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     Warabandi is a rotational method for equitable allocation of the available water in an irrigation system, by turns fixed according to a time roster, specifying the day, time, and duration of supply to each irrigator. The warabandi provides a continuous rotation of water in which one complete cycle of rotation generally lasts 7 days. The duration of supply for each farmer is proportional to the size of the farmer’s landholding to be irrigated within the particular watercourse command area. A certain time allowance is also given to farmers who need to be compensated for conveyance time, but no compensation is specifically made for seepage losses along the watercourse.

     Warabandi as an irrigation water allocation method has been practiced in Pakistan and Northern India for more than 125 years, and covers an area of about 24 million hectares of irrigated land in the two countries. While many environmental factors would have contributed to the difference in how warabandi is currently practiced in the two countries, the basic concepts of warabandi can be traced to a common origin. This report, however, does not attempt to compare the historical developments of warabandi in the two settings, but focuses on the existing gap between the original design of warabandi as a water allocation method and the way it is practiced in Pakistan today.

      Not a single watercourse in the study sample had its official warabandi schedule adhered to in daily water distribution operations. Instead, all watercourses with officially sanctioned warabandi had their schedules subsequently modified according to mutual agreement among the water users. All modified warabandi schedules displayed a fair degree of flexibility in terms of time allocation per unit of land, and resulted in yet greater flexibility in their actual application in the field. Thus, a distinction could be made between "official", "agreed", and "actual" warabandi schedules.

      In practice, there were deviations in the list of water users, the timing of water turns, and the duration of water turns. The exchange of water turns was a common feature in all the watercourses studied, while the trading of water turns was observed only in 5 percent of them. Despite the apparent mutual agreement by the water users, the practiced warabandi schedules did not relate to a high degree of equity in water distribution. In the absence of any organized water user groups, the initiative for these unofficial modifications appears to have been taken by a few influential individuals.

      Although considerable inequity has crept in through this process of locally effected modification, no strong feeling can be discerned among the water users against the flexibility that has been achieved. Interviews with farmers served to clarify that this phenomenon is not different from what exists in other sectors of the rural economy.

      The flexibility in the application of warabandi is a direct response by the water users to an increasing variability in the water flow in the canals. The variations of the water flow into the watercourses have a combination of spatial and temporal dimensions. The field data collected in the study indicate diverse water flow rates on a daily basis. Interviews with farmers confirmed that the flow variability is a common occurrence throughout the cropping season. With such flow fluctuations, the individual water turns for different farm plots within the watercourse command area during a 7-day warabandi rotation period have widely varying quantities of water per unit of land.

      Warabandi, as a water allocation method, is assumed in its design to foster an "integrated water management system", with high water use efficiency and equity in water distribution as objectives. Water use efficiency is to be achieved through the imposition of water scarcity on each and every user, and equity in distribution through an enforced equal share of scarce water per unit area among all users.

      However, the warabandi in practice, while deviating from its design, seems to provide more water to some of the users and some of the areas. The reasons for this inequity are many, and are related to both physical and social factors. The study shows that some inequity exists in the water allowances themselves assigned to different distributaries and watercourses. Part of this discrepancy is attributable to post-design changes in the command area and some ad hoc changes in the hydraulic structures. Although this design-related discrepancy does not affect the operations of warabandi within individual watercourse commands, it imposes substantial inequity in water distribution among different sets of water users within the whole system and tends to induce corresponding behavioral strategies to circumvent the individual disadvantages. In addition, the availability of groundwater seems to have encouraged the water users to disregard the discipline of warabandi.

      This report highlights the existence of an increasing divergence between design and practice of allocation rules, and points towards some of its institutional implications. It also raises the important research need to evaluate the economic implications of this divergence and the associated flexibility in water use under conditions of overall water shortage.

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