Social irrigation
Irrigation is not just a technical issue, writes Fatemah Farag, but a relationship between people and water
Some might consider the discussion of irrigation techniques boring. But the organisation of the lifeline that supports agriculture is in fact a story filled with drama; one that can end in either prosperity or famine -- especially in these times of water scarcity.
Hence the importance of the Forum on Decentralisation and Participatory Irrigation Management that took place in Cairo from 2 to 4 February and was attended by water decision-makers and specialists from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen, as well as delegates from Crimea, Turkey and bilateral and multilateral agencies. Highlighting the importance of developing more efficient water management techniques Abdelmajid Slama, regional director of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), reminded those in attendance that "in the Near East, North Africa (NENA) region, the 1960 per capita renewable water supply of about 3,500 cubic metres is expected to decrease six-fold [to about 600 cubic metres] by 2025. This declining per capita availability is likely to have a general negative effect on living standards and economic activities. The hardest hit is likely to be irrigated agriculture, which in recent years has claimed over 85 per cent of the water supply in the region."
The Water Demand Management Forum broke down the aggregate figures: "the Arab peninsula, Jordan, the Palestinian Territories, Israel and Libya consume more water than their annual renewable supply; Egypt, Sudan, Morocco, Tunisia and Syria are fast approaching that phase; the availability of water in Jordan is less than 163 cubic metres per person per year; in Yemen it is 133 cubic metres."
Click to view caption |
|
An early 20th century photo of Egyptian farmers working the saqiya (water wheel); the fellahin have always managed their water at the mesqa level
Water-scarce countries (shaded) are those with less than 1,000 cubic metres of renewable fresh water per person per year. Map sources: Peter Gleick, The World's Water 2000-2001, The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources: (published in the Population Reference Bureau's Finding the Balance: Population and Water Scarcity in the Middle East and North Africa
|
The forum is organised by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), in conjunction with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the government of Japan, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), (IFAD) and the Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation. This week's event was the last of a series of meetings held in various Arab capitals which discussed other key concepts of water management, such as waste-water reuse, water evaluation and public-private partnerships. The aim of the meetings has been to find a way to utilise the same, or even reduced, resource base to service the needs of continually growing and changing populations. The population of the Middle East and North Africa, almost 60 per cent of which live in cities, almost doubled in the period between 1970 and 2001.
The strategy commonly adopted in the past has been to find new sources of supply, but the IDRC points out that "this is no longer cost effective due to limited water resources and the economic and environmental costs of tapping new sources. An additional problem is that current sources of water are being polluted by domestic and industrial waste and agricultural runoff, further limiting water available for use."
And the IDRC should know. As pointed out by IDRC President Maureen O'Neil, who is visiting Cairo on the occasion of the forum, "the IDRC has supported research in [decentralisation and participatory irrigation management] for 30 years and more. Much of that research has been done in this region, some only a few kilometres from here. And the results are convincing."
She continued by saying that results indicate that water demand management at the local level "can be more cost- efficient and effective than large-scale and centrally controlled alternatives." The aim behind decentralisation is to include the grassroots in the decision- making process relating to a basic resource which affects their daily lives.
According to Slama, "in many countries the development and management of irrigation infrastructure remains almost exclusively the responsibility of government agencies, despite a tacit recognition of the inability of the public sector to provide the required financial resources and expertise for government agencies to assume such responsibilities. By contrast, experiments conducted with farmer-managed irrigation systems demonstrated the potential for substantial improvements in system operation and maintenance-related decisions."
In an exclusive interview with Al- Ahram Weekly, O'Neil explained that "the big issue when considering any public resource -- such as water -- is to decide how to structure its availability and who pays for what. Some of this takes place at local levels, and some at regional and even international levels. As Egypt is very aware, rivers do not respect national boundaries."
Arguments in favour of decentralisation were supported by evidence presented from countries such as Japan and Egypt. A case study presented by Tsugirhiro Watanabe of the Ministry of Education in Kyoto, and Yoshihiko Ogino from the University of Osaka, affirmed that the "significance and advantage of decentralised mechanisms and the participation of water users or stakeholders in irrigation management has been widely recognised in the last decade all over the world."
