International Water
Management Institute Volume 3 No. 1 May 1999

NEWS

As the world wakens to the
reality that water is a re
source that is finite and be-

coming increasingly scarce (see
Making real water savings to off-
set water scarcity, IWMI News,
Vol. 2. No. 2.), science requires
better tools to understand and
manage it. Three IWMI scientists
have developed a promising way
to examine water basins more
closely and efficiently, thus en-
abling better conservation of this
precious resource.

The concept is called “hydro-
nomic zones” (“hydro,” for water,
and “nomus,” from the Greek for
a system of rules governing a spe-
cific field). In March 1999, it was
presented at a conference on mea-
suring water balance, held at San
Luis Obispo, California, USA, by
David J. Molden, Research Leader
of IWMI’s Performance and Impact
Assessment Program; R. Sakthi-
vadivel, Senior Scientist; and Jack
Keller, an IWMI Fellow. The scien-
tists’ framework is designed prima-
rily to manage water for irrigation
schemes, but it can also be used
to understand water for urban,
ecological, or other purposes in a
basin context.

“All terrestrial freshwater use,”
note the IWMI scientists, “takes
place in a basin context.” But
within each basin, different areas
or reaches are likely to have quite
distinct characteristics. Developing
the framework of hydronomic
zones represents an effort to deal
with these differences. As the
IWMI researchers state, water is-

Getting to Know Basins Better

sues are site-specific and, “water
management strategies and means
to evaluate performance should be
tailored to each zone in a basin.
Too often, unfortunately, this is
not done and the same water man-
agement strategies are employed
without consideration to the char-
acteristics of each zone.”

Molden, Sakthivadivel, and
Keller say the zones are character-
ized mainly by the nature of return
flows—whether the water that
leaves the zones comes back, and,
if so, in what form and of what
quality. Their framework defines
five major zones for irrigation
management, and two additional
zones that are important for
nonirrigation use. The zones (see
figure), listed as they occur from
upstream to downstream in a wa-
terway, are:

Natural Recapture Zone: This
is the area of the basin where
runoff water, both surface and
subsurface, is naturally recaptured
by the main body of water. In up-
land areas, even water that is di-
verted for irrigation returns by
gravity to the river from which it
came. Such a system is “self-con-
serving,” say the researchers. An
example of a Natural Recapture
zone is the Nile River Valley in
upper Egypt, where irrigation wa-
ter returns to the river via seep-
age or drainage canals.

Regulated Recapture Zone:
This area is similar to the Natural
Recapture zone, except that the
water does not return naturally to
the river. Instead, physical link-

Workshop on Modernization
of Irrigation Systems

The management and operation of ir-
rigation systems require moderniza-
tion to generate an adequate and re-
liable service to users. That was the
tone of the fifth international meeting
of the Information Techniques for Ir-
rigation Systems (ITIS) Network, held
in October 1998 in Aurangabad,
Maharashtra State, India. Sixty profes-
sionals—managers, decision makers,
and researchers—from around the
world participated in the meeting.

The network, of which IWMI is a
supporter along with Cemagref in
France and the FAO, “conducted its
meeting with a basic assumption,”
reported IWMI’s Daniel Renault, who
also serves as ITIS coordinator, “that
modernization of irrigation system
operations is the key to success in
increasing yield and productivity in
agriculture, and in enhancing the
management of limited natural re-
sources such as water.”

The participants avoided discus-
sions of new hardware and specific
techniques as there is a poor record
of success of past rehabilitation and
modernization in irrigation. They pre-
ferred instead, to seek generic and
strategic actions that might increase
the success of modernization efforts.
These included rethinking the opera-
tion of irrigation systems within a
more global framework; development
of rapid evaluation methods for mod-
ernization at the project level; imple-
mentation of adapted training and
capacity building programs; and par-
tial replacement of “the monoculture
of engineer-builders” in irrigation
agencies with “a new culture of engi-
neer-managers.”

Modernization, agreed the partici-
pants, should not be limited to the
introduction of new hardware and
software, but rather, should be seen
“as a fundamental transformation of
the management of water resources.”

