project, where I again worked with Arief Effendi

and two colleagues, Bin Yali and Satrio, on organizing training courses for Irrigation Service

sub-section office staff and water masters in one irrigation district of 140,000 ha command area.

This training programme was novel at the time in its focus on practical classroom exercises

and practical fieldwork, with the trainers travelling to work with the staff in their offices and

on their systems rather than the trainees travelling to a central training centre. The concept

was considered to be successful and expanded under subsequent World Bank projects to other

regions in Indonesia.

In 1986 I joined the staff of the Institute of Irrigation Studies at the University of

Southampton to lecture in management, operation and maintenance of irrigation and drainage

schemes on the MSc Irrigation Engineering course. I quickly learnt that not everyone shared

my enthusiasm for irrigation and drainage management, and that designing and building

schemes was considered more interesting and challenging. It was, however, noticeable over

the 14 years I spent at the University how this attitude changed, and how those attending the

MSc course and associated short courses had a growing concern and interest in improving the

management of irrigation and drainage schemes.

While teaching at Southampton I was aware that I needed to better understand general

management, and therefore studied for an MBA at Henley Management College. This devel￾oped my awareness and understanding of management and administration systems, and

About the Author

viii About the Author

led to work in restructuring of government-run irrigation and drainage agencies. I am sure

that this is an area where we will see significant changes in the coming years, as government

agencies modernize to meet the challenges we are facing in irrigation and water resources

management.

Acknowledgements are due to many people over the years. To Robert Chambers in the

initial instance for his work in the 1980s on irrigation management, and the identification

of ‘blind spots’, which included main system management, night irrigation, and incentives

and motivation for managers. Also thanks to my many professional colleagues in consulting

engineers Mott MacDonald and later at the University of Southampton in the Institute of

Irrigation and Development Studies. I am grateful to Alan Beadle, Mike Snell, Melvyn Kay

and Tim Jackson for comments on initial drafts of this book, and to Masood Khan, Ian Smout,

Don Brown, Mark Svendsen, Ian Carruthers, Rien Bos, Hector Malano, Charles Abernethy,

Flip Wester, Laurence Smith, Jerry Neville, David Molden, Hammond Murray-Rust, Ian

Anderson, Sam Johnston III and Joop Stoutjesdijk for their contribution over the years to my

understanding of irrigation management. I am indebted to Dr Safwat Abdel-Dayem for never

letting me forget that it is irrigation and drainage, and that for many schemes drainage is

sometimes the central issue for sustainable irrigated agriculture.

Martin Burton

Itchen Stoke

July 2009

ix

There is increasing pressure worldwide on available water resources. These pressures arise

from a number of factors, including growing populations, increased wealth and urbanization,

increased industrialization, and demands from society and environmental groups for safe￾guards to protect water resources and the aquatic environment. In many locations climate

change is adding to these pressures.

In many countries irrigated agriculture consumes a large proportion of the available water

resources, often over 70% of the total. There is considerable pressure to release water for other

uses, and as a sector, irrigated agriculture will have to increase its efficiency and productivity

of water use. A new era is dawning for water management in the irrigated agriculture sec￾tor, where the management effort and returns to management are required, recognized and

rewarded.

This book draws on the author’s experience and work over 30 years and in some

28 countries in the management, operation and maintenance of irrigation and drainage

schemes. The book provides knowledge for management of irrigation and drainage sys￾tems in the 21st century, covering the traditional technical areas related to system opera￾tion and maintenance and expanding managerial, institutional and organizational aspects

related to the changing political, social and economic environment. It lays emphasis on

the management of irrigation as a business enterprise, moving management thinking out

of traditional public sector mindsets to more customer-focused, performance-oriented

service delivery.

A significant proportion of the irrigation and drainage systems worldwide are manually

operated gravity systems managed by government agencies with large numbers of water users

farming relatively small landholdings. The total area worldwide in this category is over 165

million ha, which is over 60% of the total area irrigated worldwide. It is in such systems where

improvements in management are most required, and in which the most substantial benefits

can be obtained.

The book seeks to provide practical guidelines to improve the three key processes of

management, operation and maintenance of such systems. In the management context it deals

with institutional issues, such as water law, and management structures and management

processes, including establishing and working with water users associations, restructur￾ing irrigation and drainage agencies, fee setting and cost recovery. In the operation con￾text the book provides practical guidance on key operation processes, including irrigation

Preface

x Preface

scheduling at main system and on-farm level, and performance management tools. In the

maintenance context it covers maintenance management processes, including maintenance

identification, planning, budgeting, implementation, supervision and recording. Asset

management is increasingly used as a tool for maintenance management, and is covered

in some detail.

