Enabling Sustainable Water User Associations

1
Enabling Sustainable Water User Associations

• A Case Study of Japans
• Land Improvement District
• June 2004
• Albania
• Hatsuya Azumi

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PRESENTATION OUTLINE

• Background
• LID What it is, what it does, how it works
• A case Meiji Irrigation Scheme
• Achievements
• Current issues
• Why it has lasted this long?
• Replicability to developing countries

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Three Foundations of Rural Poverty Reduction in
Post-WWII Japan

• Land Reform Law (1947)
• Agricultural Cooperatives Law (1947)
• Land Improvement District Law (1949)
• These reforms one time opportunity in the long
  history of Japan

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Land Improvement District (LID) What It Is

• Farmers association legalized and systematized
  after WWII, based on century old communities
  self-governed water management system
• To help a large number of small owner-farmers
  created by land reform
• Now more than 50 years later, 6,500 LIDs still
  exist covering 3 million ha

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Land Improvement District (LID) What It Does

• Implementation of land improvement projects e.g.,
  irrigation drainage development, OM of
  irrigation other facilities, land consolidation
• Collection of membership fees
• Community organization through systematic
  communication measures

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Land Improvement District (LID) How It Works

• Procedure to establish
• Preparation of basic project idea by at least 15
  farmers (cultivators)
• Submitting the basic idea to City, Town or
  Village (CTV) mayor
• Obtaining agreement from at least 2/3 of the
  project area cultivators
• Preparation of detailed project plan, by-laws,
  etc. (meticulous consultation between community
  local government)
• Petition for establishing LID to Pref. Governor
• In all these, local government helps but not
  dictate

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Land Improvement District (LID) How It Works
(cond)

• Procedure (cond)
• Notification from Governor on the project and the
  articles of LID, and public notice by Governor
• No objection to public notice from the public
• Approval of LID by Governor
• Establishment of LID

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Land Improvement District (LID) How It Works
(cond)

• Subsidies/cost sharing
• Farmers pay 10-20 of total capital cost
  according to the project size and public benefit
• Farmers' share can be borrowed from the
  government initially and paid back after
  construction through concessionary terms - 15
  year repayment period
• The reminder of the capital costs are shared
  among the Central Government, Prefectural
  Government, and CTV government

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Meiji Irrigation Scheme LID

• Location and membership
• One of the oldest LIDs
• Anjo City, Aichi Prefecture in Central Japan
  near Toyotas plants
• Alluvial plain along the Yahagi River (117 km
  long Grade 1 river)
• Over 6,000 ha of rice fields and a membership of
  13,700 farmers
• 46 staff members in LID office

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Meiji Irrigation Scheme LID

• History
• Originally planned in 1808 by Yako Tsuzuki, a
  landlord and distiller in project area, where
  water was extremely short during dry period but
  often flooded during rainy season.
• Tsuzuki planned a diversion scheme from Yahagi
  River
• Many farmers opposed the plan fearing further
  flood damage and the survey took nearly 30 years
• After Meiji Restoration (1868), the new
  government strongly supported the project and the
  first phase project began in 1879 and completed
  in 1882

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Meiji Irrigation Scheme LID

• History (contd)
• While farmers organization in traditional forms
  had existed since 1890, Meiji Yosui LID in its
  present form was established in 1949
• With several expansion projects, the Meiji
  Irrigation Scheme has a total canal length of 406
  km supplying water at its peak time (mid-60s) to
  about 10,000 ha of mainly rice fields
• Farm lands have been declining since then and now
  about 6,000 ha

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Meiji Yosui LID (12)
The command area (from where membership fees were
collected) and the membership Source
LID Association of Japan
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Meiji Yosui LID (13)
Collection of Membership Fee
Source LID Association of Japan
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Achievements of LIDBefore mid-60s

• Policy goal increased food production by
  improving land productivity
• Achievements
• Self sufficiency of rice
• Average rice yields of 4.5 ton / ha
• Building a foundation for later unprecedented
  industrial growth

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Achievements of LIDAfter mid-60s

