Collective Responsibility in Philippino Irrigation A New Approach

Irrigation: A New Approach Robert Wade It is by now a familiar point that many public sector water supply projects are working badly. It is also a familiar argument that substantial improvement requires more delegation of responsibility to water users, for planning and day-to-day management. Less faimliar are serious attempts to explain why, in India, the traditional top-down approach persists even for small 'tank' projects, with engineers con- tinning to have the dominant role in design and construction, and with the building of local management capabilities continuing to be overlooked. Less familiar, too, are practical suggestions about how the government might go about implementing an approach based on fostering local collective responsibility.