The International Irrigation Management Institute, one of sixteen centers supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR),
was incorporated by an Act of Parliament in Sri Lanka. The Act is currently under amendment to read as International Water Management Institute (IWMI).



ages must be built to recapture
the water. Sometimes, this can be
accomplished by gravity schemes
and, sometimes, through pump-
ing. An advantage of this zone,
say the scientists, is that “the re-
use can be managed for quality
as well as for quantity control.”

“Typically,” write the authors,
“Regulated Recapture zones may
be found in the upper reaches of
river deltas that are adjacent to
coastal plains.” An example is the
upper three-quarters of Egypt’s
Nile Delta.

Final Use Zone: The final use
zone lies in areas where there is
no opportunity for reusing out-
flows for human enterprises. Typi-
cally, the final use lies at the ter-
minal end of basins next to a sea
or other salt sink. Outflows may
be required to remove pollutants
or to maintain environments such
as coastal lagoons or estuaries.

Stagnation Zones: These in-
clude any isolated areas within the
Natural Recapture, Regulated Re-
capture, or Final Use zones “where
the drainage capacity is insuffi-
cient for the removal of leached
salts and any excess inflow water.”
Here, water percolates into
groundwater supplies leading to
rising water tables, waterlogging,
and salinization. Where drainage
waters are saline or polluted, they

are not readily recoverable. Stag-
nation zones may be found in por-
tions of Pakistan and northwestern
India, which have pockets of sa-
line, shallow groundwater.

Watershed Zone: In a typical
river basin, this zone is the catch-
ment where most of the water sup-
ply originates. This zone is in-
cluded because everyone agrees it
is a major component in any water
management plan for a river basin.

Ecological Zone: This is any
area where water flows are man-
aged partly or totally for ecologi-
cal purposes. In a typical basin,
Ecological Zones exist at the end
of the river. But, they also may be
found in internal lakes and
swamps. Special consideration is
required in these areas.

IWMI’s scientists have proffered
additional considerations, all of
which contribute to informed man-
agement of water basins and their
constituent zones. Two conditions
in particular, the presence of pol-
lution or salinity, and the degree
to which groundwater is present,
have an important bearing on the
development of the water manage-
ment strategies for the basin.

Equipped with an understand-
ing of the diverse zones within a
basin, managers and planners can
more rapidly understand the basin
to create strategies that use the

basin’s water resources more effec-
tively. For example, in a closing
basin [see box] more emphasis
should normally be placed on
technologies that increase local ef-
ficiencies in the Final Use zone,
while less emphasis would be
placed on these technologies in
the Natural Recapture zone.

“There is a need to view
irrigation in the context of whole
river basins” say IWMI researchers.
“But basin interactions are very
complex. Separating the basin into
several hydronomic zones
simplifies the understanding of
these interactions, and provides a
framework for people to consider
irrigation and other water uses in
a basin context.”

For more information on this article,
contact David Molden, Research Leader,
Performance and Impact Assessment
Program, IWMI.

Hydronomic zones in a River Basin.

“Open” and “Closed” Basins

Researchers have classified water
basins into three categories—open
basins, which produce abundant
year-long outflows; closing basins,
which have outflows during only
part of the year; and closed basins,
which discharge no useable water
at all because all of their water is
already fully committed and used
within the basin.



IWMI received a glowing review
of its role in a small-scale irriga-
tion project in Burkina Faso—the
farmers involved did not want to
see the project end.

The review came from the
African Development Bank,
which supported the project from
1991 to 1997. The Bank rated the
project “highly satisfactory,” the
highest performance rating. That
was certainly the conclusion of
many of the growers involved.
“Follow-up analyses of farm
budgets in the five study areas,”
said AfDB, “indicate that farmers,
the ultimate beneficiaries of the
project, were able to practically
double their annual incomes as a
result of increased yields and
crop diversification, due at least
in part to the better water
management and agronomic
practices introduced by the
project. . . .”

Furthermore, reported the
Bank, the project generated in-
creased interest in agriculture, no-
tably among young people. It also
produced “real interest on the
part of the national authorities to
make use of project outputs.”
One of those outputs was the re-
alization that irrigation does not
have to carry high costs of invest-
ment and maintenance, but rather
that when farmers’ needs and the
nation’s priorities are carefully
considered, “irrigation systems
could, in fact, be put in place and
operated at lesser cost.”

