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| Institutional Innovations in Irrigation Management: A case study from Pakistan, Aliabad in Hunza Valley |
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Reference |
| Dani,Anis A;Siddiqi,Najma:" Institutional Innovations in Irrigation Management:A case study from Pakistan: Paper prepared for International Conference on Public Intervention in Farmer managed Irrigation System at Kathmandu,Nepal August 3-8,1986 |
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Introduction to the Institution |
| Aliabad is located in Hunza valley,100 kms beyond Gilgit and slightly more than 700 kms from Islamabad along the Karakoram highway.Aliabad shares the irrigation system with Baltit and Hyderabad.Two smaller settlements -Dorkhand and Aga khanbad also comes within the sub system management levelof Aliabad.Residents of these villages are from the same lineages as those of Aliabad but they migrated from Ganish village.Not only agricultural crops even fruit and fuelwood trees are entirely dependent on irrigation.Wheat is the most important crop in Aliabad.With few exceptions landholdings are equitable.Traditionally,these lands are not alienable beyond the lineage.There is extremely low rainfall in this region.Glacial melt is tapped and carried through indigenous channels,locally called as "kuhl",Aliabad is irrigated through three kuhls:Samarkand, Barbar and Harchi,where Samarkand is the major kuhl divided into four secondary channels: Dalah, Makuchim,Chooshihar and Peer |
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Coverage of the Institution |
| Not reported |
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Rules for Management
of the Institution |
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(a) Boundary Rules |
| Spatial:Aliabad is located in Hunza valley,100 kms beyond Gilgit and slightly more than 700 kms from Islamabad along the Karakoram highway.Baltit is located at an altitude of 2405 metres,Aliabad proper being approx 200 metres lower
Social: The rules of this institution partly work at kuhl level, but each village has set up mechanisms for regulation and governance at village level
The relationship of water rights to land tenure varies according to the situation.In Aliabad water rights are directly linked to rights over land,allocation of water varies with land use.Wheat has top priority,with alfaalfa as winter fodder for livestock, as second.Fruit orchards come next,with plantations of multipurpose tree interplanted with grassesat the last.Trees have junior rights to water while wheat and alfaalfa have senior rights when planted on croplands. |
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(b) Governance
rules |
| From 1953 to 1985 a council"jirga" was formed for irrigation management. Jirga was set up at three levels; village level, kuhl level and lineage level.It consisted of sixteen members representing all segments of water users from the Aliabad sub-system.It acted as the sanctioning body and had a supervisory role.Aliabad's share of water was now allocated to fields on a rotational basis
Maintenance: Each kuhl is cleared and repaired at the end of May.Every households in the villages is required to participate in this annual maintenance.If any household cannot or do not wish to contribute may compensate by paying cash (Rs 300 :1985).The kuhl is divided into portions which are allocated to sub-sections of the irrigation community for repair.Minor repairs during the course of the season are done by those responsible for patrolling the length of thr kuhl, but in case of any significant breach, the user group will be mobilized for repairing, but this mobilization will include only downstream users |
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(c) Resource Allocation |
| During the summer a discharge of 5 cusecs reaches Aliabad through Dalah,the other three secondary channels have less capacity with a combined discharge of 3 cusecs,providing a total discharge of 8 cusecs for Samarkand kuhl.Barbar kuhl is also shared by Baltit,Hyderabed and Aliabad.Water is released in Barbar only when it is in excess of the capacity of Samarkand.Baltit has a fifty percent share in the discharge of Barber kuhl,the entire discharge during the day is allocated to Baltit while the nights are shared between Hyderabad and Aliabad in the ratio 9:4.Harchi is shared by Aliabad with two other villages-Ganish and Altit.Three full time watchmen look after the interests of Aliabad at the intake,additional "yatkuin"(watchmen) are appointed to supervise the flow through other regulatory gates and to patrol the entire lengh of the kuhls.At the lowest level that of individual farmers,water is shared on a rotational basis by the "Warabundi" system which determines time share of the farmers |
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Conflict Resolution Mechanism |
| Some people considered the rules for water to be anachronistic.Cash return of fruit trees are five times that of wheat, therefore there were chances of good income by selling fruits in the market which were now easily accessible after the completion of Karakorum highway.But the older farmer who earliar had to depend on self-reliance stressed the importance of food security, and argued that although trees provided shading effects on crops but they use/absorb more water.There is also a general constraint on horticulture as trees cannot be planted within 12 yards of a neighbouring field.The study suggests that in near future there may be a possibility of giving higher priorities to fruit trees |
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Problems Faced by Institution |
| Due to migration, there has been a increase in the number of absentees from the maintenance work |
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Changes in the Institution over time |
| The earliest reported management structure was lineage based, which had two levels of organization : a decision making unit( kuhl level) and operational (lineage level).To meet the needs of growing population this system had to be expanded by bringing additional tracts of land within the command area of the primary and secondary channels, these areas were also distributed among all participating lineages, and further among households within each lineage.The result was that over a period of time fragments of arable land owned by lineages and households were scattered over the entire farmland of Aliabad.The pre-existing system necessitated irrigating lands of a lineage on a single day, which was rendered impractical by the scattered nature of landholdings.A contradiction thus developed between the institutional system and the technical system.For resolving this,in 1953 a council"jirga" was formed for irrigation management,which consisted of sixteen members representing all segments of water users from the Aliabad sub-system.It acted as the sanctioning body and had a supervisory role.Aliabad's share of water was now allocated to fields on a rotational basis.
In1986,the jirga has been replaced by the Volunteer Corps of the Ismaili community which will supervise as well manage the distribution of water from the source to the farm gate.This consists of 76 members,but it shall continue to distribute water through "Warabundi" system
The replacement of Jirga system by the VC system resulted partly due to population growth and as result of the rapid incorporation of the Hunza valley in mainstream Pakistan society
There has been a change in the improvement of infrastructure, after the completion of Karakorum highway, which has made markets easily accessible |
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Other Features of Institution |
| Aliabad negotiated with AKRSP(Aga Khan Rural Support Programme)regarding the construction of new kuhl which would reduce pressure on the existing irrigation system.The kuhl was limited to 6 VOs within the Aliabad sub-system.The initial surveys revealed a cost estimate of Rs 1 million for the construction of the kuhl,which was above the usual amount of grant-Rs100,000 to a VO.But finally the total negotiated cost came around to be Rs 784,980 for all six VOs. When the construction work started the combined grants of the 6 VOs was not enough, both the estimate for labour as well as materials proved to be wrong |
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Purpose |
| Irrigation Management |
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Country |
| Pakistan(Northern) |
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Region |
| Aliabad |
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Date Of Publication |
| RS-28/03/96 |
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