Effects of an Irrigation Project in Prevention of Migration from Rural Areas Yasemin Kuslu Received: 24 May 2006 / Accepted: 16 April 2007 / Published online: 23 May 2007 # Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2007 Abstract The effects of an irrigation project on rural migration were investigated by applying questionnaires to the residences living around the reservoir. Relationships between the migration idea and education level, age, extent of cultivated and owned area of each of family heads have also been examined. It was determined that irrigation projects affected rural development through in many ways, such as improvement of agricultural productivity, increase of activities on farm and alteration of human–land relationships, but still many local people living rural areas preferred to leave their villages in order to settle in big cities. Most of the farmers found the urban centers more attractive with the though of having opportunity for a better chance for education, employment, housing etc. without paying attention the employment. It has been found that migration idea was not depending on the extent of cultivated area and education level of the family heads. However, age and amount of farmland played very significant (p <0.01) role in rural migration. Keywords Rural migration . Irrigation projects . Rural infrastructure . Developing countries 1 Introduction The percentage of rural people is about 33% in Turkey (WDI 2006). And reduction about 8% in rural population rate indicating the migration rate into urban areas was recorded from 1990 to 2004. Similar act of population is shown in some countries in this period such as Bulgaria (from 34 to 30), Greece (from 41 to 39), Iran (from 44 to 33) and Romania (from 47 to 45; DIE 1994, 2002; WDI 2006). Continuing influx increased both the pressure on the infrastructure and the number of suburban areas with poor neighborhood in modern cities (Epstein and Jezeph 2001). Therefore, rural development which objectives the integration of facts in many cases socio-economic and environmental aspects has been very important for the development of any country (Nelson 2001). Water Resour Manage (2008) 22:611–619 DOI 10.1007/s11269-007-9181-0 DO9181; No of Pages Y. Kuslu (*) Department of Agricultural Structures and Irrigation, Ataturk University, 25240 Erzurum, Turkey e-mail: ykuslu@atauni.edu.tr