ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the emergence and implementation of water policy related to Irrigation Management Transfer (IMT), which had been the bone of contention amongst various actors in the water policy arena. In the 1990s, on the advice of the World Bank, Pakistan’s government embarked on major institutional reforms in irrigation management. The original reform proposal by the World Bank was too revolutionary for both the government and the farmers. Global experience shows that either a serious breakdown in services, an environmental disaster affecting large numbers of people, a fiscal crisis making the status quo untenable, usually drive IMTs. The water management and usage habits resulted in the lack of farmers’ trust in the authorities, anarchy, inequity, and lack of transparency. The essence of real reforms would be to reduce monopoly power of state agencies and introduce transparency in the allocation and distribution of water, thus greatly reducing the scope for exercise of discretionary powers and resultant corruption.