The Bank found that the
“highly participative approach”
taken by the IWMI project team in
studying the needs, identifying
the problems, and seeking appro-
priate solutions “had a social and
psychological impact such that the
different national partners, par-
ticularly the farmers, were finding

IWMI-Burkina Faso Project Praised by AfDB

it difficult to accept the end of
the project and were hoping for
a follow-up phase.”

Following the conclusion of this
project, the Autorité de Mise en
Valeur de la Vallée du Sourou
(AMVS)—a large multifunctional
organization charged with devel-
oping irrigated agriculture in a lo-
cation in northwest Burkina Faso
with a potential of about 30,000
hectares—has applied the perfor-
mance assessment methodology
developed by IWMI-Burkina Faso
to 5 schemes (ranging in size from
50 to 500 hectares) under its juris-
diction. Judging by the conclusions
and recommendations of a draft re-
port, the AMVS endorses the ap-
proach as “being suitable for rou-
tine, system-wide application.”
AMVS is now expected to develop
a full-fledged proposal for setting
up a systematic performance moni-
toring system in their project area.

Donor Support for IWMI Activities

IWMI has recently received finan-
cial support for several projects
that promote greater understand-
ing and management of water in a
number of Asian and South Asian
countries, and in South Africa,
and for cultivating knowledge in
gender and water issues. The as-
sistance comes from a variety of
sources, including the Asian De-
velopment Bank, Australia, the
Ford Foundation, Sweden, and
the United Kingdom.

The Asian Development Bank
is funding an ambitious collabora-
tive research project on water

management institutions in five
developing countries: The
People’s Republic of China, Indo-
nesia, Nepal, Philippines, and Sri
Lanka. The Bank itself will di-
rectly contribute US$737,000 to
the project, with national agricul-
tural research systems in partici-
pating countries adding the
equivalent of US$513,000, most of
it in in-kind contributions. The 3-
year project seeks to “improve the
management of scarce water sup-
plies for agriculture” in the partici-
pating nations, “within and re-
sponsive to a framework for inte-

grated resource management.”
IWMI, which is also providing
some financial support, is partici-
pating in the institutional assess-
ments and preparation of action
plans in the countries, and will
conduct case studies in two in-
dustrialized countries to look for
techniques that can be transferred
to the developing countries.

The Australian Centre for Agri-
cultural Research (ACIAR) is pro-
viding A$148,412 (US$92,096) to
the CGIAR’s System-Wide Initia-
t ive for Water Management
(SWIM), of which IWMI is the



lead institution, to seek ways to
successfully apply water-saving ir-
rigation (WSI) techniques in
China. The concept of WSI is not
new, but it needs wider use in
rice-based systems, especially
those in China, where per-capita
freshwater availability is declining
and water demand is expected to
increase by 50 percent in the next
20 years. The project is being un-
dertaken in collaboration with the
Wuhan University of Hydraulic
Engineering and the Zhejiang Ag-
ricultural University, China, and
IWMI’s sister research institution,
the International Rice Research In-
stitute of Los Baños, Philippines.

The Australian agency is also
contributing A$633,199
(US$392,925) for a 3-year project
to promote conjunctive manage-
ment of water in irrigated areas of
South Asia. “Conjunctive water
management has not been effec-
tive in most parts of the world,”
states a project document, “due to
lack of appropriate combinations
of institutions and management
tools.” The document defines
such management as “the man-
agement of water from all sources
within a water basin, such that
the net availability of acceptable
quality water for irrigation within
a water basin is optimized.” The
effort will identify combinations
of institutions and management
tools that can be used together to
manage surface and subsurface
water in the Rechna Doab in the
Punjab, Pakistan, and in the
Murrumbidgee Region in Austra-
lia. IWMI’s collaborators include
the Pakistan Council of Research
in Water Resources (PCRWR) and
Australia’s Commonwealth Scien-

tif ic and Industrial Research
Organisation (CSIRO).

