Volumetric Supply, Pricing of Irrigation Water and Financial Sustainability of Water User Associations: A Case Study

The present paper briefly reviews the evolution of Volumetric Supply, Pricing of Irrigation Water & Water user associations in Maharashtra. The volumetric supply of water, to Water Users Associations (WUAs) and Pricing of Irrigation Water on volumetric basis is a consciously introduced, consistently experimented and now an accepted policy of Government of Maharashtra. Water Resources Department (WRD), Government of Maharashtra (GOM), in fact, is right now concentrating its efforts on further fine-tuning of that policy and implement it in letter and spirit as a part of Water Sector Reforms. A case study of WUAs at minor level, under in the jurisdiction of a section office of a major project in Maharashtra is taken up. The paper compares expenses, incurred by all Water Users Associations together at minor level, for managing irrigation by themselves and the expenses to the government exchequer through a section office itself. The analysis shows that expenses to government exchequer& administrative burden reduces considerably with the transfer of irrigation management to WUAs. The paper also discusses the importance of Economic Sustainability of WUAs. Conscious and sincere efforts in right direction to implement Volumetric Supply & Pricing of Irrigation Water with adequate technical and legal support will help water sector reforms, which is a need of time. However the crux of the problem for economic sustainability of WUAs is; reliable, timely, if not adequate but minimum assured water supply.