Irrigation Water Management in Small Scale Irrigation Schemes: the Case of the Ethiopian Rift Valley Lake Basin

Appraisals of irrigation water management scenarios are crucial in project performance monitoring. A comprehensive irrigation water management study has been conducted on four small scale irrigation schemes in the Ethiopian rift valley lake basin. It is observed that from 147 irrigators 68% faced irrigation water supply unreliability, 79.1% encountered unfair distribution of water and 66 % underwent through timeliness problem in water distribution occasionally. All the investigated schemes witnessed a weak (50 % of all scheme users noted poor) organization of irrigation scheme administration. The Water Users Associations (WUAs) lack clear laws/by-laws and strategies to lead small or major canal operations and maintenances. Without a strong WUA it is impossible to think of filling farmer’s skill gap, to have a working maintenance strategy, fair distribution of irrigation water, reliable irrigation water supply and timely delivery of irrigation water. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.erem.67.1.6240