India - Bihar Public Tubewell Project

 Bihar public tubewell project Report No: ; Type: Report/Evaluation Memorandum ; Country: India; Region: South Asia; Sector: Irrigation & Drainage; Major Sector: Agriculture; ProjectID: P009859 December 29, 1995 India: Bihar Public Tubewell Project (Credit 1737-IN) The India Bihar Public Tubewell project (Credit 1737-IN for SDR 59.5 million) was approved in FY87. The Implementation Completion Report (ICR) was prepared by the FAO/Bank Cooperative Programme and the South Asia Regional Office. The borrower's comments and evaluation report constitute Appendix 6. This project aimed to help Bihar farmers by improving public groundwater irrigation. It transferred the innovative design piloted in Uttar Pradesh (UP) through Credits 1004 and 1332, approved in FYs 80 and 83, and apparently successful at the time this project was approved. While it was later realized that the UP pilot failed, the design has been successfully adapted in West Bengal (Credit 1619, approved in FY86), giving more water to farmers and turning over working systems to irrigators. In Bihar, the new design involved piped water distribution, automatic pump and reservoir operation, and exclusive power lines to the electric pumps to protect them from chaotic operation of the public power system. Such irrigation systems were to be built to irrigate 50,000 ha. Six thousand existing tubewells were to get some combination of repair, a new-design distribution system, and their own exclusive power lines. The Minor Irrigation Department (MID) was to be strengthened. Implementation was difficult. Management was disorganized. There were too few senior staff and turnover was rapid. Coordination between tubewell and electric power authorities was poor. Because of severe electricity rationing, the borrower and IDA agreed to drop the exclusive power lines, without, however, providing an alternative solution. Electricity was available only three to eight hours per day and, largely due to this problem, more than 85 percent of the irrigation potential created was not used. At credit closing in 1994 actual construction was only 18 percent of original targets for new tubewell systems, 43 percent for tubewell upgrading, 63 percent for rehabilitation, and 12 percent for power lines. Eighty percent of the credit was canceled. The ICR and the Operations Evaluation Department (OED) agree on all ratings, rating project outcome as unsatisfactory. Economic returns are estimated to be two percent compared to 33 percent at appraisal. Sustainability is rated as unlikely because the project does not generate resources to sustain itself or for operation and maintenance by MID. Institutional development is rated as negligible. IDA performance is rated as unsatisfactory, particularly in failing to solve the power problem or to close the operation once insoluble problems were recognized. The borrower reports that these systems are being turned over, is optimistic that project outcome will ultimately prove to be satisfactory and expects to complete project works in 1998 using its own resources. OED and the ICR are less optimistic on both counts. The ICR recommends turning completed facilities over to farmers' organizations and encouraging private tubewell investment. OED concurs, adding as a lesson the importance of raising water deliveries to levels that approximate farmers' minimum needs, a characteristic of all successful adaptations of the UP experience (see the audit of Credit 1332, OED Report No. 14732 of June 1995). The ICR is factual, concise, and provides a balanced assessment of project achievements and shortcomings, while the borrower stresses the problems caused by IDA procurement guidelines. No audit is planned.