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Participatory Irrigation
Management (PIM) |
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SOPPECOM pioneered PIM in Maharashtra by helping organise and stabilise the first Water Users Association (WUA) on Minor 7 of Mula Project in Ahmednagar and another 15 WUAs on Distributary 4 of Mula Project (See Farmers' Participation in Irrigation Management - A Case Study of Maharashtra brought out by SOPPECOM and Horizon India Publishers in 1994). By 2005, before the MFMIS made WUAs mandatory, SOPPECOM had helped NGOs set up more than 200 out of the more than 500 WUAs registered by then in Maharashtra.
Subsequently, SOPPECOM prepared, at the request of the Ministry of Water Resources, GoI, a report on amending Irrigation Acts for Participatory Irrigation Management, prepared manuals for PIM for the Maharashtra and Central Governments, studied the issue of tailender and other kinds of deprivation in the command areas, interacted with the Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority (MWRRA) along with other NGOs on various issues and has actively supported and helped innovative PIM initiatives within a broader framework of integrated and participative management of ecosystem resources, of water security for livelihoods and of equity that includes access for the landless and women.
SOPPECOM helped Samaj Parivartan Kendra (SPK), Nashik, organise three WUAs in the Waghad project covering 1100 ha, pioneer novel ways of conjoint use of surface and groundwater, of volumetric supply through timely delivery to farmers and methods of levying charges on wells in the command area. Similarly, it has helped and actively supported the South Maharashtra Movement for Equitable Access to Waters in a pilot effort at setting up equitable and integrated irrigation systems in three talukas. It has also helped the Chikotra movement plan and pursue the restructuring of the Chikotra dam irrigation system along equitable lines incorporating integration of local and canal water.
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