Brown Bag Seminar
Institutional Analysis of Service Delivery Systems in Irrigation a Conceptual Development by GTZ
by Walter Huppert
August 2, 1999 12:30-2:00 p.m.International Food Policy Research Institute
2033 K Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., U.S.A.
The figures are shocking: According to UNEP, some 1.5 million hectares of irrigated land are lost every year as a result of salinisation and waterlogging, and FAO estimates that worldwide, approximately 30 million hectares of irrigated land are severely damaged. Recent studies place unmistakable emphasis on the fact that the underlying reasons for this are to be found in deficient water management functions related to “operation and maintenance” of irrigation systems.
GTZ is trying to contribute to a remedy of this situation with a new conceptual development. This concept no longer regards ‘water management’ functions like water conveyance, water distribution, water allocation, maintenance etc. solely as technical activities to be performed in an effective and efficient manner. Instead, they are also perceived as services to be provided by certain ‘providers’ to certain ‘receivers’ or ‘customers’. Expanding the concept of ‘water management’ in this way has far-reaching consequences for the analysis and design of irrigation systems and of intersectoral water allocation systems in river basins. In addition to the technical, economic, financial and organisational requirements, a whole range of new aspects are suddenly brought into play which have hardly ever been taken into consideration in the past when dealing with complex problems of water management.
Who is providing which services for whom? Which additional actors will have to participate and which support measures will they have to provide to ensure effective and efficient water related services? What kind of service relationships have to exist between those actors ? In other words: who or what is ”governing” the network of active players? What mechanisms are ensuring that the exchange of services in this network is taking place in a manner conducive to ”good” water management? To what extent can the various actors exert their influence on events and what incentives are there to make them act for the good of the system as a whole? These questions more or less pose themselves when the concept of water management is extended as described above.
The approach presented in this Brown Bag looks at these questions and, using the example of the Neste System, a water-management system in the south-western part of France, demonstrates how vitally important such deliberations are for the analysis and design of water management measures.
IFPRI holds the copyright to its publications and web pages but encourages duplication of these materials for noncommercial purposes. Proper citation is required.
TOP of the page