hidden
Image Database Export Citations

Menu:

Designing Effective Intervention for Irrigation Management: Cases from the Indrawati Watershed in Nepal

Show simple item record

dc.contributor.author Lam, Wai Fung
dc.contributor.author Ostrom, Elinor
dc.contributor.author Shivakoti, Ganesh P.
dc.contributor.author Yoder, Robert
dc.date.accessioned 2009-09-22T15:39:49Z
dc.date.available 2009-09-22T15:39:49Z
dc.date.issued 2005 en_US
dc.identifier.uri https://hdl.handle.net/10535/4951
dc.description.abstract "Prior research and assistance experiences have suggested that technological fixes alone are not likely to improve irrigation performance. An intervention project stands a chance of success only if it could help develop robust local institutions to support the operation and maintenance of engineering infrastructure, and enhance social capital that has already existed in the local community. While the principle for designing successful intervention project seems to be straightforward, turning the principle into the design of intervention projects is not as simple as some might expect. In particular, how to keep the intervention effect last and sustained in the long run poses a significant challenge. "In 1985, the Water and Energy Commission Secretariat (WECS) of Nepal and the International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI) initiated an intervention project to assist 19 farmer-managed irrigation systems located in the Indrawati watershed in Nepal. The project was designed with a view to developing and testing methods for delivering assistance that could enhance farmers organizing ability for irrigation operation and maintenance at the same time as the irrigation infrastructure was improved. The project was innovative in a variety of ways: (1) the farmers could choose whether to be involved or not, (2) the project provided technical assistance but purposely did not provide full funding for engineering improvements and the farmers were expected to provide core labor and some materials, (3) the farmers examined the engineering plans and had to OK them before they were implemented, (4) participating farmers were expected to go through 'farmer-to-farmer' training offered by some of the more productive irrigation systems in Nepal, and (5) each farmer group was expected to write its own internal set of working rules that covered how future decisions would be made for the system. "The intervention was evaluated as being very successful soon after completion. In this paper, we will draw on several rounds of measurement for the systems involved in the project as so to assess and understand how the intervention has affected the operation and performance of the systems in a decade and a half after completion. By comparing the systems experiences of irrigation management, we will identify factors that help explain why there are differences in the long-term effects of this project, and discuss the implications of the experience for the design of intervention projects." en_US
dc.language English en_US
dc.subject farmer-managed irrigation en_US
dc.subject watersheds en_US
dc.subject social capital en_US
dc.subject Workshop en_US
dc.title Designing Effective Intervention for Irrigation Management: Cases from the Indrawati Watershed in Nepal en_US
dc.type Conference Paper en_US
dc.type.published unpublished en_US
dc.type.methodology Case Study en_US
dc.coverage.region Middle East & South Asia en_US
dc.coverage.country Nepal en_US
dc.subject.sector Water Resource & Irrigation en_US
dc.identifier.citationconference Festschrift for Elinor Ostrom en_US
dc.identifier.citationconfdates November 22-24, 2005 en_US
dc.identifier.citationconfloc Indiana University, Bloomington, IN en_US


Files in this item

Files Size Format View
Designing effec ... ati watershed in nepal.pdf 464.7Kb PDF View/Open

This item appears in the following document type(s)

Show simple item record