South Africa’s Northern Prov-
ince is one of the country’s driest
and poorest. It is also the home
of some 14,000 hectares of small-
scale irrigation schemes, but pro-
ductivity and farmers’ income re-
main low. The United Kingdom’s
Department for International De-
velopment (DFID) is contributing
Sterling Pounds 225,000
(US$355,000) toward a 3-year ef-
fort to identify practical strategies
and useful institutional arrange-
ments for “productive, profitable,
socially equitable, and sustain-
able irrigation systems” in the
province and to strengthen local
partners’ research capabilities.
South Africa’s University of the
North is IWMI’s main collaborator.
The university has received a
grant of R863,500 (US$141,000) for
3 years from the Water Research
Commission of South Africa for
“Sustainable Management of
Smallholder Irrigation,” a project
directly related to the DFID-spon-
sored study. The province’s
women farmers are expected to
be among the major beneficiaries.

Women and farming constitute
the subject of another grant, of
US$198,200 from the New Delhi
office of the US-based Ford Foun-
dation. The 18-month-long project
will attempt to remedy what its
planners call “the paucity of good
research—and competent re-
searchers—in the general area of
gender and natural resources
management, and particularly
gender and water.” IWMI will use
the support to identify and train
researchers, carry out research
into gender issues, and communi-

cate the results to a wider audi-
ence of educators, program man-
agers, and policy makers.

In support of the wider issues
related to gender and poverty, the
Swedish International Develop-
ment Agency (Sida) has contrib-
uted US$260,000 to IWMI’s gen-
der, water, and poverty project.
The project is designed to in-
crease the understanding of the
linkages between irrigation,
gendered poverty eradication,
and land and water productivity;
and to support research designed
to provide better tools and meth-
odologies to help poor women
and men participate in the man-
agement of their irrigation and
water resources systems. Research
is being undertaken in India,
Mexico, Pakistan, and South Af-
rica.

Women, particularly female
children, are most vulnerable to
water-borne diseases and health
risks posed by increasing expo-
sure to contaminated water.
“Their role as laborers in agricul-
ture and having primary responsi-
bility for domestic chores account
for these increased risks” states
the project document. IWMI, to-
gether with the Center for Drain-
age and Water Management,
McGill University, Montreal,
Canada, is addressing these prob-
lems in a joint project designed to
bridge the gap that exists be-
tween irrigation, and water and
sanitation sectors so that future
initiatives take into account all
uses and users of water. The Ca-
nadian International Development
Agency (CIDA) is providing
Can$150,000 (US$93,080) to sup-
port this project being undertaken
in the Punjab, Pakistan. The les-
sons learned here should be ap-
plicable to other South Asian
countries.

Donor Support for IWMI Activities (Continued..)



BOOKSHOP

New Research Reports

• Bastiaanssen, W. G. M., D. J.
Molden, S. Thiruvengadachari,
A. A. M. F. R. Smit, L. Mutu-
watte, and G. Jayasinghe. 1998.
Remote sensing and hydrologic
models for per formance
assessment in Sirsa Irrigation
Circle, India. IWMI Research
Report 27.

• Sakthivadivel, R., S. Thiruven-
gadachari, U. Amarasinghe, W.
G. M. Bastiaanssen, and D.
Molden. 1999. Per formance
evaluation of the Bhakra
Irrigation System, India, using
remote sensing and GIS
techniques. IWMI Research
Report 28.

• Renault, D. and G. G. A.
Godaliyadda. 1999. Generic
typology for irrigation systems
operation. IWMI Research
Report 29.

• S. A. Prathapar and Asad S.
Qureshi, 1999. Mechanically
reclaiming abandoned saline
soils: A numerical evaluation.
IWMI Research Report 30.

Spanish Editions

• G. Levine, A. Cruz Galván, D.
García, Garcés-Restrepo y S.
Johnson III. 1998. Desempeno
de dos módulos transferidos en
la región Lagunera: Relaciones
del agua. IWMI Informe de la
Investigación 23.

Proceedings

• Merrey, D., and S. Baviskar
(Eds.). 1998. Gender analysis
and reform of irrigation
management: Concepts, cases,
and gaps in knowledge.

