Village, Technology, and Bureaucracy: Patterns of Irrigation Organization in Comilla District, Bangladesh

Throughout much of the Asian region the development of new and the rehabilitation of existing irrigation systems is seen as a primary aspect of agricultural development. Irrigation development, like other strategies of agricultural development, is reliant upon a combination of appropriate technology and organizational arrangements for utilizing th The simple separation of powers and responsibilities creates the need for a pattern of articulation between the irrigation bureaucracy and the local water users. In an effort to increase the understanding of possible articulation modes, it is worthwhile to examine arrangements that have been made in Bangladesh as part of the Thana Irrigation Program (TIP).TIP links cooperative societies with an agency of the government, Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC), in order to accomplish the distribution, operation, and maintenance of irrigation pumps used for the production of a winter crop. A case study of one village in Comilla district suggests that the effective articulation of irrigation programs can happen when village groups are granted a large amount of responsibility for managing irrigation and if a variety of village-developed or -originated organizational arrangements for this management are allowed.