CASE STUDY FROM INDONESIA

SURVEY ON IRRIGATION MODERNIZATION

SIDOREJO IRRIGATION SYSTEM (SIS)

Prepared by Sigit Supadmo Arif Murtiningrum

January 2003

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

1 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SIDOREJO SYSTEM

1.1 General Description
1.2 History
1.3 Infrastructure
1.4 Physical Environment
1.4.1 Climate
1.4.2 Main soils and topography
1.4.3 Land suitability
1.5 Cropping Pattern
1.6 Water Management Organization
1.7 Operation And Maintenance
1.7.1 Water allocation
1.7.2 Water distribution
1.7.3 Maintenance works
1.8 Land Tenure And Water Right

2 MODERNIZATION PROCESS

2.1 Causes
2.2 The Designed And Operation Of Sis
2.3 Steps And Implementation Of Modernization Process
2.4 Organizations Involved
2.5 Training Process
2.6 Actual Implementation Of The Modernization Process
2.6.1 Water management implementation and its problems
2.6.2 Mini hydro power and domestic water use
2.6.3 Implementation of irrigation policy reform in the SIS
2.7 Financing Of The Process
2.8 Estimated Cost Of The Process
2.9 System Performance Evaluation Done Prior To Modernization

3 IMPACT OF MODERNIZATION

3.1 Governance
3.2 Water Rights, Water Allocation And Water Distribution
3.3 Water Service Fee
3.4 Impact On Aricultural Product And Gross Domestic Product
3.5 Others

4 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATION

4.1 Conclusions
4.2 Recommendations

5 REFERENCES

6 PHOTO GALERY

Indonesia is an archipelago country with more than 17 000 islands. It covers a land area of 1.92 million square kilometers with a coastline exceeding 84 000 kilometers. Since Indonesia is located in the monsoons climate region, the country is blessed with abundant rainfall. Due to the nature of the climate, most of Indonesian farmers grow paddy in the rice fields during the wet season.

However, rainfall occurs only during the wet season that is only six months per annum on average. Rainfall pattern also varies from place to place. The wet areas get more than 3 500 mm of rainfall a year like in some parts of Sumatra and West Java; but in dry area, it is less than 1 750 mm a year such as in East Nusa Tenggara. Heavy rainfall and typical geo-hydrological condition make Indonesia a country with many rivers. There are about 5 886 main rivers.

Although the total amount of rainfall is abundant, it does not mean that Indonesia has a small number of problems related to water availability. High variation of the rainfall pattern both seasonal and spatial, unfavorable condition of geo-hydrology and unevenly population distribution spread over the country create some problems due to highly competition among water users and uneven water availability along the country.

The island of Java has been considered as a center of culture and development in the country. Several inscriptions state that developed agrarian villages already existed since the early first or second century. More specifically, Lombard (2000) and van Setten van der Meer (1979) respectively state that some irrigation systems have existed in Central Java and East Java since the 8 th and 9 th centuries. Farmers themselves with very limited government support had developed irrigation system during this era and afterward until the colonial period. This village irrigation systems were managed participatorily, accountably and transparently. Although in some cases water was managed inefficiently, it seemed the management ran effectively.

The dominant role of the government in irrigation management started in the mid 19 th century during the Dutch colonial government which built modern irrigation systems to support development of sugarcane and tobacco industries. These irrigation systems were mainly developed in the lowlands of Java. But in some other regions village irrigation systems still exist and they have never received development asistance from the government. Subak of Bali and some village irrigations in Java are examples of these cases.

After Indonesian independence, the Government of the Republic of Indonesia (GORI) has continued to support irrigation management in the country, although they have now different objectives and policies than the previous colonial government. The GORI launched a program to alleviate poverty by attaining rice self-sufficiency. To support this policy, the government started to technically develop the irrigation sector since the early 1970s.

During three decades, about 4.6 million ha of technical irrigation system have been developed across the country. As a result, in 1984 Indonesia achieved self-sufficient in rice for the first time. However, this prestigious achievement could not be maintained any longer due to several reasons: unfavorable climate for rice-crop culture, very extreme drought and flood, limited operation and maintenance (O&M) funds for irrigation system and improper institutional arrangement. All these problems created improper irrigation performance and as a result Indonesia returned to a rice importer country. Today, most farmers still live under the poverty line; meaning that the main objective that was set in the early development period was not achieved entirely.

Thus, in 1999 the GORI launched a new irrigation policy reform through a President Decree. And in 2001 the government strengthened this policy by issuing government regulation GR-77/2001 on Irrigation. This GR replaces the previous GR 23/1982 of the same title. In the new GR, the objective and goal of irrigation management changes from the policy of increasing production of rice to a policy to support farmer's prosperity and income. The policy reform also encourages participation of farmers in all stages of irrigation development.

According to the new GR, the Government should implement five policies in irrigation management : (i) redefinition of role and restructuring of irrigation management, (ii) implementation of an empowerment process of farmer's organization, (iii) irrigation management transfer, (iv) restructuring of irrigation management budgeting and encouraging development of an irrigation service fee, and (v) development toward irrigation sustainability. Reviewing the policy reform, it is clear that irrigation management in Indonesia has been returned to farmers after more than one century when the government dominated almost all of aspects of irrigation systems management.

The GR 77/2001 is the legal basis for implementation of irrigation reform and mentions that the government should pursue modernization of agricultural and farming system in the country. This statement is clear in article 6 Para 2 of the GR, and can be interpreted that modernization of agricultural and farming system also includes modernization --in both technical and managerial aspects-- of irrigation systems. Modernization of managerial aspects such as implementation of asset management for irrigation infrastructures is clearly stated in articles 38 to 40. In term of pilot projects, several irrigation systems in Java have already implemented a computerized asset management plan for irrigation infrastructures.

The government had already implemented a technical modernization process during the previous irrigation management policy (although not explicitly referred to in either GR 23/1982 or 77/2001); the Sidorejo Irrigation System (SIS) located in Boyolali and Grobogan Regencies is a modernization irrigation pilot project example from Indonesia. Different from most other irrigation systems in Indonesia that use upstream control and are operated manually, the SIS uses downstream control in the primary system and upstream control in the secondary one. To do so the system is equipped with several automatic gates to distribute, automatically, irrigation water to the area. The project was designed in the early 1970s and its construction work completed in the early 1990s. This paper mainly discusses the implementation of the modernization process in SIS, its impact, the relation with the new policy reform and the lesson learned from the implementation of the project.

SIDOREJO IRRIGATION SYSTEM (SIS)

1. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SIDOREJO SYSTEM

1.1 GENERAL DESCRIPTION

The Sidorejo Irrigation System (SIS) is located in Central Java Province, Indonesia, as shown in Figure 1 . Administratively, the Sidorejo Weir is located in Juwangi, Boyolali Regency (Kabupaten). The Sidorejo command area is 5 717 ha. Most of the command area is located in Grobogan District and the remaining is located in Boyolali District as shown in Figure 2.