SWIM Papers

• Daene C. Mc Kinney, Ximing
Cai, Mark W. Rosegrant,
Claudia Ringler, and
Christopher A. Scott. 1999.
Modeling water resources
management at the basin level:
Review and future directions.
SWIM Paper 6.

• Theib Oweis, Ahmed Hachum,
and Jacob Kijne. 1999. Water
harvesting and supplementary
irrigation for improved water
use efficiency in dry areas.
SWIM Paper 7.

• Bakker, Margaretha, Randolf
Barker, Ruth Meinzen-Dick, and
Flemming Konradsen. 1999.
Multiple uses of water in
irrigated areas: A case study
from Sri Lanka. SWIM Paper 8.

Monograph

• Harald D. Frederiksen, and
Rodney J. Vissia 1998.
Considerations in formulating
the transfer of services in the
water sector. International Water
Management Institute.
Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Special Issue of Agriculture
and Human Values

• Agriculture and Human Values:
Journal of the Agriculture, Food,
and Human Values Society,
15(4). December 1998.

This special issue is on the
theme, “Choice, complexity,
and change: Gendered liveli-
hoods and the management of
water.” The papers in this
collection grew out of a
workshop on Gender and
Water sponsored by the

International Water Manage-
ment Institute.

Special Issue of the Inter-
national Journal of Water
Resources Development

• International Journal of Water
Resources Development,
15(1&2), March/June 1999.
Special Double Issue: Research
from the International Water
Management Institute (IWMI).

This issue is devoted to IWMI
and contains 12 research
papers on IWMI’s research
work. The volume reports our
work on assessing global water
supply and demand and the
implications of water scarcity
for future water and food
security policies; analyses of
whole river basins; applica-
tions of remote sensing for
measuring water consumption
and agricultural performance;
use of new quantitative
techniques for assessing the
impacts of interventions; and
activities aimed at identi-
fying and finding solutions to
water problems affecting the
quality of life, such as water-
related diseases and gender
inequities.

Journal Articles

• Johnson III, S. H., M. Svendsen,
and X. Zhang. 1998. Changes in
system performance in two
Chinese irrigation systems as a
result of organizational reforms.
Irrigation and Drainage
Systems 12(4):289-309.

• Kloezen, W. H. 1998.
Measuring land and water
productivity in a Mexican



irrigation district. International
Journal of Water Resources
Development 14(2):231-247.

• Konradsen, F., Y. Matsuno, F. P.
Amerasinghe, P. H.
Amerasinghe, and W. van der
Hoek. 1998. Anopheles
culicifacies breeding in Sri
Lanka and options for control
through water management.
Acta Tropica 71:131-138.

• Konradsen, F., K. A. Stobberup,
S. K. Sharma, O. T. Gulati, and
W. van der Hoek. 1998.
Irrigation water releases and
Anopheles culicifacies
abundance in Gujarat, India.
Acta Tropica 71:195-197.

• Sufi, A. B., M. Latif, and G. V.
Skogerboe. 1998. Simulating
skimming well techniques for
sustainable exploitation of
groundwater. Irrigation and
Drainage Systems 12(3):203-226.

• van der Hoek, W., F.
Konradsen, D. S. Dijkstra, P. H.
Amerasinghe, and F. P.
Amerasinghe. 1998. Risk factors
for malaria: A microepide-
miological study in a village in
Sri Lanka. Transactions of the
Royal Society of Tropical
Medicine and Hygiene 92:265-
269.

• van der Hoek, W., F.
Konradsen, D. Perera, P. H.
Amerasinghe, and F. P.
Amerasinghe. 1997. Correlation
between rainfall and malaria in
the dry zone of Sri Lanka .
Annals of Tropical Medicine
and Parasitology 91(8):945-949.

• Vermillion, D. L., and D. J.
Merrey. 1998. What the 21st
century will demand of water
management institutions.
Journal of Applied Irrigation
Science 33(2):165-187.

STAFF
Douglas Merrey is the new Deputy Director General (Research Programs) at
IWMI.

