ABSTRACT
The Tinajones irrigation project is one of the most important in Peru. It is located in northern Peru on the Pacific Coast in the basin of the rivers Chancay and Reque. The irrigated area covers some 97,000 hectares, equivalent to 12,8% of the total area irrigated in the coastal region of Peru. In the years between 1970 and 1979, the project area produced from 27% to 35% of the total national production of sugar and from 15% to 32% of the total national production of rice, as well as important quantities of cotton, beans and corn.
The Tinajones Water System. The modern irrigation system was built between 1965 and 1980 and only represents part of the works envisaged in the original project proposal. Irrigation in the Chancay-Lambayeque Valley is much older, however, than the construction of the modern project. Irrigation flourished before the Spanish Conquest, after which many of the pre-Columbian works were abandoned, although irrigation continued throughout the colonial period. More recently various schemes have been executed to improve irrigation in the valley. The present project is by far the most ambitious of these schemes.
The project is made up of a series of works for the capture, diversion and storage of water. The most important include tunnels to transfer water from the rivers Conchano and Chotano, which drain to the Atlantic, to the River Chancay; from the Chancay, water is diverted along a 16 km canal with a capacity of 70 m3/sec to a lateral reservoir, Tinajones, and from the reservoir another canal leads the water back to the Chancay. This water is then distributed, in part directly and in 92part by a series of canals from the Chancay and the Reque, for irrigation. The most important canals are the Lambayeque and the Taymi serving 26% and 37% of the cultivated areas respectively. There is a complementary, but uncompleted, drainage system. The project is not completed and a second stage remains to be built which will involve more transfers from the Atlantic watershed, additional reservoirs, as well as improvements in the distribution system.
Agriculture in the area of the project is dominated by 40 large farms which since the agrarian reform of 1969 have been managed by institutions known as empresas asociativas, but almost 30% of the cultivated area is in small farms. Medium-sized farms and minifundios are of lesser significance although the latter account for over half the total number of farms. The most important products are rice and sugar. The production of sugar is concentrated in four agricultural-industrial complexes, but the production of rice and other crops is diffused through the whole irripted area to an extent which considerably complicates water management.
The Administration of the Project and of the Water Resource. The administration of the Tinajones project and of the water resource of the Chancay-Lambayeque Valley has undergone continuous change and reform during most of the period in which the present water system was being constructed and put into operation.
When the current Tinajones project was initiated, an autonomous project authority—the Executive Commission for the Tinajones Project (CEPTI)—was set up. CEPTI consisted of two parts, one responsible for the construction of the project and the other, the Administrative Council, responsible for the development of irrigation. The latter did not function well and the construction authority assumed total responsibility, which led to a relative neglect of the wider aspects of water management and a concentration on construction alone.
This situation persisted from 1965 until the agrarian reform of 1969. With the agrarian reform CEPTI became part of the new Ministry of Agriculture and Food under the Directorate of Water and Irrigation. These reforms and the loss of autonomy considerably slowed down progress on the project until a further reform in 1973 re-established the autonomy of the project management within the Ministry of Agriculture. In 1982, further changes occurred with the creation of a new project authority, within the regional development agency, consisting of representatives of the President, the Lambayeque development corporation and users of the irrigation district. This authority reports directly to an authority for autonomous corporations within the cabinet.
The successive changes in the project authority have been paralleled by change in the general policies adopted towards irrigation and water 93management. The major innovations in these areas occurred with the agrarian reform, which, among other changes, nationalized water rights, established the obligation that all water users pay for the water used on a volumetric basis, created the irrigation district as the basic unit for the administration and distribution of water, with responsibility to formulate a plan for cultivation and irrigation, and created the necessity for all water users to obtain a license.
The system of administration for the Chancay-Lambayeque district, in which the Tinajones project is located is typical of that now prevailing in Peru. The irrigation district is divided into sub-districts: the regulated irrigation district Chancay-Lambayeque in the lower valley, which is served by the project, and the unregulated irrigation sub-district in the upper valley. Each water user is registered by the district as to the location of the land, the water right and the area to be irrigated. The registered users are organized by district and sub-district of irrigation into juntas de usuarios (user committees) which include delegates from all users of water, both for irrigation and non-irrigation purposes.
These committees are responsible for the representation of users before the water authority, for the co-ordination of all actions for the development of the water resource, the maintenance of the irrigation network, the establishment and collection of tariffs, and other activities.