The SIS is a part of the Jratunseluna River Basin, which consists of five main rivers, namely Jragung, Tuntang, Serang, Lusi, and Juana. The Sidorejo Weir is situated in the Serang River, which is supplied from the Kedung Ombo Dam. The SIS is the most upstream part of the Kedung Ombo Irrigated Area. Besides the SIS, Kedung Ombo Reservoir also supplies the following irrigation systems: Sedadi (17 469 ha), Klambu Kiri (20 649 ha), Klambu Kanan (11,078 ha), and Klambu Wilalung (6,251 ha).

The main objective of the implementation of the SIS was to develop new irrigated rice fields from rainfed areas in Grobogan Regency, especially Geyer, Toroh, and Purwodadi Districts (kecamatan). Additionally, the system was to supply domestic water (150 l/s) to Purwodadi town, taken from the Gendingan Secondary Canal, and to generate a mini-hydro electricity plant (1.4 MW) to be used mainly as a power for headworks operation and the Sobo village.

With the New Order Government Regime in 1967, the GORI issued a policy to develop irrigation system as the backbone of agricultural development in the country. Several existing irrigation system in the country had been rehabilitated and a lot of new systems were constructed under this policy. Moreover, the government applied a river basin strategy as a basic development plan. In the case of the Jratunseluna River Basin, its development plan started since 1971 while the feasibility study for the development of Serang River was accomplished from 1973 to 1976. The plans were reviewed and specified in detail through engineering, social and economic studies from 1977 to 1981.

Previously, most of the SIS irrigated area was rain-fed area and a small part of it belonged to the Kepil Irrigation System, that used upstream control irrigation water management like other systems in Indonesia. The development of the Sidorejo headwork was done during fiscal years 1987/1988 to 1990/1991. The operation trials for the Sidorejo Irrigation System, including its modernized automatic Neyterc gates, were conducted in November 1990 and May 1991. The trials concluded that the SIS was functioning well and was ready for operation although some leakages and deteriorations occurred along the canal network and needed repair.

Thus, the SIS became officially functional in May 1991. However, as mentioned earlier, due to improper construction of most irrigation structures and limited availability of Operation and Maintenance (O&M) funds, some reaches of the main canal were in bad condition. Leakages, seepage and deteriorations of structures increased. As a result, the system had to be rehabilitated just after a year of operation. this was done during the 1992/1993 fiscal year. The work included rehabilitation of all canals upstream of the Truwili aqueduct (B.Sr.4b), and all overflow structures downstream of the same point. Under the same fiscal year, the government also developed the Danyang Secondary System.

Development of the Kedung Ombo Irrigation System (including the SIS) as well as all other systems in the country has been in the hands of the Central Government. After the completion and its successful two-years trial runs until 1991, the KOIS was transferred to the provincial government of Central Java. However, the central government through the Jratunseluna Basin Development Project (JBDP) is still supporting the provincial government in terms of technical assistant, and providing partial fund for O&M and major maintenance works. Recently the role of JBDP is very limited; this office still exists to support the regional governments in managing all of the Kedung Ombo.

Following the autonomy policy, started in 2000, the SIS has been co-managed by the Central Java Province Government and the Residency Government of Grobogan. The provincial government is responsible for management of the Sidorejo weir, while the Residency Government is responsible for managing the rest of the irrigation infrastructures; especially at primary and secondary level. At, tertiary level, irrigation management is the responsibility of the water user organization.

The designed irrigated area of SIS was 6 047 ha. During its implementation, the irrigated area was reduced as much as 330 ha due to the growth of Purwodadi, the capital city of Grobogan Regency. Due to this reduction, the current irrigated area of the SIS stands at 5 717 ha. In the SIS, Automatic Neyrtec hydraulic gates were designed to serve 2 191 ha of the command area while an older system of Romijn gates were designed to serve the remaining 3 856 ha of the command area.

The dimensions of the Sidorejo Weir is 80 m of span and 7.5 m in height. The number and individual dimensions of weir gates are shown in Table 1.

Photo 1 and photo 2 of the Photo Gallery shows the schematic map and schematic layout of the SIS. Other photos show some of these infrastructures in the area.

Table 1 . Number and dimension of weir gates

Source: GORI, 1990

Figure 1. Location of Sidorejo System in Indonesia

Figure 2. Location map of Sidorejo Irrigation System

The irrigation network consists of 13.2 km of primary canal, 21.4 km of secondary canal, and 35 km of drainage canals as shown in Table 2. Due to the relatively flat topography most of the main canal is lined and constructed as an earth-fill embankment. The number of structures and measuring devices along the network is shown in Table 3 and Table 4, respectively.

Table 2 . Canal characteristics of Sidorejo system

Source : GORI, 1990

Table 3 . Number of structure in Sidorejo System

Source: GORI, 1990

Table 4 . Number of measuring devices in Sidorejo System

Source : GORI, 1990

1.4 PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

General climatic conditions in Java fall under the category of tropical monsoon. It is influenced by two seasonal monsoons, namely Southeast (SE) and Northwest (NW). The SE monsoon creates the dry season, normally occurs from the middle of May to October. The characteristics of this period are few amounts of rainfall, lower humidity, and less cloudiness. The NW monsoon creates the rainy season generally taking place from November to April. It is the period of frequent and heavy rainfall, high relative humidity and cloudiness. More than 80% of annual rainfall falls in this period. Climatic parameters were taken from the closest weather station to SIS. Semarang weather station represents general climatic condition of SIS while Sanggeh, Semen, and Purwodadi rainfall stations provide its rainfall condition. The average monthly value for selected climatic factors are shown in Table 5.

Records in the weather station shows that rainfall is distributed unevenly throughout the year. The mean annual rainfall recorded in Sanggeh, Semen, and Purwodadi rainfall stations is 1 983 mm. The average monthly rainfall pattern at the station is shown in Figure 3. The figure shows typical rainfall pattern in Indonesia, especially in Java, that follows the general SE-NW monsoon pattern.

The average minimum temperature compiled in Semarang weather station varies from 21.1 °C in September to 24.6 °C in May while the average maximum temperature varies from 29.9 °C to 32.9 °C. The mean monthly relative humidity varies from minimum 61% in September to maximum 83% in January. The mean monthly wind speed at Semarang weather station varies from 215 km/day in August to 286 km/day in January. The sunshine duration, which shows the ratio of actual to maximum sunshine duration of the day, ranges from 46% in December to 98% in August.

Table 5 . Mean monthly climate of Semarang weather station (1991-2000)

Source: Semarang Weather Station, 1991-2000

In general, the topography of the area is relatively flat. Land slope is up to 1%. The area is located about 40 meter above mean sea level. Parent material of soil contains high calcium content. With alternating wet and dry conditions, and high ambient temperatures, a deep, relatively impermeable soil with no distinct horizons has evolved over the whole area. The typical soil is described as margalitic and exhibits distinct cracking when dry and swelling when wet because of the high monmorillonitic clay content. The soil type is classified as grumosol (vertisol) soil. The area has relatively high phosphorous and potassium content, but it is fixed due to slow internal drainage. It has slightly alkaline pH, low C/N ratio, relatively high cation exchange capacity, and base saturation values due to predominating calcium and magnesium ions. Total nitrogen is low (The Government of Republic Indonesia, 1986a).

