Impact Evaluation of the Babai Irrigation Project

Project Description

Babai Irrigation Project is one of the largest national irrigation projects, designed and being implemented by the Government of Nepal (GON) since 2045/46 BS. Main objectives of this project is to irrigate 40,000 hectare of farmland in Bardiya district, establish upper riparian right of Nepal and construct a multipurpose wire cum bridge over the Babai River and facilitate smooth transportation services in the Mid and Far Western Development Regions of Nepal. The construction of a Weir Cum Bridge in Babai River was completed in 2049 with an estimated cost of Rs 680 million. About 5.5 km main irrigation canal in eastern section was completed in 2050 and supplied irrigation water regularly in 4,000 hectare of land injecting the water in farmers’ made traditional canal like BudhiKulo, MajharaKulo, Raj Kulo, and DadhabarKulo. The GON aimed to expand 28 KM long eastern section of the canal as a national campaign in 2051 and expanded up to 22.5km by 2058 and irrigated 13,240 hectare of land.

Assignment Description

The main objective of this evaluation was to carry out the ex-post evaluation of the first phase of the Babai Irrigation Project particularly relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability and performance of the project in its second phase of the implementation. The specific objectives are as follows: • Assess the implementation process and modality of the project; • Assess the access to irrigation and right holders’ satisfaction in the project; • Assess contribution of this project irrigating the farmland for national development and meeting development expectations of local people; and • Extract the lesson learned that can be used in the future irrigation policy, plan and project. The data collection methods included Collection of investment and return data, House hold survey (1550HHs), Key informant interview (KII), Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and Field Observation. Household survey was carried out in the project affected area to assess whether the project has met the development expectation of local people and it will also assess the intended and unintended impact on local people. Appropriate sample size was designed and household survey was commissioned with specific focus on: • Land acquisition, compensation, resettlement and skill development before and during the project implementation • Change in major crop yield experienced at household • Change in household level food security • Change in health, education and income level of people in the catchment area • Satisfaction/ownership of right holders towards project. The scope of work of the evaluation were based on following criteria: • Performance evaluation (second phase of the project) Assessed the performance and implementation process of the second phase of the project based following questions: Are the input resources used as planned? Compare with planned values, (budget, human resources and equipment); Are the outputs produced as planned? Compare with target; What is the length of main, branch and secondary canals constructed and command area irrigated? • Relevance Assessed the relevancy of this project based on national context as below: Consistency with government policy, national priority and logic of implementing this irrigation project; Appropriateness of the project design, layout of irrigation canal, capacity to irrigate farmland compared with resource investment; Appropriateness in planning and implementation processes of the project. • Effectiveness Assessed the effectiveness of the project based on its goal and objectives with specific focus on the following: Whether the project components were completed in their stipulated cost and time, if there were any variations what were the reasons? Whether the reasons were documented well? If yes were they valid? If not what were the reasons?; Effectiveness in irrigating farmland against its planned capacity (summer, winter and spring seasons); Effectiveness of engineering functions (civil, hydraulic, mechanical components of the project) on the basis of historical data; Effectiveness in implementation of environmental and mitigation plans during construction and after completion of the project; Effectiveness in implementation of disaster preparedness plan; Effectiveness in safety and security measures adopted by the project specially to protect its wire cum bridge, head, siphon, main canal, branch canal and sub-canals from landslide, flood, human encroachment and other disaster related incidents; Contribution of strategic consultant located in the site in maintenance activities for effective functioning of the project; Contribution of the consultant in transferring technology (Skill, handling of equipment); To what extent did the project achieve its objectives and goal; What were the facilitating and hindering factors in effective implementation of the project? • Efficiency Assessed the efficiency of this project as below: Benefit Cost comparison- calculation of Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR); Calculation of Economic Internal Rate of Return (EIRR); Calculation of Financial Internal Rate of Return (FIRR); Allocate efficiency of the project; Resource absorption/utility efficiency of the project; Comparison of its per hectare of land irrigation cost with similar irrigation projects; Royalty generated by the project from water tariff; Comparison of irrigation efficiency with respect to target set in National Water Plan 2005 and other similar projects; What were the facilitating and hindering factors in efficient implementation of the project? • Impact Assessed the impact of the project as below: Assess long term direct and indirect effect; Contribution of this project to increase in cropping intensity and yield of major crops (cereal crops: rice, wheat, maize, potato, sugarcane, jute, soybean, mustard, cowpea, horse pea, dalhan); Contribution of this project to increase food security at household level in its command area; Impact of this project in household economy including employment generation, education, health and other welfare aspects in its command area; Meeting development expectation of local people; Socio-economic and environmental impact of the project (resettlement, aquatic life, bio_x001f_diversity, culture, economy, and other sodo-cultural dimension including gender and social inclusion); Demonstration benefit of this project in developmental activities within its influence area; Impact on local people of this project (positive and negative, if any) including the impact of community development projects implemented under the support of this project. • Sustainability This evaluation will assess the sustainability of the project as below: Sustainability in economic performance of the project; Sustainability in distribution of economic benefits to the people Sustainability in the protection of infrastructures e.g. weir, siphon, head, main canal, branch canal and sub-canal etc.; Sustainability in regular repair and maintenance (provision of regular operation and maintenance budget, availability of technically capable human resources for repair and maintenance) of the project; Strategy of the project to cope with changing climatic condition; Sustainability in maintaining the development results; Status of preparatory works for transfer of management to water user groups; Assess the organizational dimension of water user groups ( legal status, participation, power dynamic, sex ratio, inclusion); Major issue in transferring the ownership. • Equity and Access Assessed the equity and access aspects of the project as below: Whether the farmers have an equal opportunity to irrigate their farmland in command area (close to canal and relatively far from the canal); Do all farmers have equal access to irrigate their farmland irrespective of their farm size, ethnicity and socio-economic status in right time and right quantity • Right Holders' Satisfaction Are all right holders' satisfied with quality of work, timing of work, cost of the project and project implementation approach, and their participation in different phase of the project execution; Sense of ownership of the project by the right holders; Change in the right holders living standard Recommendations were given based on the facts and evaluation results in order to improve the criteria to select the irrigation project and its design, construction and operation and future policy/program/plan formulation in irrigation sector; Lessons learned, substantiated by facts and evaluation results provided in order to facilitate the knowledge products and formulation of irrigation program, policy and project in the future.