The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Water users associations to get more powers

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Friday, Jan 09, 2009
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Water users associations to get more powers

Nagesh Prabhu

BANGALORE: In a bid to use water judiciously and mobilise more resources for management of irrigation utilities, the Government has decided to give more powers to water users associations (WUAs) formed in jurisdiction of six command area development authority (CADA) regions of the State.

A Water Resources Authority, headed by Water Resources Minister Basavaraj Bommai, has undertaken the task of formulating a new policy framework for effective functioning of WUAs, levy of user charges, and management and maintenance of irrigation schemes in six CADA regions.

Farmers drawing water from irrigation projects had formed 2,279 WUAs covering an area of 10,52,000 hectares in six CADA regions. The six CADA regions are Tungabhadra project, Munirabad, Malaprabha and Ghataprabha projects, Belgaum, Cauvery Basin irrigation projects, Mysore, Upper Krishna Project, Bheemarayanagudi in Shahapur taluk in Gulbarga district, Bhadra Reservoir Project, Shimoga and Irrigation Project Zone, Gulbarga.

WUAs have been formed under the Participatory Irrigation Management scheme to ensure judicious and equitable distribution of water to farmers and entrust to the latter the task of maintenance, management and allocation of canals. However, due to lack of clarity in the functioning of WUAs, only a few associations had signed the agreement with the department and had been collecting charges from farmers for drawing water from irrigation utilities, officials in the Water Resources Department told The Hindu.

Most of the farmers refused to pay charges on the account of irregular flow of water into canals and a majority of the tail-end farmers had not even become members of associations as they have not been receiving water. Experts said that so far the cost recovery had been low because the Government had put political popularity above fiscal concerns and also because of consecutive droughts.

New framework

Under the new policy framework, the associations have been empowered to develop irrigation infrastructure by availing themselves of institutional finance, and levy and collect water charges from farmers. Each landholder has to pay some amount to become a member of the WUA. Each WUA covers an area ranging from 500 to 1,000 hectares. Associations would be allowed to retain some collected amount for maintenance of canals, the officials said.

The associations are eligible to register with the CADA only if 51 per cent per cent of the farmers drawing water from the irrigation project become its members. After registration with CADA, the associations are eligible to sign a memorandum of understanding with Water Resources Department, officials said.

According to a document of the Planning Commission on agriculture (2008), 55,501 WUAs had been formed in the country and they cover 10,230,000 hectares.

Highest number of WUAs have been formed in Orissa (11,020) followed by Andhra Pradesh (10,790), West Bengal (10,000), Tamil Nadu (7,725), Kerala (3,930), Haryana (2,800), Karnataka (2,279), Madhya Pradesh (1,470) and Maharashtra (1,299).

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