The 97^th RIHN seminar

Abstract:

In this presentation, a ongoing prosess for establishing participatory water management in Sulawesi, Indonesia will be highlighted. The Bili-bili dam, which was completed in 1999, is the first multi-purpose dam in Sulawesi for both flood protection and water supply. Most of water in the reservoir is utilized as irrigation for 23.000 ha rice field. The reservoir and associated irrigation facilities completed in 2004 provided water during dry season in the area. Supplied water is designed to serve 100% rice plant during the first half of dry season (May to August) and 40% of later part of dry season alternative crop (September to November). In some areas, however, the water shortage problem limited the planting area during the dry season. In order to fulfill the needs of farmers to plant dry season paddy, we decided to improve irrigation water supply during the dry season with farmers. At first, we involved in the farmers desired to plant rice and decided to investigate the causes of water shortage with scientific data, by measuring the water quantity and quality, and crop water requirement in the field. Farmers participated in ground water level, water supply, and production rate measurement. We also found that farmers ,in fact, have already applied several practicical solutions for water shortage by utilizing re-use of drainage water, ground water and so on Therefore, we decided to validate these farmers solutions before stepping up with other possible options. We believe that validation with scientific data will ensure the capacity of farmers in decision making. For water distribution management we are examining the involvement of traditional water master into the national level top-down style water users association. And we also looking for other traditional ways of working together (gotong royong) or traditional way of discussion and communication or leadership style by involvement of social and humanity researchers . By understanding the social structure, we can make adaptation to the applicable or understandable research design which will lead to the better co-design and co-production.

Brief CV:

Senior Lecturer at Faculty of Agriculture Hasanuddin University Makassar INDONESIA since 1982. Master and PhD degree in Hydrology Kyoto University in 1992. Supervise undergraduate and Graduate students. Also involved as JICA expert and local consultant for various JICA project including revegetation project, poverty reduction etc, mostly for community development. Since 2011 as a core member of RIHN Water Management Project. Implement the project in Sulawesi Indonesia with solution oriented participatory research collaborate with Local Community and Japanese.

Contact:
KURATA Takashi (Associate Professor, RIHN)
Research Institute for Humanity and Nature
457-4 Motoyama, Kamigamo, Kita-ku, Kyoto, 603-8047, Japan
Phone : +81-75-707-2382
Fax : +81-75-707-2513
E-mail:

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