• Policy goal competitive farming sector with
  increased labor productivity
• Achievements
• Irrigation modernization and agricultural
  mechanization satisfactory
• Diversification consolidation partially
  satisfactory
• Survival of farming sector partially
  satisfactory
• Community development satisfactory
• Protection of the commons satisfactory

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Strength of LID

• Demand-driven start by farmers initiative
• Beneficiaries pay farmers sign the payment
  schedule
• Incentives toward accountability project cost
  includes engineers salary
• Participation iterative discussions and redesign
  until farmers sign
• Drive towards modernization subsidies are given
  only for investment and rehab

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Current Issues of LID

• Urbanization and increase of part time farmers
  voluntary community management more difficult
  resulting in increased burden of LID
• Non-viable irrigated agriculture increasing
  membership fees difficult, which further
  increases the burden of LID
• Most LIDs are small weak financial base
• Vulnerable to political interference

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Future Prospect of LID

• Must strengthen organization and finance through
  merger of adjacent LIDs
• Must shift paradigm towards more community
  development rather than just rural water
  management, i.e., amenity, beautification, forest
  protection, environmental protection, etc.

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Protecting the Commonsunappreciated benefit of
LID

• David Bollier, Silent Theft, Routledge, 2002
• Commons resources that citizens have paid for as
  taxpayers and resources that they have inherited
  from previous generations, e.g.
• public forests and minerals
• internet and government research
• broadcast airwaves and public spaces
• We, as citizens, own these assets

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Protecting the Commonsunappreciated benefit of
LID

• David Bollier, Silent Theft, Routledge, 2002
• Astonishingly, Americans are losing the right to
  control dozens of such commons that they own.
  While business and technology tend to be the
  forces animating this silent theft, our
  government is complicit in not adequately
  protecting the commons on our behalf.
• the privatization of the commons has crept up
  slowly and quietly, in fits and starts.

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Protecting the Commonsunappreciated benefit of
LID

• LID contributed to protecting the commons
• Farmers know the commons best
• Government participates in farmers projects, not
  the other way around
• High level of government subsidies for
  construction (but not for OM)
• Much government guidance to farmers through LID
• Administrative assistance by CTV government for
  smaller LIDs by housing their office inside the
  government office

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Role of Public Sectorin Local Participation

• Top-Down
• Bottom-Up

• Central Govt
• Pref. Govt
• CTV Govt
• Crucial role as
• LID a connecter
• Farmers

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Alternatives on Public/Private Sector Roles
Service Provider (Agency)
Private Sector
Government
Farmers and (WUAs
Private
Public
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Is LID Replicable to Developing Countries? Main
Difference between LID ASEANs WUAs

• LID
• Government participates in farmers project
• Mandatory membership
• Meticulous prior agreement between government
  farmers
• Reasonable degree of governance

• ASEAN
• Farmers participate in governments project
• Voluntary membership
• Not so meticulous prior agreement
• Often lacking reasonable degree of governance

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Is LID Replicable to ASEAN? Main Similarities
between Japanese Javanese

• Spirit of mutual help Japanese sogo fujo and
  Javanese gotong royong
• Pressure for conformity and fear of ostracism
• Aversion to public confrontation conflict
  resolution through negotiated settlement out of
  court Javanese mushawarah
• Lack of landlord-peasant class distinction
• All good foundation for participatory approach

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Is LID Replicable to ASEAN?

• LID is replicable to certain ASEAN regions
  (country, or part of a country) provided
• There is a culture of mutual help, conformity,
  conflict resolution through negotiation
• The government has a reasonable degree of
  governance
• The irrigation agency does not mind assuming new
  roles even though it meant some loss of power and
  associated benefits
• There are committed change agents

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Conclusion RecommendationHow to Sustain WUAs

• To adopt lessons from LID, do the following
• Meticulous preparation of prior agreement between
  government and community
• Once farmer association created, mandatory
  participation needs a law
• Government participates in communitys project
  (not the other way around)
• Constantly evolve to move with time, i.e.
  paradigm shift
• Find and support change agents both in government
  and community
• Maintain strong government involvement