Irrigation Systems Management
Country:
Sri-Lanka
Financing Institution:
USAID
Name of Client:
Irrigation Management Div., Ministry of Lands, Irrigation and Mahaweli Development
The ISMP goal is to increase agricultural productivity, expand rural employment & raise net farm-family income on existing irrigated land in Sri Lanka. The purpose of ISMP is: to develop institutional capacities at national, district & systems levels to operate & maintain major irrigation systems on a “sustained renewal” basis; and to test and demonstrate the effectiveness of different combinations of management & structural improvements. ISMP was designed to accomplish these purposes in seven irrigation schemes using six separate but highly integrated elements:
- Farmer organization
- Operations & maintenance improvement
- Financial management improvement
- Monitoring, evaluation & feedback
- Training capacity enhancement
- Research.
- Developed and implemented Multi-tiered farmer organization structure
- Over 1,900 Farmer/Water User Organizations formed in 4 tiers and members trained
- Women & Youth Organizations formed as part of farmer organizations & trained in self employment skills
- Survey/mapping, planning, design & construction of main, secondary, distributory & field canals
- Designed & implemented computer models for reservoir operations, system operations & seasonal water reporting
- Established programs for development & implementation of annual maintenance, plans, priority rehabilitation plans, & preventive maintenance plans
- Established & implemented a field level monitoring & evaluation system which draws data from the lowest level through highest level of Water Users Association
- Established improved financial management with mechanism to collect user fees through WUA hierarchy
- Trained over 34,000 project staff & farmers in country. Established an ongoing in service training program for the project. Programmed 80 project staff for overseas training.