The many billions of dollars invested in canal irrigation in recent
decades have had disappointing results. Rarely have projected benefits
in well-being or production been achieved. In consequence, in the
mid-1980s, further vast sums are being spent throughout the Third World
on programmes for rehabilitation, canal lining, on farm development, and
farmers' organisation. In this book, Robert Chambers shows that much of
this policy and practice is based on misleading research and
misdiagnosis. When applied to the complexity and uniqueness of canal
irrigation systems, the normal professionalism of civil and agricultural
engineers, agronomists, economists, and sociologists, leaves gaps which
are keys to better performance. In successive chapters, five such gaps
are analysed and presented: main system management, including the
scheduling and delivery of water, and communications; canal irrigation
at night; management of canal systems jointly by farmers and officials;
professional conditions and incentives for irrigation managers; and
methods for diagnostic analysis to identify cost-effective actions for
improvement. Managing Canal Irrigation has been written for
policy-makers, irrigation managers, consultants, researchers, trainers
and teachers. It challenges all concerned with improving the performance
and anti-poverty impact of canal irrigation, whether in government
departments, aid agencies, consultancy firms, training and research
institutes or universities, to re-examine their beliefs, biases and
actions. By going beyond the limits of normal professionalism, the book
presents a new syllabus for training, a new agenda for research and
development, and points to new policies and to practical action to be
taken in the field.