©Martin Burton 2010. Irrigation Management: Principles and Practices (Martin Burton) 1

1

Introduction

This chapter looks at the historical develop￾ment of irrigation and the pressure that this

development has placed on the world’s water

resources. The issues facing irrigation and the

associated development of water resources

are discussed and the role that irrigation

management can play in addressing these is

outlined.

Historical Development

Irrigation and drainage development

The irrigation area worldwide has increased

threefold over the last 50 years, from 94 mil￾lion ha in 1950 to over 287 million ha in 2007

(Fig. 1.1). Despite this massive increase the

irrigated area per member of the world’s

population has varied relatively little, from

37.3 ha/thousand people in 1950 to 43.0 ha/

thousand people in 2007, with a peak in the

late 1970s of 47.6 ha/thousand people.1

Table 1.1 shows the irrigated area, popu￾lation and irrigated area per thousand people

in a number of countries. The total irrigated

area of these 42 countries represents 86% of

the total area irrigated worldwide. The coun￾tries with the largest areas include India (57.3

million ha), China (53.8 million ha), the USA

(21.4 million ha) and Pakistan (17.8 million

ha). There are four countries with a significant

irrigated area in the range of 5 to 10 million

ha and a further 21 with irrigated areas in the

range of 1 to 5 million ha. The irrigated area

per thousand people ranges from 2 ha/thou￾sand people in Nigeria to 232 ha/thousand

people in Kazakhstan. The generally low

level of irrigation development in some sub￾Saharan countries in Africa can be seen from

the data for Nigeria, Kenya, Mozambique

and Senegal.

A valuable assessment of the current situ￾ation related to irrigated agriculture and water

resources development has been published by

the International Water Management Institute

(IWMI). The Comprehensive Assessment of

Water Management in Agriculture (Earthscan/

IWMI, 2007) was a multi-agency study coordi￾nated by IWMI in association with a number of

other organizations, including the Consultative

Group on International, Agricultural Research

(CGIAR) and the Food and Agricultural

Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

The Assessment found that agricul￾ture continues to be the largest consumer

of water, taking 71% of all withdrawals,

compared with 18% for industry and 8%

for domestic/municipal use. In total, in

2000, some 3800 km3

of water were with￾drawn from surface and groundwater

resources, with approximately 2700 km3

being abstracted for irrigated agriculture

and 20% of the total abstraction being from

groundwater. The dramatic change in the

2 Irrigation Management

amount of water abstracted for various

uses is shown in Fig. 1.2. The total quan￾tity abstracted has increased from around

1400 km3

/year in 1950 to around 3800 km3

/

year in 2000. As can be seen, the propor￾tion abstracted for municipal and industrial

use has changed as the population balance

shifts from rural to urban. This shift in the

rural–urban population balance has sig￾nificant consequences for irrigated agri￾culture. As economic development takes

place, the urban population grows and the

proportion of the population deriving its

livelihood from agriculture (irrigated and

rainfed) declines, as does the proportion of

the Gross Domestic Product derived from

agriculture. The domestic water demands of

the urban population increase, as does the

demand from the industries2

that provide

work for these populations. The political

balance shifts, with a focus on protecting the

munici pal and industrial demands for these

growing urban populations.

The Assessment found a number of

promising and disturbing trends and forces,

which are summarized in Box 1.1. Though

there are some positive trends, there is much

of concern in these findings, with increasing

levels of pollution and desiccation of riv￾ers, over-committed river basins, increasing

demands from urban populations, and rap￾idly depleting groundwater reserves.

Water resources development and the

changing role of management

In many countries irrigation is the main user

of water, with over 70% of all abstracted water

being used for irrigated agriculture. Water,

rather than land, has become the limiting

constraint on development, with many

basins being closed or approaching closure.3

Figure 1.3 is helpful in understanding how

the development of irrigation in many coun￾tries has led to this pressure on water resources

and how institutional arrangements have

adapted to cope with this development. Based

on the work of Keller et al. (1998), Molden

et al. (2001) identified four broad phases:

• development;

• utilization;

• allocation;

• restoration.

In each of these phases, different needs and

therefore different institutional structures

exist. In the development phase the amount of

naturally occurring water is not constrained

and expansion of demand drives the need for

construction of new infrastructure, with insti￾tutions heavily involved in planning, design

and construction of water resources projects.

Civil engineers dominate the development

process, and as water becomes scarce due to

growing demand, additional spare capacity

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

1950

1953

1956

1959

1962

1965

1968

1971

1974

1977

1980

1983

1986

1989

1992

1995

1998

2001

2004

2007

Irrigated area/thousand people

(ha)

Irrigated area (millions ha)

Irrigated area Irrigated area/thousand people

Fig. 1.1. Growth of irrigated area worldwide, 1950–2007. (Data from EPI, 2009.)