In turn the irrigation users are organized into Comisiones de Regantes (Irrigators' Commissions) established at the irrigation sector or subsector level. The board of directors of each commission consists of representatives of the empresas agricolas asociativas, the peasant communities, and the medium and small farmers. Within the commission, in turn, there are Comites de Regantes which nominate delegates to the commission. These last two bodies form one institution responsible for the basic community and individual participation in the management of the irrigation district, including the maintenance of the on farm and related canal systems.
The basis of the management of the irrigation district is the plan of cultivation and irrigation by means of which the administrator, in discussions with the juntas, attempts (not very successfully) to reconcile the demand for and supply of water. Once this reconciliation is achieved then the supply of water should be controlled through the sub-sectors, user by user.
The maintenance of the system of irrigation is the responsibility of the Junta de Usuarios, but some of the major works, such as the Tinajones reservoir, are maintained directly by the project and district administration. The maintenance of the secondary system corresponds to the Comisiones de Regantes.
94The financing of the maintenance and operation of the irrigation district is obtained in part from the Ministry of Agriculture, (mainly the salaries of the staff of the irrigation district), in part from the project authority, and in part from user tariffs and quotas. As in other areas of administration, the means of financing have been modified on numerous occasions. Since 1981, however, emphasis has been placed on the tariff collected through the Junta de Usuarios as the main means of meeting operation and maintenance costs of the secondary distribution system. The amounts collected have not met these costs, although the relation between costs and tariffs has been improving.
The Effectiveness of Management Within the Tinajones Project. In general, it can be said of the first stage of the Tinajones project that, although there are successful aspects to the project, as a whole the results are not entirely positive. There is evidence to support a critical view of the effectiveness and efficiency of the overall management of the water system which encompasses the project.
In examining the record of water management since the inauguration of the construction of the project the following comments can be made: considerable deviations from the original conception of the project; slowness in the execution of the project, and inconsistencies, in both the project and the water system, between the activities planned and the activities executed.
These characteristics of the management of the construction project have had a considerable impact on the evolution of the management of the water system as a whole. For example, the project, as originally conceived, included not only the construction of the reservoir and associated works, but also the remodelling of the secondary irrigation system. This has not been done, with the exception of one area, and this has resulted in considerable inefficiencies in the distribution of water and uncontrolled expansion of the irrigated area. Similarly, the slowness of the construction process led to a considerable delay in the building of drainage systems. The lack of drainage systems has been an important contributing factor to the salinization of much of the land.
The division of responsibilities within the water system—on the one hand for the management of the project and on the other for the use of water—has led to large inconsistencies in the taking of decisions. To take only one example, the project was originally planned to serve only 68,000 hectares but there are now nearly 100,000 hectares actually irrigated. This expansion has led to the use of water in areas not included within the project boundaries and outside the region subject to management. It has contributed to the failure of the use of the Plan 95for Cultivation and Irrigation as the major management tool for the operation of the water system.
The division of responsibilities has created a weak system of management much subject to outside interference and influence from all levels. Despite the annual cultivation plans, there is a lack of control of farmer behaviour. Equally, the management of the Tinajones irrigation system has been passive in the face of the imposition of the policies of other government institutions which have a negative impact on the efficiency of the system. Rice has become the dominant crop in the valley, largely as a result of the National Rice Programme. The Plan for Cultivation adopted for the project foresaw some 20,000 hectares under rice cultivation, but in fact, there has been more than twice this area under rice in most years, which places very high demands on the supply of water. The expansion was possible, in part, because of a succession of humid years, but such a situation cannot be expected to continue.
The water management system in the Chancay-Lambayeque Valley has continuously suffered from severe financial restrictions. This has contributed greatly to the slowness of the construction of the project. More recently, the lack of financial resources has contributed to the inefficiency of operations and maintenance. There is evidence, however, that this problem may be on the way to resolution as the role of the user associations strengthens.
The sum of the management difficulties of the Chancay-Lambayeque system is the synergistic result of a whole series of actions and failures to take action. There is far more than one cause or one solution for the present situation. Currently, the water system is beyond the effective control of the management. It is not true to say that the system is a failure: in many areas, the development of irrigation and water management is a success in the Tinajones project, but it is not as yet a managed water system under control.