Most of the study area is considered as suitable for irrigated rice production with some improvement of fertility by applying both inorganic fertilizer and organic manure.

Figure 3. Average monthly rainfall of Sanggeh, Semen, and Purwodadi rainfall stations (1991-2000 )

1.5 CROPPING PATTERN

The Sidorejo System was designed to irrigate rice as the main crop. Generally, rice is grown in ponded fileds during its entire growing period. Besides rice, other crops known as palawija or upland crops are cultivated especially in the third planting season. Upland crops are crops that produce grains but are not cultivated in ponded field as rice. Examples of upland crops are maize, soybean, and mungbean.

The designed cropping pattern of SIS is rice-rice-upland crop. The first planting season starts at the beginning of the rainy season in October with land preparation for rice. It ends with rice harvesting in February. The second planting season begins in March and ends in June and also rice is grown. Upland crop is grown in the third season, or dry season, from June to August because these crops require less water during its growing period.

The Sidorejo System is divided into two cropping groups, which started the first planting season in early October and mid October respectively. Schematically, the designed cropping pattern of Sidorejo System is shown in Figure 4.

The cropping pattern is evaluated yearly and legalized as a Regent Decision. However, Grobogan Regent Decision No. 611.1/8377/VII maintained the designed cropping pattern to apply in the year of 2001/2002. Based on the cropping pattern, the Serang Lusi Juana River Basin Management Service (Balai PSDA) set a target discharge as shown in Table 6.

The cropping pattern is set by the regency office of the Water Resource Development Dept. based on farmers' proposal through their WUA. The Balai PSDA Serang Lusi Juana calculas the target discharge based on that designed cropping pattern, the unit of irrigation requirement, and the perceived losses along the distribution network. The irrigation requirement unit represents the discharge that should be given to a unit area of land for a certain growing period of a particular crop. The amount or unit of irrigation requirement is set based on local climatic and soil condition. Equation (1) shows the calculation of the target discharge.

…………………………………………. (1)

Where:

Q target = target discharge (l/s)

A ij = cultivated area of crop i, growing period j

I ij = unit of irrigation requirement for crop i, growing period j

n = number of crop

m = number of growing period

Figure 4. Designed cropping pattern of Sidorejo System

Table 6 . Annual target discharge of Sidorejo Irrigation System (l/s) in 2002/2003

Source: BPSDA Serang Lusi Juana

As mentioned earlier, the management of the SIS consists of three levels of management: provincial government that manages the headwork, main system under regency government's responsibilities and the tertiary level farmer-managed. Figure 5 shows the organization structure of water management in the SIS.

Since the mid 80s the government established water user association (WUA) at tertiary level. To do so, the government established the irrigation water management development project ( Proyek Tata Guna Air, PTGA ) at provincial level throughout the country. In their activities the PTGA developed guidance books for several aspects of irrigation management, including guidance of WUA establishment.

Prior to management transfer to the provincial government in 1991, the JBDP used PTGA's guidance to establish WUA at tertiary level in the SIS as well as for the whole Kedung Ombo Irrigation System. Members of WUA consist of land owners and tenants in their respected tertiary areas. According to the guidelines, the WUA establishment process should be based on a participatory approach. However, due to centralistic policy of the authoritarian central government, the project was implemented with a top down approach. This was consistence with development policy method used by the government, at that time. Since the establishment was througha top-down approach, it rendered that not all of tertiary level WUA of SIS showed good performances in managing their own blocks.

Figure 5. Organization Structure of Water Management in SIS

The performance of WUA is, of course, affected by water availability at the tertiary level. In the tertiary blocks that receive limited water supply, the WUA committee members have been reduced. In this case, the WUA consists only of the Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer, and a technical officer who responsible for water management. Under this conditions activities of the WUA are also very limited.

Following the irrigation policy reform, farmers are encouraged to establish water user organizations not only at tertiary level but also at higher levels: secondary and primary. In 2000, the Government of Grobogan Regency facilitated farmers to develop a Federation of Water User Associations (FWUA) both at secondary and system levels. Members of FWUA are the respective WUA representatives of the secondary canal committees. As opposed to the development of WUAs, the FWUA are being developed in a participatory way. Table 7 shows the profile of the Federation of WUA at the secondary level of the SIS.

Table 7. Profile of Federation of Water User Association (FWUA)

Source: Office of FWUA Tirto Aji

The Godongan Secondary System, with a total of 744 ha, has been transferred to a secondary-level FWUA, named Tirto Langgeng. The system consists of 11 tertiary blocks, where 9 of them had an active WUA. According to GR 77/2001, the FWUA is only responsible for the management of the system, all assets of irrigation system stll rests under the responsibility of the regency government. After management transfer, the secondary FWUA has to implement routine O&M, collect irrigation service fee at secondary management level, and become conflict resolution body, as well.

1.7 OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE

1.7.1  Water allocation

A water allocation scheme is a discharge schedule and its duration within each canal section. This water allocation is formulated based on the designed cropping pattern in order to support it with a good irrigation service. Generally, the basis of water allocation in Central Java is the K-factor method, which relates water requirement and available water at intake gates. Water distribution is set in a 15-days period. Water requirement is calculated based on the water requirement in each tertiary block per period. Total irrigation water requirement is thus the total water requirement of all tertiary blocks, plus other special requirements, and plus losses. On the other hand, discharge available is predicted by applying the previous two weeks discharge data. The formula for calculation of the K-factor is given as follows:

………………………………. (2)

Where:

Q _avb : discharge of water in the intake of headworks

Q _add : discharge from other sources

Q _loss : Water lost in canal network

Q _ousers : Water discharge for other purposes (domestic use, industry and others)

Q _req : total water requirement of all tertiary units.

In order to reduce peak water requirement per period, the SIS accommodates two planting-based group areas. The first group (A) comprises 2 191 ha located at the upstream area and served by Neyterc automatic gates; the second group (B) with a total of 3 856 ha in its command area is served by manual Romijn gates. The starting planting date is rotated between these two groups every year.

When water availability falls short a rotation water allocation among secondary canal is applied. Previously, the difference time period between both planting dates and thus the rotation of water allocation between the two groups was two weeks. Nowdays, however, and due to reduced main canal capacity, that time period is set at 30 days.

Once the irrigation water allocation is set, it is distributed along the irrigated area based on the planned K-factor. The district's irrigation service is responsible for distributing water at the main canal, the Godongan secondary FWUA is responsible for the secondary system, and the water user organization is responsible for tertiary water distribution. The FWUA at secondary level also arranges monthly meeting to discuss daily irrigation management. Irrigation water is distributed based on a two-weekly water requirements schedule.

