India - Upper Ganga Irrigation Modernization Project

 Upper Ganga irrigation modernization project Report No: ; Type: Report/Evaluation Memorandum ; Country: India; Region: South Asia; Sector: Irrigation & Drainage; Major Sector: Agriculture; ProjectID: P009813 India: Upper Ganga Irrigation Modernization Project (Cr. 1483- IN) The India Upper Ganga Irrigation Modernization project, supported by Credit 1483-IN for US$125 million equivalent, was approved in FY84. The project was restructured and its scope expanded in 1991. Disbursement of the credit took two years longer than the average for the country and the sector. The credit was closed in FY95, three years behind schedule. The Implementation Completion Report (ICR) was prepared by the FAO/World Bank Cooperative Program and the South Asia Regional Office. The Borrower's succinct comments on the ICR express concern that some judgments in the report are erroneous, being based on desk reviews instead of field visits and discussions with Uttar Pradesh government staff. The project's overall objective was to increase crop production and farmers' incomes. This objective was to be achieved by rehabilitating several major structures in the upper reaches of the Upper Ganga Canal System (UGCS); increasing the irrigated area through rehabilitation and modernization of the irrigation system; installing and electrifying new tubewells to increase the water supply; improving the ability of the irrigation department in the State of Uttar Pradesh to plan and manage irrigation schemes; establishing a water and land management institute (WALMI); and providing vehicles, plant and equipment, technical assistance and training. The project funded a six-year time slice of the UP government's rehabilitation and modernization program for the UGCS. The project was successful, and ex-post calculations of the ERRs (which include the costs and benefits of some works still to be completed) for the four main components vary between 12 percent and 20 percent, only a few points less than those calculated at appraisal. Cost overruns, delays in completion and funding constraints were offset by higher than expected cropping intensities, higher yields and diversification to higher value crops. Net farm incomes had increased significantly by project completion. Project design was complex and was made more so when it was restructured in 1991 to include completion of the construction of the interconnected Madya Ganga irrigation system. Project implementation was constrained from the outset by insufficient and untimely counterpart funding and planned work was only partially completed by credit closing. Nonetheless, the rehabilitation of the major structures in the upper reaches, although still incomplete, has been well planned, and construction is of good quality. WALMI was established and conducted many training courses. Technical assistance was provided through the Advisory Planning Group, and three studies (including socio-economic surveys of beneficiaries and a water charge system study) were carried out. These studies had had, however, little impact by project completion due to delayed decisions by management. Water rates were significantly increased after project closing, but insufficiently to fully cover the cost of operating and maintaining the irrigation system. The Operations Evaluation Department (OED) agrees with the ICR in rating the outcome of the project as satisfactory, institutional development as modest and Bank performance as satisfactory. OED downgrades the rating for sustainability from likely to uncertain given the pervasive reluctance of the borrower to increase water rates to an appropriate level. Lessons that can be drawn from this project are: (i) that it is vital for success that project scale and scope be tailored to the financial resources and institutional capabilities of the borrower and its implementing agencies; and (ii) that detailed and frequent monitoring of inputs and outputs is an essential management tool for complex and high cost irrigation systems. The ICR is of satisfactory quality. It provides a detailed account of the implementation of the project, furnishes comprehensive key indicator tables and has an excellent appendix on the economic re-evaluation. The borrower plans to complete the works of this first time-slice of its UGCS program in mid-1998. No audit is planned.