Sustainable Irrigation Project in Lao
PDR: Effective Management of Pump Irrigation Projects in Mekong River and its
Tributaries
Fongsamuth Phengphaengsy*
*Lao student
Department of International Environmental Agriculture
and Science
Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology
Japan
Lecturer of irrigation, Department of Water Resource Engineering
National University of Lao PDR
Abstract
Irrigation is the major agricultural technique applied for paddy cultivation due
to there is no rainfall in dry season. Therefore, government invested a lot of
money in developing the irrigation sector in order to increase rice production
and stable self-sufficiency. In particular, expanding the dry-season irrigated
agriculture areas have been heavily promoted during 1996-2000. Government
initiated a radical measure to increase rice production by distributing more
than 8,000 pump units along Mekong River and its tributaries in 3 main plains of
Vientiane, Savannakhet and Khammuan Provinces. This project boosted the paddy
production remarkably from 1.4 million tones in 1996 to 2.2 million tones in
2000, and then government declared rice self-sufficiency in this year.
Despite their apparent attractiveness in terms of potential productivity,
pumping irrigation schemes become to have several problems. Most schemes have
poor performance and operate below capacity due to the lack of lesson on proper
management. After 2000, farmers in pump scheme have refused growing rice in dry
season. As a result, dry-season planted area has been gradually decreasing from
102,000 ha in 2001 to 84,000 ha in 2002 and 81,000 ha in 2003. This left from
target of 120,000 ha in 2003. Finally, many schemes had largely become totally
disillusioned and abandon. Therefore, pumping project assessment will be needed
to identify the problems and trial for solution in order to improve and sustain
the projects. The study was conducted in 3 pump projects: Kao Leo 2 pumping
irrigation project located at Mekong River in Vientiane Municipality, Pak
Khagnoung pump project at Num Ngum River in Vientiane province and Ton Hen pump
project at Se-Bangfai River in Savannakhet province. Farm households of 40% in
each scheme were interviewed concerning their dissatisfactory of using pump
irrigation scheme for dry season cultivation. The study classifies project
problems and particularly evaluates irrigation facilities, water distribution
issue, actual planted areas, water fee collection and Water User Group.
The result showed that decreasing percentage of water fee collection, increasing
electricity charge, weakness of Water User Group and poor condition of
irrigation facilities - canals, pumps and water gates - are the main factors,
resulting to projects become problems. Kao Leo 2 project has serious
performance. Only 25% of total project areas were cultivated. Water irrigation
fee could be collected only 25% of total number of farmers. This was due to
farmers misunderstanding of their responsibility to the irrigation system and
also irrigation system itself was incomplete in function properly with poor
water distribution. More than 80% of interview farmers complained water was not
enough for their cultivation. The study concludes that Irrigation water fee is
the key component in order to maintain scheme operating well. Without this fee,
irrigation facilities are unable to maintain and then water supply is poorly
distributed. Water User Group also plays an important key as they suppose to
responsible for water distribution and encourage member to become understand of
their responsibilities for irrigation system.
Keywords: Irrigation scheme, pump irrigation, water distribution, water user
group, Mekong River, dry-season cultivation