Participatory efforts in the rehabilitation of minor irrigation tanks in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Participatory concept in projects is said to possess a high sustainability aspect built into the system since stakeholders are involved in the project from the beginning. With this concept instead of a traditional construction labour force, it is required to utilize the stakeholders while ensuring the quality and the speed of construction. Therefore it is important to identify the behaviour of the participation of stakeholders or beneficiaries to identify the tasks ahead of the engineers in expecting the development activities. In this respect this study attempts to identify the participatory behaviour in the minor irrigation tank rehabilitation of Sri Lanka. Historically the minor tanks have played a vital role in cultivation of crops in the dry zone of Sri Lanka. Due to lack of maintenance of the head-works and distribution system, a good majority of these tanks are not in full functional capacity and require significant improvement or rehabilitation for them to again play a major role in the agricultural production for the nation. The minor tank improvement scheme of the Department of Agrarian Services (DAS) under the UN supported World Food Programme (WFP), attempts to increase the involvement of the beneficiaries mainly in the construction works of the project thereby providing opportunities for learning and execution of rehabilitation activities. The WFP adopts an approach under which food rations will be provided as an incentive to the farmer participants to implement the project on a self-help basis. Locations of four rehabilitated irrigation reservoirs under the WFP, were selected for the study and in order to identify the participation, the study looked at both direct & indirect beneficiary participation and also the cultivator participation in the rehabilitation work. This study shows encouraging beneficiary participation in rehabilitation work of these reservoirs. The computed values indicate that nearly one in three beneficiary workforce members contributed to the rehabilitation activities. Female beneficiary contribution was substantial where an average of four out of ten beneficiaries contributed. Male beneficiary contribution was

low with only one out of three beneficiaries participating. Cultivator participation reflected very poor male participation with only one out of five male cultivator beneficiary from the work force contributing to rehabilitation activities. Poor degree of male participation both overall and at cultivator level in all rehabilitation schemes indicate that the males may have had resorted to other employment.