Similar to other irrigation systems in Indonesia, the procedure for maintenance works in the SIS follows a guide manual issued by the Directorate General of Water Resources Development (DGWRD). According to the procedure, the maintenance of irrigation system consists of several type of activities, and can be differentiated based on needs; these are categorized into three categories: (i) routine (ii) periodical, and (iii) incidental maintenance.

Routine maintenance is small work that can be managed by service staff of farmers and is not necessary to be contracted. Usually, it consists of relatively easy and simple maintenance works such as greasing of gates, grassing of channel, simple repair of structures and others.

Periodical maintenance, is done either seasonally or yearly and involves somewhat more complicated maintenance involving a relatively larger budget. It can be self-managed by the District Irrigation Service (DIS) but, if it is beyond the capability of DIS staff it could be contracted to a contractor firm.

Incidental maintenance is work to rehabilitate infrastructure damage due to calamities like floods and landsslide. This kind of work can be done and managed either by staff of DIS or if the damages are relatively hard or beyond capability and capacity of staff of DIS it can also be contracted.

The majority of farmers in the SIS own their own farm. About 30% and 10 %, are tenants and share farmers, respectively. The average farm size is about 0.5 ha to 0.75 ha. But a few farmers own less than 0.30 ha. About 25 % of total land area are village properties. According to traditional law, most village leaders in Java do not get salary in terms of cash; they have the right to farm, for their own behalf, a piece of village land as a compensation for their service.

In Indonesia, most water right is not a written law. The Type of water right varies from place to place and is strongly affected by socio-cultural factors of the community. However, most farmers acknowledge riparian right in their system. Under the riparian right doctrine, anyone who possesses land next to a flowing river or stream may take its water as long as enough is left for downstream users. Such system tends to occur in areas where water is relatively abundant and where strict definition of rights is not crucial (Holden and Thobani,1997).

Prior to development of SIS, most of the area was rainfed, so traditional water right did not specifically exist in the area. Thus, the government set a new water right in line with the development of the irrigation system. In this new water right approach, farmers are only allowed to get water based on the actual crop requirements. WUA technical officer distributes water in the tertiary blocks.

For the SIS as a new irrigation system with relatively limited irrigation water available, applying downstream control in the primary system level will help the management to distribute water much more easier and equitable to all users. According to the rule, farmers are only allowed to take irrigation water from tertiary off-takes. Connecting tertiary block to or pumping directly from main canals is prohibited. Water master check water allocations in the main system daily. This work is continued by technical officer of tertiary WUA responsible for water distribution in the tertiary blocks. If there are any illegal or unauthorized water withdrawal, the FWUA can apply sanctions.

2. MODERNIZATION PROCESS

2.1 CAUSES

Different from other irrigation system that apply upstream control with manually operated gates, the SIS has a downstream control with automatic operated gates. One of the characteristics of the upstream control management is that the amount of water supplied at the head of a canal will either be used by farmers or wasted. In order to avoid too much loss of water, it is necessary to establish beforehand a very detailed program. However, this is very difficult to be implemented since it needs an appropriate water availability information system. When this facility is absent the upstream control water management tends to have relatively low water used efficiency; practicing of water hoarding usuallys occur and it is a trigger of conflict among farmers. While upstream control needs relatively low initial investment it does have relatively high and costly labor for operation. Based on the weaknesses of upstream control, the application of downstream control with automatic gates was tried in the new irrigation development area at SIS.

According to some interviews with people who were really familiar with the development process of the Kedung Ombo Irrigation System, there was no specific technical reason to undertake a modernization process by applying downstream control and automatic gates at SIS.

Development of new SIS was more due to political and economical reasons. The government had received soft loans from the government of France, through the World Bank management, to built in the automatic gates.

When the SIS was developed, some complains and pessimistic opinions actually arose from the provincial staff about this new implementation approach in irrigation water management. According to them, the application of that new approach was not as easy as previously designed. The main reasons were: (i) staff of the irrigation service and farmers as the end users were not familiar with the downstream control and automatic gates system, and (ii) the system needs very accurate flow discharge measurements, beyond existing capability. However, since the development was under control of the central government, the complains were ignored. Thus, the SIS was still constructed as designed.

The SIS was designed with both upstream and downstream automatic control water management. It was decided that 2 191 ha of the system would served as a pilot network using automatic Neyertec gates; since the SIS was the most upstream system in the Serang river regime it was to be expected that sedimentation problems would be relatively low. The downstream control was applied throughout the 13,150 m length main canal and the seven secondary canals it serves: Dimoro, Pilang, Kauman, Godongan and Genuk, Krangganharjo, and Gendingan. On the other hand, upstream control was applied to distribute water in secondary canal located downstream of the distributor structure BSr 13. The first five secondary canals use AMIL-type automatic gates and the remaining two, Krangganharjo and Gendingan canals, are served by manual Romijn gates.

Downstream control consists of regulating water levels downstream of the regulators. By applying a downstream-controlled distribution system, all water users along the canal can control discharge released from the canal. Each individual water demand is automatically transmitted back to the head of the system and the overall supply to the network will then be adjusted to suit the cumulative demand. The step-by-step transmission of the demand is ensured by constant downstream level gates, regularly spaced along the entire length of the network. In supplying the required amount of water to a certain canal section, each gate at the upstream end of each reach will open to compensate the decrease of water level.

Decreasing demand has the opposite effect; the opening of all gates will decrease one after another, from downstream to upstream. Therefore, the act of merely setting the opening gate to the required flow of certain area is enough to ensure that the corresponding amount is supplied right through the entire network. It is the reason why the main canal is equipped with downstream control devices (GORI, 1986b).

There is no manual operation for AVIO, AVIS and AMIL gates under abnormal condition. Opening and closing of the gates are totally automatic and it is not necessary to employ gatekeepers. Distributors require manual operation when the flow gate is to be change. The operation is easy and fast and consists in opening or closing the requisite combination of different sized shutters and then in blocking the locking system.

In June 1971, the Directorate of Planning and Programming of the Directorate General of Water Resources Development (DGWRD) acting on behalf of the GORI and with the help of Dutch consulting firm NEDECO, prepared a plan of water resources Development for the Jratunseluna River Basin Development Project. This general basin development plan was completed in 1973, and a feasibility study for the development of the Serang Basin was completed by NEDECO in 1976.

Early in 1977 the GORI commissioned the Australian Consultant, SMEC and its associates, SKP/ACIL with Indonesian Consultant, Nusa and Sangkuriang as counterparts to review the detailed proposals for a definite scheme for development of the river basin. On its approval, tender document were prepare to allow the implementation of the Serang river project. In May 1980, the consultant firm ECI updated the development plan for the entire Jratunseluna basin. In 1981 a review of the technical, financial and economic status of the project was carried out by SMEC assisted by Indonesia Consultant Firm Indah Karya; in preparation for the project appraisal by the World Bank. In fiscal year 1987/1988 the construction of the SIS was started and completed in 1990/1991.

Three major Departments, Public Works, Home Affair and Agriculture were involved in development of SIS and for the entire Kedung Ombo System. Public Works was responsible for construction of the system. Home Affair was responsible for institutional setting and land acquisition while the Department of Agricultural prepared agricultural extension as well as introduction of new agricultural technology and crop varieties.