Dr. Merrey, who joined IWMI in 1985, holds a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from
the University of Pennsylvania, USA. He has extensive experience in irrigation man-
agement issues, much of it in Asia and the Middle East. In addition to his new
position, he continues as Leader of the Policy, Institutions, and Management Pro-
gram.

David Governey is IWMI’s new Deputy Director General (Operations). Before
joining IWMI in 1986 as Director of Finance and Administration, he held a simi-
lar post at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Ibadan, Ni-
geria. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ireland.

Yutaka Matsuno has moved from postdoctoral fellow to full member of
IWMI’s research staff in Colombo. He received his doctorate in agricultural en-
gineering from the University of Idaho, USA, where he conducted computer
simulations and research in the transport of dissolved substances in irrigation sys-
tems. He joined IWMI in 1996.

Ralf Starkloff, Sociologist, joined IWMI in January 1999 as a postdoctoral fel-
low, and works on irrigation issues in IWMI Pakistan. Dr. Starkloff has done re-
search in Sri Lanka on participatory water supply projects, focusing on the social
and environmental factors related to water scarcity in hill-country catchments. Be-
fore joining IWMI, he was a Senior Lecturer at the Sabargamuwa University in Sri
Lanka.

VISITORS

Dr. K. R. Sharma,  Chief, Re-
search and Technology Develop-
ment Branch, Kathmandu,
Nepal, and Dr. Krishna Prasad,
Research Coordinator, IWMI-
Nepal, came to IWMI in Co-
lombo on 13 January for a 10-
day visit. During this time they
acquainted themselves with
IWMI’s research programs and
drafted some project proposals.

Dr. Wim Bastiaanssen, an
IWMI Fellow working at the In-
ternational Institute for Aero-
space Survey and Earth Sciences
(ITC), the Netherlands, visited
IWMI from 19 January to 5 Feb-
ruary. During this t ime he
worked on remote sensing in
Kirindi Oya, and completed a
research paper and a project
proposal.

Dr. Johan Holmberg, Director,
Department of Natural Re-
sources and the Environment of
the Swedish International Devel-
opment Corporation Agency
(Sida), visited IWMI on 25 Feb-
ruary. The visit was arranged to
increase the agency’s knowl-
edge of the institute’s programs
and activit ies. Sida became a
new donor to IWMI in 1998.

Dr. David Dawe, an Economist
from IRRI, visited IWMI for 3
days in March. During this time
he worked with IWMI staff on
the World Water Council Vision
project, due to be presented in
the Hague in March 2000.

Dr. Mark Svendsen, a Private
Consultant from the USA, vis-
i ted IWMI in Colombo for 7
days in early April to start writ-
ing the final report on the
institute’s project in Turkey. He
subsequently traveled to IWMI’s
office in Izmir, Turkey, to com-
plete the report.



If irrigation is to help eradicate poverty in
the future, there must be a new perspective
on society’s exploitation of water available
for agricultural use. Take the case of three
major poverty groups: urban and rural poor
net food buyers; rural poor producers; and
rural laborers in irrigation-related
occupations.

Claims that irrigation development
benefited these three groups were valid in
recent decades, when rapidly expanding,
highly subsidized infrastructure development
improved irrigated food production. This in
turn lowered and stabilized food prices,
which was important for poor net food
buyers, who spend as much as 80 percent
of their incomes on food.

Poor net producers gained, too, if their
land happened to fall within the project
area, or if land reform policies provided
them with newly irrigated plots. And many
poor women and men found work
indirectly through irrigation—in intensified
agriculture, construction, and spin-off
employment.

But now the irrigation environment has
changed drastically. Infrastructure subsidies
have declined; the cheapest and most
accessible water resources have already
been developed; and in a growing number
of basins, all the water is committed.
Meanwhile, farmers are being urged to
diversify their crops and grow high-value
foods for the urban elite.

What does this mean for the three
poverty groups? Poor net food buyers do
not consume high-value crops, and thus
risk exclusion from the benefits of irrigated
agriculture. Profits from new cropping

patterns could at least benefit the poor
cultivators—if they have and keep access to
water as well as expensive inputs. But those
who were excluded from access to water in
the past, and who lack the means to get it
now, may be excluded forever.

