Your search found 7 records
1 Venot, J. P.; Sharma, Bharat R.; Rao, K. V. G. K. 2008. Krishna Basin development: interventions to limit downstream environmental degradation. Journal of Environment and Development, 17(3):269-291. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/1070496508320532]
River basin development ; Environmental degradation ; Ecosystems ; Water allocation ; Groundwater ; Aquifers ; Salinity ; Irrigation canals ; Lakes ; Wetlands / India / Krishna Basin / Kolleru Lake
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: IWMI 577.64 G635 VEN Record No: H040577)
(0.73 MB)
Since India gained Independence, the Krishna basin has seen an increasing mobilization of its water resources. Warnings of basin closure (minimal flow to the ocean) emerge during dry periods. Basin water development and local rural dynamics have led to a degradation of downstream ecosystems manifesting itself by salinizing soil and groundwater, increasing pollution, making mangroves disappear, and desiccating wetlands. Reversing this evolution requires the formal recognition of the environment as a water user in its own right and the implementation of an environmental water provision. This provision should be based on a two-tier allocation system with assured discharges in the irrigation canals of the delta and to the ocean. This will lead to further commitment of water resources, but this is needed to reconcile the social, economic, and environmental objectives of sustainable development. Other measures facilitating integrated natural resources management from the local to the basin level are needed too.
2 Massuel, S.; George, B. A.; Venot, J.-P.; Bharati, Luna; Acharya, S. 2013. Improving assessment of groundwater-resource sustainability with deterministic modelling: a case study of the semi-arid Musi sub-basin, South India. Hydrogeology Journal, 21:1567-1580.
Groundwater management ; Water resources ; Water supply ; Sustainability ; Arid lands ; River basins ; Aquifers ; Models ; Case studies / South India / Musi River Basin
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H046196)
(1.08 MB)
Since the 1990s, Indian farmers, supported by the government, have partially shifted from surface-water to groundwater irrigation in response to the uncertainty in surface-water availability. Water-management authorities only slowly began to consider sustainable use of groundwater resources as a prime concern. Now, a reliable integration of groundwater resources for water-allocation planning is needed to prevent aquifer overexploitation. Within the 11,000-km2 Musi River sub-basin (South India), human interventions have dramatically impacted the hard-rock aquifers, with a water-table drop of 0.18m/a over the period 1989–2004. A fully distributed numerical groundwater model was successfully implemented at catchment scale. The model allowed two distinct conceptualizations of groundwater availability to be quantified: one that was linked to easily quantified fluxes, and one that was more expressive of long-term sustainability by taking account of all sources and sinks. Simulations showed that the latter implied 13% less available groundwater for exploitation than did the former. In turn, this has major implications for the existing waterallocation modelling framework used to guide decision makers and water-resources managers worldwide.
3 Venot, J.-P.; Suhardiman, Diana. 2014. Governing the ungovernable: practices and circumstances of governance in the irrigation sector. International Journal of Water Governance, 2:41-60.
Irrigation management ; Development ; Governance ; Policy making ; Bureaucracy ; Water resources ; Water user associations ; Investment ; Reservoirs ; Farmers ; Case studies / Ghana / Indonesia
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H046571)
(1.21 MB)
Since the early 2000s, governance has been at the core of the international water agenda. This has elicited calls for reforms in the irrigation sector, including efforts to address the problem of corruption. Nevertheless, the history of policy reform in the irrigation sector is one of repeated institutional refinements, which have hardly materialized into grounded policy measures and practices. Though international donors, policy makers, irrigation scholars and practitioners have long agreed to invest in the ‘soft issues’ of irrigation, most policy interventions have retained a focus on infrastructure-oriented development. This paper identifies decisive factors that preserve the status quo in irrigation development. We draw our analysis on empirical data from countries with a recent (Ghana, West Africa) and long (Indonesia) irrigation history. Beyond the idiosyncrasies of the two case studies that highlight that everyday practices are embedded in, and constrained by, existing institutional rules and mechanisms, but also contribute to shaping these, we make a broader theoretical point. We argue that the ‘business-as-usual’ trajectory that characterizes the irrigation sector is also rooted in the very concept of governance, which is fundamentally about “governing”, that is a practice aiming at steering people towards defined ends, and through different means such as infrastructure, management practices and policies.
4 Wanvoeke, J.; Venot, J.-P.; Zwarteveen, M.; de Fraiture, C. 2015. Performing the success of an innovation: the case of smallholder drip irrigation in Burkina Faso. Water International, 40(3):432-445. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/02508060.2015.1010364]
Drip irrigation ; Irrigation systems ; Smallholders ; Farmers ; Irrigation programs ; Market gardens ; Horticulture ; Technology transfer ; Innovation adoption ; Poverty ; Development agencies ; Non governmental organizations / Africa South of Sahara / Burkina Faso
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H047455)
(0.45 MB)
Over the last 15 years, smallholder drip irrigation has gained almost unanimous popularity as an effective tool to achieve the combined goals of sustainable water use, food security and poverty alleviation in the developing world. Based on a study in Sub-Saharan Africa, this article shows that this popularity does not stem from what the technology does in farmers’ fields, but is the result of the concerted efforts of a number of key spokespersons to align it with the projects and interests of a variety of actors, including development agents, researchers, NGO staff and pilot farmers.