Beside of these three major actors, the National Logistic Office (BULOG) trough Depot of Provincial Logistic Office (DOLOG) and Department of Co-operative Development (DCD) also supported the program. BULOG prepared rice storage and established a rice trade service in the area under a joint activity with village cooperation units. DCD established these cooperatives in every district. In order to strengthen the financial capability of cooperatives, DCD also provided technical assistance and investment capital --as soft loans-- through BRI Bank. Farmers had very limited economic capability so most of them were not capable to provide cost related to land preparation and planting. Through village cooperatives farmers could easily avail soft loan.

In line with centralistic and authoritarian government policy at that time, farmer's participation approach was not applied during the project development process. All activities were done in a top-down approach. The relatively dry area, with very limited natural resources, inappropriate transportation and lacking communication infrastructures created great difficulties for the peoples in the Kedung Ombo irrigated area. This area has relatively less prosperity than those in the Southern part of Central Java. Compare to other regencies in Central Java Province, the regencies of Boyolali, Grobogan and Demak have higher percentages of the populations who live below the poverty line.

Under the autonomous policy, started in 2000, regency government staffs have taken over the role of these departments. In that case of the Office of Settlement, Water Resources Development and Sanitation of Grobogan Regency the institution is in charge for management of the system. The Office of Agricultural is responsible for agricultural development in the area. One good success activity of this latter office was the introduction of high value crops, like horticulture.

Contrary to Southern-Central Java people who are more feudalistic, the communities of Kedung Ombo area are more egalitarian and they have hard temperament. They are also non-cooperative to authoritarian rule since ancient times. A top-down approach policy had high negative impact for the development of the Kedung Ombo irrigation system. As a result, both horizontal and vertical social and political conflicts easily happened in the area. When a conflict occurs, sometimes it is followed by anarchy actions. A good example was the conflict between the community of Kedung Ombo and the government during the land acquisition process. This conflict had not been solved until recently.

Prior to transfer to the Provincial Government some officials who would be in charge to take over the management of the system were trained by the JBDP. In relation to irrigation water management, the most important training that had already been done by the JBDP was training on O&M of irrigation system. This training was very important and special because the SIS has a unique design infrastructure. However, training for the pilot project area with Neyrtec gates was perceived rather easy, because most of these automatic gates, under normal operation conditions, should have few problems (GORI, 1986b).

Three levels (types) of training on O&M had been done by the project: (i) engineers in charge of O&M, (ii) technicians and head/staff of district irrigation service, and (iii) gate keeper. The main purpose of training for the engineers was to delivered information related to the O&M infrastructures and their performances.

Training of engineers covered classical lecturing, visits to manufacturing workshop, participating in installation, and testing of equipment put into service, etc. The engineers trained then acted as trainers for technicians and staff of District Irrigation System (DIS). Training of technicians and staff of DIS had as main objectives: (i) improve knowledge about O&M procedures, (ii) to understand how to operate devices, performances of devises and simple maintenance works. Training focused on more practical works and did not concentrate on classical lectures. The trained technicians were trainers for gatekeeper training. Finally, training for farmers was not officially scheduled. Farmers were not included in the training process. Thus, they lack knowledge about how the O&M of the system works.

2.6 ACTUAL IMPLEMENTATION OF THE MODERNIZATION PROCESS

2.6.1  Water management implementation and its problems

The SIS only worked as designed during one or two years after its completion. Afterward, the system did not function appropriately due to emerging problems related to water management. The automatic water distribution and control equipment devices malfunctioned and do not work appropriately any longer.These problems continued today.

Three main problems occurred and caused related bigger problems: (i) lack of appropriate O&M fund, (ii) inappropriate quality of contractors that built the system, and (iii) higher sedimentation rates than expected, in the system. The first problem emerged just after the system was completed. With actual O&M fund around 30% to 40 % of total needs, system performances decreased. For example, in 1999 a year before the system was transferred to the Government of Grobogan Regency, only Rp 35,000/ha/year of the required Rp 110,000/ha/year O&M fund required were available. As result, reaches in the main canal functioned under inappropriate condition, leakage occurs throughout and seepage wass heavy into the rice fields. So, the main canal no longer performs at its design discharge of 9,000 l/sec. In 2002, yearly maximum actual discharge was only 4,000 l/sec or less than 50% of designed discharge (see Figure 6, from SIS reports).

According to the design, most of main canal was built as eartfill embankment. During construction it need some soil compaction to make embankment solid enough to avoid land sliding, seepage, piping and other problems due to unconsolidated soil. Based on field observation, some places of main canal have serious problems on land sliding, seepage, soil cracking has occured and concrete walls have collapsed. Photo 8 in the Photo gallery shows that problem.

Figure 6. Maximum and minimum monthly discharge at the intake of SIS

The reducing capacity of the main canal has accelerated the sedimentation process. During the feasibility study it was known that the area had serious problems of erosion and sedimentation. Data from 1986 shows that in the Kedung Ombo, sediment loads were of the order of 2.88 x 10 6 tones per annum and catchments erosion was 3.1 mm/year. Although the relatively high rate of erosion it is still lower if compare to other catchments area in Java (GORI, 1986a). However, the designed operational procedure already anticipated this problem. Specific procedures were prepared by adjusting gates in the main canal. However, due to improper performances of all gates and other structures and the reduced canal capacity the anticipated procedure did not perform. Flow velocity in the main canal and other secondary canal is still lower than permissible minimum velocities and causes high siltation problems; and weeds grow very fast.

Decreasing water flows in the Serang River, particularly during the second and third planting seasons has also affected water availability of the SIS. The decreasing water flows is highly related to the inappropriately small catchment area of the Kedung Ombo dam. Deforestation is intensive in the area. The volume of the Kedung Ombo Reservoir sometimes also decrease due to farmers invasion of its surrounding; they still want to cultivate their former lands even though these now belong to the Kedung Ombo green belt.

During the second and third seasons, several downstream tertiary blocks, amounting to about 1 000 ha, do not get any irrigation water due to decreasing discharge flows. To meet the water requirement, most of them pump irrigation water from drainage channels and adjacent rivers. All of these tertiary blocks are located in four secondary systems i.e. Krangganharjo, Gendingan, Karangsari, and Gunungsuran, respectively.

In its operation, the SIS also provides water for mini hydro and domestic water use for the Purwodadi municipality. About 1.4 MW is provided by electricity generating power that use water from the Serang River and it is also used to meet the water demand of Sobo village and the headwork control office of SIS. Operation of electricity generating power depends on water availability since the main priority is given to domestic use and irrigation. Water discharge available for electricity varies from day to day. In August electricity power plant is closed due to the yearly maintenance works of the SIS.

A nominal amount of 150 l/sec for drinking water purposes is withdrawn from the Gendingan secondary channel, but the actual discharge also depends on water availability in the Serang River. Table 8 shows total water volume used for the mini hydro-electric plant in 2002; and Table 9 shows the discharge for domestic water use taken from the SIS. Another 100 l/sec is also taken from Lusi River, for this purpose.

