Recent decades have witnessed important gains in the empowerment of women and marginalized people generally, leading to more inclusive governance of water resources, among other benefits. Yet, in many places, better water access and management remain beyond the reach of poor households, holding back their progress toward sustainable development.
Committed to “leaving no one behind” – the theme of World Water Day 2019 – we at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), leader of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE), are engaged in a major effort to elucidate the obstacles to socially just water management. In river basins across Asia and Africa, we are leveraging this new knowledge to help develop and promote better policies and practices.
With the aim of demonstrating the urgency and value of such innovations, we are embarking this month on the Voicing Water Visions campaign. Through a thematic journey across selected river basins, the campaign will show what inclusive water governance really means for the people who have a direct stake in it. Their own voices, opinions and photos will make the issue literally “come alive,” in a call for renewed commitment to the collaborative search for solutions.
Food for thought
How farmers in Sri Lanka have taken charge of their destiny by using motor pumps for irrigation.
Frustrated with the limitations of traditional irrigation systems, growing numbers of farmers, especially in Sri Lanka’s Dry Zone, have begun to use motor pumps for irrigation, making the leap from hand-to-mouth subsistence farming to profitable production of high-value crops. A new study (IWMI Working Paper 188) traces the rapid spread of motor pumps for groundwater irrigation, documenting its benefits (chiefly higher incomes for farmers), while also calling attention to its perils, which include the prospect of declining groundwater quality and overuse. A key challenge, as reported in IWMI News Blog and Farming First Blog articles, is how to make it possible for more farmers to benefit – especially women and other disempowered groups – while also reducing the environmental perils.
How Irrigation is Becoming an Engine for Growth in Sri Lanka
In an article on Farming First, Mohamed Aheeyar reports on a new case study documenting a remarkable agricultural transformation made possible in Sri Lanka by the rapid spread of motor pumps for irrigation.