7 - IMT and Water Distribution Practices in the Kulon Progo District

Summary

INTRODUCTION

This chapter gives specific details on how the Water Sector Adjustment Loan (WATSAL) Irrigation Management Transfer (IMT) programme shaped the overall water distribution pattern in the seven technical irrigation systems in the Kulon Progo district from June 2004 to July 2005. Moreover, it describes both the domination of the rural elite in running the Water Users Associations (WUAs) and Federation of Water Users Associations (FWUAs) and the subsequent unbalanced FWUA–WUA–farmer relationships.

An explanation of the interconnected irrigation systems in Kulon Progo is presented in Section I. Section II discusses how the WATSAL IMT programme reshaped inter-system water distribution rules and how the Sub-Division of Irrigation (SDI) tried to cope with this change. In Section III, I present the dominant patterns of alliances in water distribution; and the establishment of spatial authority is explained in Section IV. Section V illuminates the rural elite's domination in the FWUAs and WUAs. Section VI describes the different types of elite leadership that emerged in Kulon

Progo's seven technical irrigation systems, and how the elite's management could either shape farmer-elite relationships towards greater representation of farmers’ needs in water distribution, or be self-serving, while Section VII highlights how the elite's domination in FWUAs thus shaped WUA behaviour. Section VIII gives life to these behaviours in detailing how a single person at the WUA Suka Maju in West Pekik Jamal shaped water distribution in a particular tertiary unit.

SECTION I: GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF IRRIGATION SYSTEMS IN THE KULON PROGO DISTRICT

The irrigation systems in the Kulon Progo district consist of small-scale (mostly smaller than 1,000 hectares), run-off-the-river systems, which are interconnected through networks of irrigation and drainage canals, as well as river tributaries. Each irrigation system's location and their interconnection are presented in Figure 7.1.

Technically, irrigation systems in this interconnected system were divided into three jurisdictional areas, with each area operating under the authority of either DPIS (Division of Provincial Irrigation Services) 1, 2, or 3. DPIS 1 was responsible for the operation of the Pekik Jamal and Sapon irrigation systems; DPIS 2 was responsible for the irrigation systems of Papah, East Pengasih, and West Pengasih; and DPIS 3 was responsible for the Kalibawang, Penjalin, and Donomulyo irrigation systems.