Actual situation of using irrigation funds for direct compensation for grassroots irrigation organizations to manage and exploit small and in-field irrigation works according to decentralization

Assoc. Dr.Doan Doan Tuan, ME. Tran Viet Dung

Center for Participatory Irrigation Management

Abstract

This paper, on the result of survey, analyses the revernue and expenditure on O&M of  Grassroots irrigation organizations. Depending on the size of the grassroots irrigation organizations, the subsidized funding from the government is from VND 180 million to VND 130 million for an organization in the mountainous areas and the Central Highlands; from VND 560 million to VND 300 million in the RRD and Central coastal provinces. This funding is mainly used for operation management expenses, from 20-60%, and maintenance. In the Southeast region (Tay Ninh, Binh Phuoc) and some provinces in the South Central region (Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan), most of the grassroots irrigation organizations do not manage the independent works so they do not receive on-farm irrigation support. In the Mekong River Delta, the allocation of irrigation compensation costs to districts for maintenance and dredging irrigation works in the district has an average value of 17,124 million VND / district. The level of on-farm irigation fee at grassroots irrigation organizations in the Mekong River Delta is about VND 800,000-1,500,000 / ha. For the rest of the country, from 200,000 VND / ha, In mountainous areas to 600,000 VND / ha in the Red river Delta. All of this on-farm irrigation fee collection is used for the management and operation of on-farm irrigation network. The percentage of on-farm irrigation fee collection is approximately 100% for the Mekong Delta and the central and downstream regions of the Red River Delta. In other regions, the collection rate is around 80-90%.