Open Access ISSN: 2168-9768 Irrigation and Drainage Systems Engineering Research Article Volume 10:6, 2021 Performance Evaluation of Organizational Arrangement in Irrigation Water Management at Serenta Irrigation Scheme, Northern Ethiopia Abstract This study was conducted to evaluate the performance of organizational arrangement for irrigation water management in Serenta irrigation scheme. The different indicators considered were Water Users Association (WUA) structure, water allocation and distribution systems, water distribution fairness status, conflict management mechanisms in water use, canals cleaning and maintenance performance and organizational support service on irrigation water management. To evaluate the performance of organizational arrangement of the irrigation water management practices, questionnaire survey data collection method was used. The data generated through the household survey were analyzed using SPSS software. Eighty nine per cent of the respondents responded that the organizational performance of the current water users association in the irrigation scheme was poor. This attributed for unfair water distribution system and conflict on water use. To distribute the water fairly among users and to minimize the water loss, water users association should be strengthened and training on irrigation water management need to be arranged for the farmers. This implies that, presence of strong water users association in particular and presence of well organizational arrangement in irrigation water management is corner stone to build an effective irrigation development. Keywords: Organizational arrangement • Performance • Water management • Water users association Gebre Gidey Weldeabzgi* Department of Natural Resource Management, Dambi Dollo University, Ethiopia *Address for Correspondence: Gebre Gidey Weldeabzgi, Department of Natural Resource Management, Dambi Dollo University, Ethiopia, E-mail: gebregidey09@ gmail.com Copyright: © 2021 Gebre Gidey Weldeabzgi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Received 14 June 2021; Accepted 28 July 2021; Published 3 August 2021 Introduction Irrigation Water Management is defined as management of irrigation water on farm with the objectives of delivering water in the right amount, at the right place, and at the right moment, in a way that will satisfy the water requirement of the crop [1]. Inadequate management of available water for irrigation at system level has led to a range of problems and has reduced the benefits of irrigation investments [2]. Irrigation systems cannot match their intended objectives without appropriate organizations to manage, preserve and control the system [3]. Building a strong irrigation organization is one of the major aspects of a successful and sustainable irrigation management [4]. As a result, the performance evaluation of organizational arrangement of irrigation water management has got the highest priority in irrigation research among other researches needed to resolve the problems of irrigation management, and equity of water distribution between irrigation users [5]. The performance of organizational arrangement can be simply defined as the level of achievement of the operating decisions to deliver irrigation water from a water sources to the crop [6]. The performance evaluation is based on certain qualitative indicators of descriptions, comparisons and responses from stakeholders, including farmers and key informants to manage the annual flow of irrigation water from the main feeding canal, coordinate the sharing of irrigation water among different farming units, and responsibility for the maintenance and repair of the on-farm infrastructure [7]. In Ethiopia, although organizations for irrigation management existed in different forms, they are neither generally well recognized nor endorsed by the public sector. More emphasis is given to technical aspects and less emphasis to the managerial and organizational issues. The organizations for irrigation management generally lacked appropriate regulation and legal basis to function properly [4]. This study was conducted to evaluate the of organizational arrangement performance of irrigation water management; in terms of Water Users Association (WUA) structure, water allocation and distribution systems, water distribution fairness status, conflict management mechanisms in water use, canals cleaning and maintenance performance and organizational support service on irrigation water management at Serenta irrigation scheme, Northern Ethiopia. Serenta irrigation scheme is one of the biggest newly constructed dams in Northern Ethiopia. The investment in this scheme is expected to bring significant impact on livelihoods of many of the farmers’ as well as the regional economy. To attain this, farmers are supposed to apply water in equity manner and practice sustainability using well organized arrangement. But, water losses and unequal water distribution between users are commonly observed. However, so far, there was no research done on the performance evaluation of organizational arrangement of the irrigation scheme. The evaluation of the performance of organizational arrangement performance of the irrigation scheme is needed in order to put appropriate measures for water management of the scheme and to enhance farmers’ water use, organizational arrangement for irrigation water management. It is believed that this study will help the farmers at the irrigation scheme, researchers; local and regional decision makers in developing appropriate strategies for enhance water use of irrigation schemes. Materials and Methods Description of the study area Serenta irrigation scheme is located in Tselemti district, North Western zone of Tigray regional State, Ethiopia. It lies between latitude of 13°36' 29" - 13° 34' 18" N and 38° 09'45"- 38° 10'44" E longitude. The elevation of the area ranges from 1315 m (downstream end of the command) to 1388 m (highest point in the catchment) above sea level (Figure 1). According to the ten years (2008 – 2017) climatic data from May-tsebri station (meteorological station nearest to the irrigation scheme), the study area is mainly hot semi-arid, with mean maximum and minimum temperature equal to 33.3 o C and 18.4 o C respectively [8]. The annual average rainfall is 811.81mm [8]. Serenta dam is earthen embankment type, which has 32.82m height, 814.15m length, two manually controlled gates and 8,435, 983.81m 3 reservoir volume capacities [9]. The scheme has a total command area of 520 ha with total beneficiary of 800(420 adults, 231 young and 150 females), out of which only 382 ha in 2016/17 and 394 ha in 2017/18 were irrigated [8]. Almost all