Introduction 3

Table 1.1. Populations and irrigated areas in selected countries. (From FAO Aquastat website,a

http://www.fao.org/nr/water/aquastat/data/query/index.html)

Country

Population

(000s)

Average

precipitation

(mm/year)

Irrigated area

(000 ha)

Irrigated

area per thousand

people (ha)

India 1,151,751 1,083 57,286 50

China 1,328,474 n/a 53,820 41

USA 302,841 715 21,400 71

Pakistan 160,943 494 17,820 111

Iran 70,270 228 8,132 116

Mexico 105,342 752 6,256 59

Russian Federation 143,221 460 5,158 36

Thailand 63,444 1,622 5,004 79

Turkey 73,922 593 4,983 67

Indonesia 228,864 2,702 4,428 19

Uzbekistan 26,981 206 4,223 157

Italy 58,779 832 3,973 68

Bangladesh 155,991 2,666 3,751 24

Kazakhstan 15,314 250 3,556 232

Egypt 74,166 51 3,422 46

Afghanistan 26,088 327 3,199 123

Japan 127,953 1,668 3,128 24

Viet Nam 86,206 1,821 3,000 35

Brazil 189,323 1,782 2,870 15

Ukraine 46,557 565 2,605 56

Australia 20,530 534 2,545 124

Chile 16,465 1,522 1,900 115

Sudan 37,707 416 1,863 49

Greece 11,123 652 1,594 143

Philippines 86,264 2,348 1,550 18

South Africa 48,282 495 1,498 31

Morocco 30,853 346 1,484 48

Nepal 27,641 1,500 1,134 41

Kyrgyzstan 5,259 533 1,077 205

Republic of Korea 48,050 1,274 889 18

Romania 21,532 637 808 38

Portugal 10,579 854 617 58

Sri Lanka 19,207 1,712 570 30

Venezuela 27,191 1,875 570 21

Algeria 33,351 89 569 17

Malaysia 26,114 2,875 363 14

Nigeria 144,720 1,150 293 2

Israel 6,810 435 225 33

Senegal 12,072 686 120 10

Mozambique 20,971 1,032 118 6

Kenya 36,553 630 103 3

n/a, data not available.

a

The database provides information on population and irrigated areas in each country during the period 1993–2007.

is created through the construction of more

infrastructure, particularly dams, resulting in

step changes in the amount of water available

for use.

In the utilization phase the infrastructure

is established and the broad goal is to make the

most out of these facilities. Creation of addi￾tional supplies through further construction

4 Irrigation Management

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

Withdrawal (km3/year)

Year

Agricultural use Industrial use Municipal use

Fig. 1.2. Change in the water abstracted for human use, 1900–2000. (From IWMI, 2006 after

Shiklomanov, 2000 with permission.)

Box 1.1. Emerging Trends (Earthscan/IWMI, 2007)

Promising trends

• A steady increase in the consumption of food, leading to better nutrition for many and a decrease in

famines. The average global energy intake increased from 2400 kcal/capita/day in 1970 to 2800 kcal/

capita/day in 2000, enough to feed the world in spite of a growing population.

• A steady increase in land and water productivity, with average grain yields rising from 1.4 t/ha to

2.7 t/ha during the past four decades and signifi cant gains in water productivity.

• New investments in irrigation and agricultural water management have the potential to support

economic growth within agriculture and other areas.

• An increase in global trade in food products and consequent fl ows of virtual water,a

offering pros￾pects for better national food security and the possibility to relieve water stress.

Very disturbing trends

• The number of malnourished people worldwide remains about 850 million.

• The average daily per capita food supply in South Asia (2400 kcal) and sub-Saharan Africa (2200 kcal)

remains far below the world average (2800 kcal) in 2000.

• Pollution and river desiccation are increasing because of greater agricultural production and wa￾ter consumption. Fisheries, important for the livelihoods of the rural poor, have been damaged or

threatened.

• Land and water resources are being degraded through erosion, pollution, salinization, nutrient de￾pletion and the intrusion of seawater.

• Pastoralists, many relying on livestock as their savings, are putting grazing lands under pressure.

• In several river basins water resources are over-committed and poorly managed, with insuffi cient

water to match all demands.

• Groundwater levels are declining rapidly in densely populated areas of north China, India, North

Africa and Mexico because of over-exploitation.

• Water management institutions have been slow to adapt to new issues and conditions.

Double-edged trends

• Increasing withdrawals for irrigation in developing countries have been good for economic growth

and poverty alleviation, but bad for the environment.

• Subsidies, if applied judiciously, can be benefi cial to support income generation for the rural, but can

distort water and agricultural practices.