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ReportNo. 15824 Public Disclosure Authorized Irrigation O&M and System Performancein SoutheastAsia: An OED Impact Study June27, 1996 Operations EvalLuationDepartment Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Documentof the World Bank Abbreviations and Acronyms BWDB Bangladesh Water Development Board ERR EconomlicRate of Return FCD Flood Control and Drainage ID Irrigation Department (Myanmar) IIMI IntemnationalIrrigation Management Institute NEWMASIP North-East Water Management and System Improvement Project (Thailand) NIA National Irrigation Authority (Philippines) OED Operations Evaluation Department O&M Operation and Maintenance PAR Performance Audit Report PCR Project Completion Report PRA Participatory Rural Appraisal RID Royal Irrigation Department (Thailand) RRA Rapid Rural Appraisal SLORC State Law and Order Restoration Council (Myanmar) SAR Staff Appraisal Report WASAM Water Allocation Scheduling and Monitoring program WDR World Development Report WUGs Water User Groups The World Bank Washington,D.C. 20433 U.S.A. Office of the Director-General OperationsEvaluabon June 27, 1996 MEMORANDUM TO THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS AND THE PRESIDENT SUBJECT: Irrigation O&M and System Performance in Southeast Asia: An OED Impact Study Attached is an impact study of irrigation investments and operation and maintenance (O&M) in the humid tropics of Southeast Asia, prepared by the Operations Evaluation Department. The study covers six gravity-fed irrigation schemes, with reservoirs, in Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam. Four IDA Credits and two Bank Loans supported these schemes, which were the sole or dominant components of the projects. All were approved in FY74-FY83 and closed by FY9 1. Project Completion Reports, Performance Audit Reports and an earlier Impact Evaluation Report provide a substantial baseline for this review. To provide perspective on the irrigation portfolio, the field studies included an IDA-supported flood control and drainage project covering three schemes in Bangladesh. The study challenges common precepts about water management in the humid tropics, according to which major threats to the sustainablity of irrigation investments arise from mismanagement by official agencies and distributive anarchy due to opportunistic behavior by farmers. Based on field surveys, the impact evaluation concludes that paddy-based irrigation projects are yielding returns of 7 percent or less, well below appraisal estimates. But in most schemes surveyed, the gap between appraisal expectations and actual results cannot be attributed to decaying infrastructure or distributive waste. Rather, it is due to the combined result of adverse price developments for paddy, excessively optimistic estimates of crop areas served, project design faults, and construction inadequacies. The flood control schemes present a different profile. There, the production impacts have come closer to appraisal expectations, but maintenance standards are deplorable and the sustainability of the structures and benefits is in doubt. With that exception, field observations disclose broadly satisfactory public performance in O&M. In all the countries surveyed, vandalism and neglect affect mostly structures which are ill-suited to community needs, such as tertiary gates that inhibit the flexible operating protocols favored by farmers, inlets which induce excess flooding in the lower reaches, and embankments which prevent drainage. When siltation and weed infestation threaten irrigation, labor is readily mobilized to clean up watercourses, confirming that collective action will occur if substantial benefits broadly available to the community of irrigators are at stake. Water diversion by headenders is also not a major problem: the "free riding" chaos described by institutional economists is not noticeably present in the irrigation perimeters surveyed in Thailand, Myamnar and Vietnam. Within the constraints of engineering designs, tertiary systems distribute water efficiently (if not always fairly in terms of timeliness or reliability) through customary arrangements which tolerate significant advantages to headenders while allowing adequate water deliveries to tailenders. 