Table 8. Total water volume used for mini hydro in 2002

Source: yearly report of SIS gate keeper, 2003

Table 9. Total monthly volume of water domestic use withdrawal from SIS in 2002

Source: yearly report of SIS gate keeper, 2003

Table 8 and table 9 show that water whithdrawn for mini hydropower and domestic use is much less than that of irrigation. Total water volume diverted for hydro power and doestic use are 3.2% and 7.7%, respectively. This can be understood since the main purpose of SIS development was to provide irrigation supply. Nevertheless, it is clear that the SIS was a multi-purpose project.

Irrigation policy reform was implemented in the SIS in the year 2000, or a year after the irrigation policy reform was launched. Implementation was focused on the second and third policy objectives: farmers empowerment and irrigation management transfer. Several months after the launching of the irrigation policy reform, the regency government with some facilitation of Provincial governments empowered farmers by encouraging them to set FWUA both at secondary and whole irrigation system level.

The secondary FWUA were established from September 1999 to 2000. The first FWUA formed was the Tirto Langgeng of Godongan Secondary Canal established on 11 September 1999. The association has been already legally registered in the Grobogan Court. Until today, it is the only FWUA in SIS that has already been registered in the regency court. In May 2000, representatives of WUA from all tertiary blocks in the system established a FWUA at system-level and is known as Tirto Aji.

Irrigation Management Transfer (IMT) is implemented at secondary-level of FWUA if it has already satisfied some conditions, namely : (i) the FWUA should have formally constituted and legaly registered in the regency court, (ii) it has achieved self-reliance of its organization committee, and (iii) effective irrigation service fee (ISF) has been attain; at least 60% from total target. IMT has been implemented in Godongan Secondary System. In order to accelerate the process of farmer empowerment and strengthening of FWUA organization the government provide a Community Organizer (CO) to the FWUA Tirto Langgeng. The existence of CO in the area has been done under contract basis and government has paid the salary of the CO for two years.

The role of the CO in irrigation management ---by applying a participatory approach--- is very significant. Compare to other secondary blocks that have not been transferred, the performances of FWUA Tirto Langgeng in the Godongan secondary system seems to be much better. Conflict due to water is very rare and it is always solved by the organization themself. The O&M works and water fees collecting at secondary level are being done accordingly.

The total development cost of SIS was about to US $ 26.17 million (Rp 45.17 billion). The amount was secured from a loan from the World Bank and other sources. The GORI budget was as follows (Tama, 1998):

Loan 2543-IND (World Bank loan) : US $ 13,30 (Rp 22.95 billion)

Loan from other sources : US $ 8.50 (Rp 14.65 billion)

The GORI Budget : US $ 4.37 (Rp 7.57 billion)

Total : US $ 26.17 (Rp 45.17 billion)

The consultant firms carried out a detailed comparison of construction cost. The study shows that the cost of the SIS project with automatic control gates is similar to the cost of the project if they use conventional Indonesia design standards. The hydro-mechanical devices are more expensive, but substantial savings in civil works compensates these extra costs. In general, earthworks and lining are more expensive for canals under downstream control because of the need for horizontal banks (Plusquellec, 1997). Based on SOGREAH's 1986 data, Plusquellec (1997) compared design cost of the new design of SIS with automatic gate control system if it's constructed traditionally. The comparison is given in Table 10, it shows that new design is a little bit cheaper than traditional ones but it is not significantly difference.

Seemingly, the SIS was developed more as an experimental development on irrigation water management modernization and not as a modernization policy itself . Since the SIS was constructed as a new design, evaluation prior to development was not done. However, the government conducted a feasibility study based on a comparison of performances on a “with” and “without” project basis. Two parameters, the irrigated area and expected yield such as shown in Table 11 were used on the feasibility study. After completion of the project, the system was set to have two rice seasons and one season of palawija or upland crop. Maize is the favorite upland crop in the area.

Table 10. Comparison of design cost of SIS

Source: Plusquellec, 1997
Note: Plusquellec, 1997 use 5,200 ha as SIS irrigated area, however official source states that SIS irrigated area is 5,717 ha.

Table 11. Comparison of irrigated area and yield with and without project in the feasibility study

Source: GORI, 1986b

3. IMPACT OF MODERNIZATION

There were no changes of system governance following the completion of the modernization process in the SIS. The Provincial Government is responsible for management at the main and secondary system level while the WUA does it at tertiary level. The main system management transfer that occured in 2000, from Provincial to Regency Government, was due to the implementation of the autonomy national policy and not to the modernization process per se .

3.2 WATER RIGHTS, WATER ALLOCATION AND WATER DISTRIBUTION

The improper water management activities implemented in the SIS has triggered more serious problems in the system. Water rights that had already been established by the government are no longer obeyed. Unauthorized water withdrawals directly from the main system --either by pumping or through ilegal culverts—occur now very intensively in the area.

Conflict due to water distribution among farmers occurs mostly when water is scarce, especially during the second and the third planting seasons. Previously, the time period of rotation of water allocation and distribution among secondary canal was 15 days, and it has now been extended to 30 days; only a few years later. This situation makes upstream farmers dissatisfied with system performance so that they alter the water distribution procedures. Some gates were destroyed or bent in order to interrumpt water flows; iron-made balances of the automatic AVIS's gate were stolen. As a result, downstream control hardly exists. In order to solve these problem, technicians of the District Irrigation Office use bricks, stones or fill the gates' balance tanks with water to replace the original balances. But, these measures seem useless if the roots of the problems are not solved appropriately.

Following the country's political reforms that replaced the undemocratic and authoritarian government, some people decided to disobey existing government rules, including operation procedures of the irrigation system. The economic and financial crisis that followed also brought stress to the people. These two conditions triggered some negative behavior in rural areas. A lot of metal-made parts of irrigation structures have been stolen. Anarchy and vandalism systematically occurs in the systems in detriment of farmers well being. It seems these problems occur in a vicious cycle.

Farmers are aware that the tertiary WUAs were established under a top-down process. In some tertiary blocks where irrigation water is scarce or does not arrive, farmers did not recognise the WUA as their representative organization. Until recently, some tertiary blocks farmers found no benefit in joining the WUA since water did not flow into their areas. For them, it was better to pay for pumping. This situation has begun to change.

Establishment of the FWUA, either at secondary or main system level, has been one effort to solve water management related problems. Irrigation management transfers from the regency government to FWUA, as it happened in the Godongan Secondary system seems a good example on how a transparent and democratic management can help solve problems. Conflicts among farmers have already been solved by FWUA themselves without intervention of staff of the district irrigation service (DIS). Meetings among members of FWUA are being organized on the 3 rd day of every month. The secondary FWUA also organizes water distribution at secondary level, supports O&M works and carries on ISF collection.

