Community participation in traditional irrigation scheme rehabilitation projects in Tanzania: report of a collaborative research project

This research article looks at how participatory methods can be used in projects to rehabilitate tradtional irrigation schemes in Tanzania. The research aims at learning how government and NGOs can better support community participation in the rehabilitation projects and in the formation of irrigators’ organizations.The article finds that:if villagers’ rights as owners of their traditional irrigation schemes are not respected during the planning and implementation of a rehabilitation project, the sustainability of the scheme is seriously compromisedmutual accountability among implementing and funding agencies, contractors, and villagers is critical to ensure cost-effective implementation and technical sustainability. Accountability should be secured with legally enforceable contractsdistrict staff should participate in the planning and implementation of rehabilitation projects. This will help staff gain the skills needed to collaborate more effectively with villagers both during and after the rehabilitationmany government officers and technical staff need to be better trained in participatory methods of irrigation project planning, implementation and monitoringirrigator’s organizations must learn to operate and maintain their schemes effectively before taking on other functions like marketing. New irrigators’ organizations should become associations, not cooperativesthe collection of government imposed water fees by newly formed irrigators’ organizations can threaten the sustainability of the organization if leaders do not yet have the skills to manage money in an open, participatory, and effective manner. If the annual water fees are not equitably assessed, the legitimacy and sustainability of irrigators’ organizations will be further damagedirrigation rehabilitation projects change land values and income distribution. Owners are able to charge higher rents, which can reduce the access of landless tenants, wives, and young people to irrigated land. Rehabilitation projects should encourage villagers to develop socially acceptable methods to reduce the inequitable concentration of benefits on landowners. Funding agencies should consider making financial assistance conditional upon the development of a plan for redistributing newly irrigated land or portions of irrigated farms over a certain size to the landlessthe success of capital cost recovery for irrigation projects depends heavily on the distribution of scheme benefits. Landowners, as major beneficiaries, should contribute to cost recovery based on the amount of land owned. If tenants and laborers are not expected to receive plots, they should not be expected to contribute to cost recoverythe social marginalization of women, youth, and the landless restricts their participation at all stages of an irrigation rehabilitation project. A participatory analysis of the social and cultural constraints on marginalized groups can help villagers develop locally appropriate ways to help these groups benefit from the project. Standard methods of gender analysis training can facilitate this analysis [author]