5 Venot, J.-P.; Kuper, M.; Zwarteveen, M. (Eds.) 2017. Drip irrigation for agriculture: untold stories of efficiency, innovation and development. Oxon, UK: Routledge. 341p. (Earthscan Studies in Water Resource Management)
Drip irrigation ; Irrigated farming ; Irrigation efficiency ; Innovation ; Irrigation programs ; Development projects ; Irrigation systems ; Groundwater ; Water conservation ; Collective behaviour ; Social participation ; Modernization ; Appropriate technology ; Costs ; Irrigation equipment ; Investment ; Exports ; Agricultural policy ; Agrarian reform ; Gender ; Farmers ; Smallholders ; Entrepreneurs ; Small farms ; Nongovernmental organizations ; Donors ; State intervention ; Subsidies ; Green revolution ; Deserts ; Case studies / Africa / Burkina Faso / Algeria / Zambia / Morocco / Chile / Peru / Mexico / India / Saiss Region / Guanajuato / Gujarat / Bittit Irrigation System
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: 631.587 G000 VEN Record No: H048261)
(0.37 MB)
6 Ivars, B.; Venot, J.-P.. 2019. Grounded and global: water infrastructure development and policymaking in the Ayeyarwady Delta, Myanmar. Water Alternatives, 12(3):1038-1063.
Integrated management ; Water resources development ; Water management ; Infrastructure ; Water policy ; Policy making ; Political aspects ; Strategies ; Irrigation programs ; Reclamation ; Deltas ; Rivers ; Flood control ; Agricultural production ; Rice / Myanmar / Ayeyarwady Delta
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H049352)
http://www.water-alternatives.org/index.php/alldoc/articles/volume-12/v12issue3/554-a12-3-10/file
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H049352.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H049352.pdf
(1.44 MB) (1.44 MB)
Seen as hotspots of vulnerability in the face of external pressures such as sea level rise, upstream water development, and extreme weather events but also of in situ dynamics such as increasing water use by local residents and demographic growth, deltas are high on the international science and development agenda. What emerges in the literature is the image of a 'global delta' that lends itself to global research and policy initiatives and their critique. We use the concept of 'boundary object' to critically reflect on the emergence of this global delta. We analyse the global delta in terms of its underpinning discourses, narratives, and knowledge generation dynamics, and through examining the politics of delta-oriented development and aid interventions. We elaborate this analytical argument on the basis of a 150-year historical analysis of water infrastructure development and policymaking in the Ayeyarwady Delta, paying specific attention to recent attempts at developing an Integrated Ayeyarwady Delta Strategy (IADS) and the role that the development of this strategy has played in the 'making' of the Ayeyarwady Delta as a global delta. This lays the groundwork for a broader critique of recent efforts to promote a 'Dutch Delta Approach' internationally, which we contend not only contributes to, but also aims at, making this global delta a boundary object. Such efforts play a key role in structuring an ever-expanding actor network supporting delta research and (sustainable/integrated) development. However, the making of a boundary object such as the global delta also hinges on depoliticising (delta) development. This, we consider to be problematic notably in the context of Myanmar where land and water politics have strongly shaped the changes the Ayeyarwady Delta has and will continue to witness.
7 Lankford, B.; Closas, A.; Dalton, J.; Gunn, E. L.; Hess, T.; Knox, J. W.; van der Kooij, S.; Lautze, Jonathan; Molden, D.; Orr, S.; Pittock, J.; Richter, B.; Riddell, P. J.; Scott, C. A.; Venot, J.-P.; Vos, J.; Zwarteveen, M. 2020. A scale-based framework to understand the promises, pitfalls and paradoxes of irrigation efficiency to meet major water challenges. Global Environmental Change, 65:102182. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102182]
Irrigation efficiency ; Water management ; Frameworks ; Policies ; Water allocation ; Irrigation systems ; Water scarcity ; Sustainable Development Goals ; Hydrology ; Technology ; River basins ; Canals ; Water use ; Water loss ; Stakeholders ; Farmers
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H050057)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378020307652/pdfft?md5=1d4aa4ec98836a41507a0dfd1fd6fb3a&pid=1-s2.0-S0959378020307652-main.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H050057.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H050057.pdf
(2.53 MB) (2.53 MB)
An effective placement of irrigation efficiency in water management will contribute towards meeting the pre-eminent global water challenges of our time such as addressing water scarcity, boosting crop water productivity and reconciling competing water needs between sectors. However, although irrigation efficiency may appear to be a simple measure of performance and imply dramatic positive benefits, it is not straightforward to understand, measure or apply. For example, hydrological understanding that irrigation losses recycle back to surface and groundwater in river basins attempts to account for scale, but this generalisation cannot be readily translated from one location to another or be considered neutral for farmers sharing local irrigation networks. Because irrigation efficiency (IE) motives, measures, effects and technologies play out at different scales for different people, organisations and purposes, and losses differ from place to place and over time, IE is a contested term, highly changeable and subjective. This makes generalisations for science, management and policy difficult. Accordingly, we propose new definitions for IE and irrigation hydrology and introduce a framework, termed an ‘irrigation efficiency matrix’, comprising five spatial scales and ten dimensions to understand and critique the promises, pitfalls and paradoxes of IE and to unlock its utility for addressing contemporary water challenges.
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