Although water conflicts at the secondary level are already very rare, in the primary system they still occurs rather intensively. FWUA at system level are trying to organized themselves to have more influence on how to improve water management in the SIS. Meetings are being set every month to discus water management aspects in general: conflicts resolution, system development, system management, IMT process and an activities information forum. However, it seems they are still far from the targets; one special outstanding issue is how to solve water distribution conflicts.

Water allocation between and among systems within the overall Kedung Ombo System is set annually; normally, a month prior to the beginning of the first planting season. Water distribution at system level is done by staff of DIS and coordinated with system level's FWUA; while at secondary level the distribution is coordinated between the secondary FWUAs and the technical officers of the tertiary blocks WUAs.

For example, for the planting season of 2003/2004, a meeting was conducted on September 3 rd , 2003 at the office of the Balai PSDA Serang, Lusi and Juana, in Kudus. The meeting discussed cropping patterns, planting dates, efforts to solve drought problem in the area and solution of conflicts due to illegal water withdrawals in the main irrigation system. The meeting then continued by FWUA at SIS system level on September 11 th , 2003 to discuss the same problems. An intensive dialog helped farmers to solve their own problems appropriately.

A final note on water allocation and distribution is pertinent. In practice, the use of the K-Factor (see equation 2) for water allocation seems to work improperly. First, the measuring devices along the SIS system are not fully functional due to deteriorarion of their parts. In addition, the use of the original design discharge leads to inaccurate flow measurements and requires adjustment. Second, the use of K-factors requires some forms that are too complicated and cumbersome to be fully understood by DIS officials. Besides, the DIS budget is inadequate to carry out the required field measurements. As a result, water allocation and distribution is based on the agreements during monthly meeting discussions among all of FWUA and DIS officials, rather then on actual measurments.

3.3  WATER SERVICE FEE

Irrigation water service fee was introduced by the WUAs. Farmers were charged 60 kg of paddy/ha/season to be paid twice a year, at the end of first and second seasons. However, only a few farmers really paid and thus was not effectively collected. Most of farmers refused to pay since they did not perceived the importance of paying ISF. They thought that the government should be responsible for all irrigation expenditures and that water should be free.

This condition has changed since the FWUA were established in the area. FWUAs actively encourage farmers to pay irrigation fee. Following the establishment of FWUA in secondary channels, the association stated that ISF is charged in amount of Rp 24,000/ha/year. When farmers do not get water at all, they do not need to pay.

In some secondary system the ISF is collected more intensively. For example in 2003, the 744 ha FWUA of Godongan Secondary System, has already collected an amount of Rp 7,980,000 or more than 70% of the total target. This amount was collected from an irrigated area of 500 ha. The other 244 ha are located in two tertiary blocks free from irrigation fees since these do not get any irrigation water from the system. Most of them pump irrigation water from the adjacent drainage channels. Table 12 shows the distribution of collected irrigation water fee practiced in the SIS.

Table 12. Distribution of Irrigation Service Fee (ISF); SIS secondary system

6 % Extension fund divided into: 1% for extension fund at regency level, 2% at district level and 3% at village level. Source: primary data (2003)

3.4 IMPACT ON ARICULTURAL PRODUCT AND GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT

In its original design, the SIS was projected to convert 6,100 ha of rainfed area into irrigated rice fields (GORI, 1986a). The design was then lowered to 5,717 ha (GORI, 1990) to make room for the development of the Purwodadi municipality. The design also projected that the rice production would increase by 335% due to (i) yield increase from 4 ton/ha to 4.8 ton/ha, (ii) the expansion of irrigated area, and (iii) increase from two to three planting seasons annually.

Table 13 reveals the area harvested, the production and yields of selected crops in the SIS irrigated area. The year 1989 corresponds to the condition before the operation of the SIS, the year 1997 corresponds to the condition after SIS was operated under Provincial Government management, while the year 2001 shows the most recent condition of SIS under the Regency Government management. It also shows that the operation of the SIS from 1989 to 1997 significantly improved rice area, yields, and production in Toroh and Purwodadi. In Geyer it did not show a similar trend. However, the projected production increment of 335% seemed to be overestimated. In addition, farmers tended to shift upland crops such as maize and soybean into rice as shown by the decrease of their respective areas.

Table 13. Harvesting area, production and yield of crops in irrigated area of SIS

Source: Central of Statistic Bureau, 1989, 1997, 2001

Finally, Table 13 also shows that after the transfer of management from project to the provincial government in 1996/1997, the tendency was slightly reverse. From 1997 to 2001 the rice area and production decrease while in maize and soybeans they increased.

During the period of provincial government management, the O&M fund had been inadequate so that deterioration occurred along the main canal, causing reduction in its capacity, which in turn affected water availability. Therefore some farmers anticipated the discharge decrease by shifting the second season crop from rice to upland crops.

The contribution of agriculture especially food crops to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is shown in Table 14. The table shows that based at present crop values, contribution of agriculture to GDP has been increasing. The increase of food crop contribution from 1989 to 1997 is partly due to the development of SIS.

Table 14. Gross Domestic Product of Grobogan Regency

Source: Central of Statistic Bureau, 1989, 1997, 2001; Na = data not available

Compare to other irrigation systems within the larger Kedung Ombo System, the development of SIS with its automatic gates did not result in any significant positive impact on irrigation system performance. Due to inappropriate water management implementation and construction of system design, farmers prefer to have upstream control with ordinary sluice gates instead of downstream control with the automatic gates. Moreover, its inappropriate design and water management had a negative impact and lead to the emergence of social conflict. However, in term of domestic water use availability, development of SIS in the three districts Toroh, Geyer and Purwodadi had a positive impact on health. Previously, peoples had difficulties in accessing good quality water in this area. Nowdays, even during the dry season domestic use of water is the top priority to be served by the system.

4.  CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATION

4.1 CONCLUSIONS

The development of irrigation systems in a relatively dry area like Grobogan is very important since this Regency is one of the least prosperous in Central Java Province. The irrigation system is not used only for irrigation but also to provide for domestic water use. The implementation of modernization on irrigation development such as the application of downstream control with automatic gates in the new irrigated area of the Sidorejo Irrigation System was a good idea and appreciated. By applying this new concept the SIS system was expected to increase water use efficiency, as compared to conventional upstream control with manual operated gates.

Although some parts of SIS remained under the Kepil Irrigation System with downstream control and manually operated gates, the development of SIS is to be viewed more like new development of irrigation rather than as a modernization process. Nevertheless, the introduction of downstream control and automatic gates can be considered as a modernization process in the context of Indonesian irrigation water management since most of the systems use upstream control with manually operated gates.

However, the new development that took place in SIS failed to provide for essential elements that characterize a modern irrigation system: (i) good infrastructures, (ii) strong legal and professional framework, (iii) active and growing water users associations, (iv) improved management, (v) design of supporting policies, (vi) good support services, (vii) clear linkages to overall water resource management and environment policies. These conditions could not be satisfied although the system has already been operating for more than ten years.

