Maintenance Under Institutional Reform in Andhra Pradesh

• Published in: Irrigation and drainage systems 2003-05, Vol.17 (1-2), p.23-46
• Main Authors: Svendsen, Mark, Huppert, Walter
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bureaucracy; Canals; crop losses; drainage; engineers; equipment maintenance and repair; floods; governance; government agencies; Governmental reform; India, Andhra Pradesh; Irrigation; irrigation canals; irrigation systems; leadership; Political leadership; Repair & maintenance; water; yields
• ISSN: 0168-6291; 1573-0654; 1573-0654; 0168-6291
• DOI: 10.1023/A:1024992500228

India has a huge stock of canal irrigation systems that suffer from poor maintenance and reduced performance. The root of the maintenance problems are structural and relate to perverse incentive structures and poor management. In 1997, the state of Andhra Pradesh initiated a bold experiment aimed at restructuring irrigation operation and maintenance (O&M) across the state. Under the strong leadership of the state's charismatic chief minister, a new irrigation law was passed and 10,000 water user associations (WUAs) created. WUAs received control over a portion of the maintenance budget and power to prioritizeand supervise small-scale maintenance works in their areas. These steps changed radically the service relationships and governance mechanisms which control maintenance service provision. According to one evaluation, the changes resulted in a significant expansion in irrigated area, reduced flooding losses and an earlier cropping calendar as a result of improved drainage, and higher paddy yields. However, the reforms did not establish clear accountability linkages between WUAs and O&M engineers in the public irrigation agency and failed to specify measures to permanently reduce the size of the state's irrigation bureaucracy.