2 This finding would be less surprising if all rather than the majority of the schemescould be classified as 'water abundant." However,the same behavioralprofile is presentedin the two schemes where persistent water deficits preclude a large minority of farmers from reliable supplies. Thus, while formal systems of rotations are rarely practiced,available "socialcapital" facilitatescooperation at the locai level. Water distributionarrangements at the tertiary turnout are more problematic,since, in the schemes under review, responsibilityfor allocationlies with unfederatedtertiary water user groups and official agencies. The operation of tertiary gates is frequentlyshared among agency field staff and farmers and is almost as frequentlymishandled. Highly sophisticatedmeasurement and allocationprograms promoted by consultantshave been abandoned,both in Thailandand Myanmar. They are prematurefor paddy cultivation,given the loose institutionalarrangements and high water tolerance of rice. Field studies identifieda wide variety of organizationalprocedures, including some reasonablywell administered systems developed locally (Myanmarand Vietnam),or with targeted technical assistance from donors (Thailand),involving mixtures of hierarchicalauthority and user participationshaped by countrytraditions. In all countries,cost recovery plays virtuallyno role in water managementor O&M financing despiteBank conditionality. In the absence of financiallyautonomous irrigation associations, this result is not surprising. Given the lack of reliable and controlleddeliveries, water can hardly be considered a toll good, especially when it is relativelyabundant. Further,the "consumersurpluses" associated with declining paddy prices,and alreadytransferred from irrigatorsto rice buyers,make further taxation of paddy cultivationpolitically unattractive. The turning of the terms of trade against paddy growers in the early 1980s-after these projects were approved-casts a shadow over all plans for improvedO&M. Unless higher-valuecropping systems are put in place, the sustainabilityof these paddy farms is in doubt. Present standardsof farmer O&M are also at risk. The modernizationof Thailand'seconomy pulls farmers to the factories,even as low paddy incomes push them out. Vietnam and Myanmar (in that order) can be expectedto follow the same route. The study proposesspecific adjustments in Bank irrigationlending practicesfor similarlysituated countries. First, rehabilitationprograms aimed at improvedO&M must be more discriminating,focusing on the weakest activitiesand providingincentives to bring them to appropriatestandards. Second, sophisticatedwater distributionand monitoringtechnologies should be put aside in favor of less demanding, more automatic control structures,at least until intensive,diversified cropping patterns are in place. Third, Bank projects should emphasizecapacity building for effectivewater distributionassociations, with priority accordedto federatinguser groups beyondthe tertiary water course level. Hybrid organizational arrangementsthat take careful accountof existing social networks and that combine communitylabor and official agency support shouldbe pilotedto improve maintenanceof canals and gates. Fourth,the engineeringof projects shouldtake adequateaccount of hydrological,topographical, and social environments:participatory project design is importanteverywhere but should be mandatoryin flood-prone, drainage-poor,densely populatedareas. Fifth, governmentpolicy should favor crop diversificationand intensification,supported by enhancedextension and marketingservices; cost recovery exhortationsshould be toned down until water systemsare reliable,remunerative crops are introduced,and volumetric water delivery becomes practical. Most of all, the popular myths surroundingirrigation development in the humid tropics should be set aside, replacedby pragmatic conceptswhich bring togetherpublic irrigationagencies, local authorities, and civil societiesto remove specificconstraints and strengthenappropriate incentives. Attachment Contents Preface ............... 3 Evaluation Summary............... 5 1. Introduction and Background.11 2. Operation and Maintenance: Summary of the Literature A. O&M Performance.13 B. Institutions .15 C. Contributing Factors.17 D. Influence of O&M Performance on Production.18 3. Scheme Sites and Infrastructure A. Thailand .20 B. Myanmar .20 C. Vietnam.21 D. Bangladesh .21 4. Operation and Maintenance: Systems and Performance A. Agency Level.23 B. Irrigator Level .25 C. Water User Groups .26 D. Cost Recovery.28 E. Comparisons with Flood Control .29 5. Agro-Economic Impacts A. Agricultural Impacts .30 B. Farmer Financial Benefits .32 C. Economic Rates of Retur .34 6. Influence of O&M Performance on Agro-Economic Impacts.38 7. Findings and Recommendations A. Findings .41 (1) Operation and Maintenance.41 (2) Agro-Economic Impacts .43 (3) Relationship Between O&M and Impacts. 45 B. Recommendations .46 This report was prepared by Edward B. Rice (Task Manager), with support from Roger Slade (Bank), Robert Yoder, Jayantha Perera, Annemarie Brolsma and Douglas Vermillion (consultants). Afi Zornelo and Megan Kimball provided administrative support. Also participating in the field studies as members of the OED team were Vinh Le-Si, S.A.M. Rafiquzzamen (Bank),