The failure of the SIS to become a trully modernization irrigation system can be traced to to two main reasons. First, the development of SIS did not adhere to the principled theory that irrigation system development and management should be seen as one integrated socio-technical unit. Second, the introduction of technological aspects should have been supported by developing likewise financial and institutional aspects; with the latter providing [operational] rules-for-use and not only limited to organizational matters (Huppert, 1989; Huppert et al, 2001).

The introduction of technology innovations require a suitable budgets to run accordingly. If the system lacks these minimum required funds, problems will increase and the system is not workable as previously planned. In SIS, the lack of financial support to assit in the implementation of the technological process became the main cause of inappropriate irrigation water management. Problems in the SIS became apparent just after the system was transferred to the Provincial Government and O&M funds were limited. The provincial government provided only 30% to 40% of the total O&M requirement. This however, was in line with the national trend. O&M funds provided by the national government decreased from the equivalent of 30 kg rice/ha/year during the colonial era to the equivalent 17.5 kg rice/ha/year in 1968. In fact during the period 1997/1998, O&M funds reached only 12.5 kg of rice/ha/year (Amron, 1999).

Limited O&M fund causes decreasing canal service delivery generating problems such as increased sedimentation and overgrown weeds in channels, and finally translated into decreasing irrigated area. Recently, there is about 20% of the SIS area that is receiving no irrigation water especially at the end of the second season and during the third season. To get irrigation water, most farmers have to pump from drainage channels and adjacent rivers.

It has now been documented that during development of the SIS project, some local farmers were excluded from the development process. When the management of the irrigation system runs appropriately, as it happened during the first two or three years of Project implementation, there were few social-related problems. On the contrary, when water management problems emerged, farmers decided to blame the government. They perceived the system as belonging to the government, and therefore were not responsible avoiding to participates in its management. As a consequence, the government had to solve by itself all emerging problems. Since farmers were not being given any appropriate information on the problems, vandalism and criminal action such as stealing parts of irrigation infrastructure, followed. Also, the institutional process required to assure imporved irrigation management at SIS has yet to occurred.

Another main cause of the problems was the weakness of monitoring and evaluation during the construction process. The bad quality of the infrastructure resulting from the construction of the main canal embankment utilizing unconsolidated soil could have been avoided if a properly M&E process would have been inplace during development of the project. The project was designed with a minimum lifetime of 25 years, and thus if the development proces had run smoothly, system rehabilitation after only 5 years of operation would have been uncalled for. In fact, the system underwent major rehabilitation after only one of year of operation; this happened in fiscal year 1992/1993.

Other problems are related to the decreasing flow discharge in SIS caused by a similar trend of the Serang River that supplies both the SIS and other lower irrigated areas under the Kedung Ombo service area. The deforestation and consequent deterioration of the catchment areas of the Kedung Ombo reservoir is due to social conflicts; this problem has been happening only recently.

Under the new paradigm of irrigation management policy reform, the concept of irrigation management system has shifted from the production management approach dominated by government intervention to provision management were farmers are ordered by law to act as the responsible institution for system management. As stated, in the SIS, the Godongan secondary system has already been transferred to farmers. During the early stages of the transfer, the government provide a community organizer (CO) to support and guide farmers organization. The CO has managed to empowered farmers and institutionally it works appropriately. The increasing effectiveness of Irrigation Service Fee (ISF) and activity of farmers for maintenance works --both at tertiary blocks and secondary canal level-- are results of this empowerment. The activities of water user organizations in the Godongan Secondary system show significant positive difference with un-transferred systems.

Even though the number of prosperous farmers in this regency are relatively lower than that of other regencies in Central Java, the farmers agree to pay an ISF in the amount of Rp 24,000/ha/year. This amount is higher than the Rp 15,000/ha/year for ISF of Kulon Progo Regency, Yogyakarta Special Province. Besides the secondary management level ISF, farmers are also encouraged to pay a tertiary management fee. The amount of such a fee varies from block to block and from season to season but it is set around Rp. 25,000/ha/year. As comparison, in Klambu Kiri Irrigation System one of the lower irrigation system of SIS, farmers pay Rp. 55,000/ha/year for water expenditures in tertiary blocks (PSPK-UGM-IWMI, 2003).

After the management transfer of SIS, the Government of Grobogan Regency is providing a better level of O&M funds; currently it stands at Rp 70,000/ha/year. If all farmers in the system pay the established Rp 24,000/ha/year, the required O&M budget can be satisfied. The problem is that the effectiveness of ISF collection is low with the exception of the Godongan Secondary Canal that has already been transferred. One effort to increase ISF payment has been to encourage village leaders to also pay. In the area, village leaders are paid for their work with agricultural production in village-owned land rather than in cash. They have been given the right to manage a certain piece of village property. The total village property land in SIS is about 25 % of the total irrigated area. If all village leader were to pay the ISF it would already contribute about 25% of the total ISF in the area, and would be a significant contribution towards the irrigation O&M fund. Through a Head of Regency Decree village leaders could be forced to pay the ISF.

As a final conclusion, it should be noted that the positive impact observed at SIS, derived from increasing agricultural production and hence economical indicators, can be traced more to the development of an irrigation system in a previous rain-fed area rather than on the modernization process per se .

There are three things that can be recommended in order to solve the emerging SIS problems. First, is the further development of water management institution to continue and fine-tune empowerment of farmers. Second, is the development of a better irrigation system funding mechanism. Third concerns the Kedung Ombo watershed rehabilitation and accelerating solutions to social conflict in the area.

The relatively successful irrigation management transfer case that has taken place in the Godongan Secondary System could be used as a suitable model of farmer's empowerment. The same approach can be followed to attain good irrigation management that encourages farmers to have transparent, accountable, efficient and effective water management. Actually, farmers in the area have good participatory habits in doing village life. When problems emerge and people are well informed, they can understand and easily be persuaded to solve the problems. Discussion among farmers at all level of management: tertiary, secondary and main system, is the key of moving towards the establsihment of solid and efficient water management institutions. Once dialog among farmers has been institutionalized, all emerging problems can be used as topics of discussion. For example, a major rehabilitation of a canal system can be raised as a topic of discussion. This is a priority since most of the primary channels are under bad conditions. A modern technology, such as the implementation of automatic gates is strongly depend on the conditions of the canals.

In support of the irrigation modernization process, an action research study is proposed with two general objectives: (i) to study farmers need to persevere ón better irrigation management, and (ii) to accelerate the establishment of a participatory irrigation management institution in the area. A lesson learned fron the present case study is that the introduction of irrigation modernization should proceed very carefully. It needs to provide full consideration and respect to the local culture and to follow a bottom-up participatory approach. Farmers as end-users should have a priority to be involved in and should not and can not be avoided or excluded from the development process. The top-down Implementation approach followed at SIS should no longer be repeated or implemented in other possible areas.

The on-going new paradigm in irrigation management in Indonesia still faces major problems. For example, the conservative bureaucracy refuses the irrigation reforms and appropriate institutions have not yet been formed. Therefore the introduction of modernization may cause unexpected irrigation management system performance.

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6.  PHOTO GALERY

Photo 1. Schematic map of the SIS command area

Photo 5. AVIS gate in B.Sr 11