Canal maintenance: a key to restructuring irrigation management

Piet Sijbrandij, Pieter Van Der Zaag

Abstract:Farmers becoming involved in canal mainentance is a recent trend in many government-managed irrigation systems. Before being able to assess the pitfalls and perspectives of this trend, it is necessary to examine in detail the issue of canal maintenance itself, an issue which has received relatively little attention. The paper focuses on canal maintenance in an irrigation system in Western Mexico, and finds that canal maintenance differs in several aspects from water distribution. A first difference is that water distribution often results in competition among water users along the same canal, whereas the need for canal maintenance may bring these people together in cooperation, which may help to forestall possible conflicts over water supply. A second important difference is that water distribution is directly productive, whereas canal maintenance involves the reproduction of the canal system, the (often considerable) costs involved being investments. In the case study reviewed, canal maintenance gave rise to certain relationships between different groups of people, and between them and the canal infrastructure, relationships which may not have been uncovered if only water distribution had been studied. It is argued that interventions aimed at handing over management responsibilities to water users would be more effective if such locally specific expressions of cooperation and initiative of the actors involved are taken as a starting point.

Keywords: canal maintenance; management; turnover; Mexico

运河维护：重组灌溉管理的关键

皮特·西布兰迪，皮特·范德扎格

摘要：农民参与运河维护正逐渐成为政府管理的灌溉系统的新趋势。探讨这一趋势的潜在风险与机遇之前，首先需要详细探讨运河维护问题，该问题尚未受到完全的关注。本文以西墨西哥的灌溉系统为案例，深入分析了运河维护与水资源分配的不同之处。一方面，水资源分配问题往往会引发同一运河水资源用户间的竞争，而运河维护的需求则可能促进他们之间的合作，这有助于化解潜在的水资源供应不均的矛盾。另一方面，水资源分配直接产生效益，而运河维护则关乎运河系统的可持续发展，其成本（通常是相当大的）实际上是一种投资。案例研究发现，运河维护揭示了不同群体之间以及他们与运河基础设施之间的必然联系。如果仅关注水资源分配，这些联系则可能被忽视。本文认为，以具体的地方性合作和合作者的积极性为出发点，把管理责任移交给水用户，干预措施将更为有效。

关键词：运河维护；管理；更替；墨西哥

来源: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00881279

发表时间: 1993-9

检索：刘子若

翻译：朱柳丹

一审：唐沁雯

二审：彭莉

三审：罗玲娟

上传发布：姜浩