Poor cultivators who have at least some
access are probably the ones who will be
forced to bear the burden of required water
conservation. The elite cultivators are the
most likely group in basin-wide fora to
protect the water rights of their schemes as
a whole. It is also in the direct interests of
the poor users that these negotiations are
successful. But within the schemes the elite
probably take the scarce water for
themselves, gradually forcing the poor out
of irrigated agriculture. The rural poor who
once found work in irrigation-related
occupations will find less, as agencies stop
building new infrastructure and larger farm
operations become more mechanized.

Any future claims, then, of a positive
relationship between irrigation and poverty
alleviation, let alone eradication, will have
to be empirically tested and proven.

These issues should be taken into
account in a new perspective of water
management contributing to poverty
eradication in the future. By prioritizing the
multiple water needs of poor women and
men, protecting their current water rights,
and targeting new infrastructure
development and other support services to
the poor, governments and NGOs can
make the critical difference.

Barbara Van Koppen, Gender Specialist and
Leader of IWMI’s Gender, Poverty and Water Project.

CONJECTURES AND REFUTATIONS



BOOK REVIEW

More jobs per drop: Targeting irrigation to poor

women and men. 1998. Barbara van Koppen. The
Netherlands: Royal Tropical Institute.

“On the one hand, irrigation has important
positive effects on the well-being of poor
smallholders and landless people while on the
other, the exclusion of poor men and especially
poor women from owning rights to irrigated land
and water is still widespread,” writes Barbara van

Koppen in her thesis on the role of external
support agencies in irrigation performance. “This
limits their control over the benefits and
continues deprivation. Governmental and
nongovernmental irrigation agencies often
reinforce this exclusion.”

Barbara van Koppen’s thesis sets out to
contribute to better understanding of the links
between poverty alleviation, gender issues, and
agency approaches to irrigation development. In
doing so, she draws instructive comparison
between the needs of poor people in rice

schemes in different social and cultural settings,
and points out how the irrigation agencies can
contribute towards poverty alleviation in the rural
areas in developing countries.

Under many conditions, poor smallholders
who are endowed with rights to irrigated land

and water, achieve higher land productivity than
larger farmers. Similarly, women are often as
efficient farm managers as men, provided they
have access to productive resoures. “Endowing
poor women and men with rights to irrigated
land and water,” argues Barbara van Koppen,

“will help alleviate poverty and can induce a
viable pattern of agricultural growth.”

Van Koppen’s arguments are drawn from an
extensive literature review and two in-depth case
studies she undertook in Bangladesh and Burkina
Faso. Her literature review documents the effects

of irrigation development on both poverty
alleviation and productivity, and traces inclusion
and exclusion processes undertaken by irrigation

agencies. Those agencies that bear most of the
investment costs of infrastructure, or transfer the
rights and obligations in these publicly financed
schemes to users, are found to have ample
opportunity to vest resource rights in poor
women and men. “Few agencies use this

potential,” writes van Koppen. “Instead, a further
skewing of the division of resource rights is
widely reported.”

The selected case studies provide two
contrasting scenarios; the one in Bangladesh
supplying targeted support to the poor, and the

other in Burkina Faso showing exclusion
processes through public irrigation interventions.
In spite of the initial project aims in Burkina
Faso—which fully recognized women’s role as
rice cultivators and future ti t le holders to
improved plots—women were categorically

excluded, and some men endowed with land
rights they traditionally never had.

In Bangladesh, where irrigated rice cultivation
is predominantly a male activity, the poor were
organized into groups by local nongovernment
organizations. Support for various activities,

including irrigation, was provided to poor people
through these groups. Where empowerment of
women was the aim of the nongovernment
agencies, women have risen to positions where
they fully participate in the managerial functions
of irrigation enterprises—enterprises that were,

traditionally, exclusively managed by males. “This
shows,” concludes Barbara van Koppen, “how
proper targeting of irrigation support in water
development leads to the inclusion of individuals
and groups who would otherwise have remained
excluded.”

Felicity Chancellor, HR Wallingford, UK.

P O Box 2075, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Tel (94-1) 867404 • Fax (94-1) 866854 • E-mail iwmi@cgiar.org