For a country like Egypt the need to upgrade the irrigation system is of paramount importance, not only because of problems related to water scarcity. The pioneering report Water Allocation Among Egyptian Farmers: Irrigation Technology and Social Organisation -- prepared by Soheir Mehanna and Richard Huntington among others and published by the American University's Social Research Centre (SRC) in the early eighties -- indicates that plans made at national level, such as expensive dams, will achieve or fail to achieve desired results according to the efficiency of the irrigation techniques. Furthermore, since the construction of the High Dam at Aswan, the water table in the Nile Delta has risen steadily and now threatens the fertility of that region. Greater irrigation efficiency is crucial to solving this problem. Last but not least, irrigation is a component of overall agricultural development; the liberalisation of the agricultural sector has resulted in a shift from traditional field crops to export crops, such as vegetables, which require more water.
In response to mounting concerns, the Irrigation Improvement Sector (IIS) was established within the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation with the aim of making large-scale improvements. Part and parcel of this development was the introduction of Law 213 in 1994 which established and defined Water Users Associations (WUAs) as "legal private organisations at the mesqa (irrigation ditch) level in the 'old lands' [as opposed to 'new' reclaimed territories]." The same law introduced the Water Users Unions (WUUs) for the 'new lands.' Local Water Boards were introduced in 1995 to transfer responsibility for higher levels of the irrigation system from the ministry to the Local Water Boards, namely the farmers. According to a presentation made by Bayoumi Attia, consultant to the IDRC, "users would ultimately bear the cost for operation and maintenance of that part of the system which they manage. It is expected that, with the transfer of management responsibilities, about 50 per cent of current government expenditure for operation and maintenance would be transferred to the Water Boards (farmers), which would amount to about LE15 per feddan per year (1 feddan is approximately 1 acre). The Water Board overheads are also expected to reach approximately LE15 per feddan per year."
The SRC research, however, makes it clear that ministry control and responsibility for irrigation management stops at the gates of the main distribution canal. "After that, the water flows into a mesqa and travels up to eight kilometres, irrigating perhaps 500 feddans belonging to hundreds of farm families. The farmers along this ditch cooperate and compete with regard to that precious water."
The findings of the report show that there has always been local management of water resources. "From the unitary organisation of an entire mesqa [with hundreds of farmers] in Fayoum, to the small, separate and in a sense, competing saqia (water wheel) rings along the mesqa of the Delta, to the individualistic and ad hoc arrangements in Middle Egypt, one finds almost the entire logical range of patterns of organisation and incorporation... We highlight these issues in the face of what we believe to be a tendency in Egypt to over- emphasise the uniformity of rural Egyptian social formations and to under- emphasise the role of non-bureaucratic, indigenous capability for resource management."
The official argument made today, however, is that the government's plan for decentralisation will not incur many costs for the end-users, and the new system will increase water distribution efficiency in most areas by 30 to 40 per cent. This will reduce the time required for irrigation by 50 to 60 per cent, thereby reducing the costs associated with pumping the water as well as the number of working pumps.
But there are fears that these forms of decentralisation will ultimately result in putting a price on water in a country where estimates based on official statistics indicate that over 50 per cent of the population is below the poverty line. Recurring water shortages and tight water budgeting could raise levels of tension and result in disputes between farmers themselves as well as between farmers and the national water delivery system. However, IDRC Regional Director Eglal Rached told the Weekly that "pricing is just one component of a range of options. Decentralisation is not necessarily the other side of the pricing coin."
Another fear is that, in the absence of transparency and democratic empowerment, weaker rural families will be deprived of their fair share of irrigation water. A case in point is that of the Upper Egyptian village of Zagalona, which was being deprived of water resources some years ago. Upon investigation, inhabitants of the village told the Weekly that richer farmers in the area were diverting their water supply. The bigger farmers had better access to local officials than the inhabitants of the low income village.
O'Neil agreed that for decentralisation to work "transparency and accountability are essential. Without these you will not have the necessary flow of information that leads to a clear understanding of what is going on." IDRC's Rached concurred that "public participation is essential. There is a need to consult with those having different interests and with various stakeholders in the decision- making process."
Ultimately, the forum aims at "finding the right balance between options," added O'Neil. "Our role is to look at methods of [water] management already out there and support research and make knowledge available to decision makers so that they are in a better position to decide on policy measures. We are only too aware of the gap between researchers and officials. Even in Canada, in developed countries, getting the two together is a challenge."
As the events of this week's forum wound up, O'Neil expressed hope that "we will be heading into another round of discussions."
The efforts are part of the preparations for the Third World Water Forum to be held at the end of next month in Kyoto, Japan. "There is no one model," concluded O'Neil. "We must develop the questions and the answers together."
