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ISSN No. l012-988XNewsletter of the Farmer Managed Irrigation Systems Network

Published by International Irrigation Management Institute September 1989

ar1d Irrigatior1: FM IS Iss'U.esIs irrigation harmful to the environLandslides, siltation, waterlogg

salinization are some of thecommonly attr ibuted to irr igaBut careful irrigation developespecially that emphasizing smallsystems characteristic of thesector, can also enhance theand productivity of local

When interviewing a farmer abouthis landholdings, he may point to thesurrounding hills and explain that , inaddition to his irr igated fields, healso cultivates a few unirrigated plots"up there". And over there (pointingto a different spot) is where his wifegathers grass for their livestock; andover there (a wide sweeping motion ofhis arm) is where his wife searchesfor fuelwood.The current in terest in "sustainable"which the Brundtlandreport, Our Common Future,spark, has many implicationsirrigation professionals.Sustainability is not a new conceptworking on developprojects in the FMIS sector.

the FMIS Network was estabresponse to . the commonof providing assistance tomanaged sys tems withouta non-sustainable dependencyoutside help. The concern was, andthe sustainability of farmer managenot as a goal in itself, but inof the fact that governmentgenerally cannot manage anumber of small-scale indigenoussystems.

What is the connection betweenirrigationand environmental sustainOne connection that becomeswhen standing in farmers' fieldsthat the command area and theare part of a

watershed.

Ir1 Th.is I s s ' U . eEnvironment & Irr igation 1Network Changes -New Coordinator 3Editor's Note 4Professional DevelopmentInterchange Program 5Irr igation in India andthe Philippines 6The Philippine Approachto FMIS Development 8Federations in NorthernThailand 10Weir Systems in

Northeast Thailand 13News and Notes 15Hill Irrigation in

Himachal Pradesh, India 20Navajo Irrigation 25

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Farmers are usually very muchaware tha t the health of their watershed is linked to the yield of watercaptured by their irrigation system,particularly where the water source is avery small stream. Yet short-termindividual need takes precedence overthe long-term general good, resulting inthe familiar sequence of environmentaldegradation known as the t ragedy ofthe global commons.

Diminished and erratic supplies ofirrigation water, flash floods, andheavy loads of silt tha t clog the canalsare symptoms of deeper problemswhich, unfortunately, do not lie neatlywithin the responsibilities of anysingle government agency.

One of the most promising approaches to the watershed-irrigationlink is through local farmer organizations whose members have a stake inboth the watershed and the irrigationsystem. Depending upon the relativesizes of the watershed and the irr igation systems, such organizations -may besystem specific, or may involve anumber of systems.

In the Sukhomajri project nearChandigarh, India, for example, a smallreservoir provides water to a singleirrigation system. A single association

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a number of smallsystems. The Royal Forestryand the Royal Irrigationare working together toindigenous irrigationa t the system level and

a new federated level ofcombining the system-levelwithin the watershed.The functions of the ne w federa

will be to distr ibute water to thesystems from a reservoir thatbuilt in the upper watershed,regulate utilization of theabove the reservoir. Theroblem of landless groups residing inis being met by providingnew land within the watershed, butfrom the reservoir.

In both examples, environmentalsustainability and irrigation managementre addressed together through themechanism of farmer organizations atthe local level. Local farmers have avested interest in the watershed as awhole, and particularly in the i r 'irrigation system.

The process of designing andconstructing a ne w irrigation system, orrehabilitating an existing system, isnother context in which good irr igation management has environmentalbenefits, and vice versa. The part icipation of farmers at the initial designstage is a fundamental guideline in anyirrigation system that is or willbecome farmer managed.

Env i r onmen t a l con s i d e r a t i o n sunderscore the importance of tappingthe knowledge of local farmers aboutbedrock and soil conditions, streamlow pa t t e rns , an.d construct iontechniques. And farmers ' full suppor tfor the new design of the new systemhelps ensure effective labor mobilizaion to meet e m e r g e n c i e ~ of landslidesr leaks, should they occur. Irrigationdevelopment can and should go hand inhand with environmental sustainability.The water productivity of irrigation

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systems, and the crop productivity ofi rr igated agriculture, depend upon thelong-term health of local watersheds.Creative approaches to irrigationdevelopment in the FMIS sector canbuild upon these l inks to the mutualbenefit of local farmers and nationalgovernments.

- David Groenfeldt

Editor 's Note

Several articles in this issue dealwith aE!pects of sustainable irrigationdevelopment. The lead article onEnvironment and Irrigation discussesways that improving FMISs can beintegrated with better management ofthe watershed. Local' participation isjus t as important to watershedmanagement as it is to irrigationmanagement. Combining both functions in a single organization is apromlsmg approach which is beingt r ied in several countries.

Irrigation system design is anotherissue that has environmental over'tones. In his article on Hill Irrigationin Himachal Pradesh, Ramchand Oaddiscusses design options that canresul t in more manageable and durablesystems. An intake that protects thecanal from damaging flows alsominimizes the danger of hillsideerosion.

Several reports from the lIM1UND P Profe s s iona l DevelopmentInterchange Program last year provideinternational perspectives on particularcountry approaches to FMIS assistance.The article on Irrigation in India andthe Philippines compares the roles ofthe government and farmers in establishing the operational rules formanaging river pump systems. ThePhilippine Approach to FMIS Development: A Nepal Perspective drawslessons about farmer participation thathave relevance to Nepal. However,