1 ANALYSIS OF INTEGRATED ON-FARM WATER MANAGEMENT UNDER IMPROVED IRRIGATION SYSTEMS SAMIR S. SALAMA *1 , ABDEL-GHANY M. EL-GINDY 2 , FRANÇOIS MOLLE 3 , YASSER E. ARAFA 2 , AND WALEED. H. ABOU EL-HASSAN 4 1 Water Relations and Field Irrigation Department, National Research Centre, Cairo, Egypt 2 Department of Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt 3 IRD, UMR 183 G-EAU – IRD, 361, rue JF Breton, BP 5095, 34196 Montpellier Cedex 5, France 4 Water Management Research Institute, NWRC, NWRC Building, 13621/5, Delta Barrage, Egypt ABSTRACT Optimization of the limited water resources through improving the irrigation system is getting essential in Egypt. A number of projects such as the Irrigation Improvement Project (IIP) have been implemented to reduce water demand and rationalize irrigation at the secondary and tertiary levels. In the W10 area studied in this presentation, the IIP project has introduced collective pump stations using electrical power instead of diesel and replaced on-farm distribution ditches (marwas) by piped networks and hydrants. The main objective of this study was to evaluate whether the proposed innovation was effective, how implementation differed from planning, and how the system was coping with water scarcity conditions, by taking the example of the El-Masharqa secondary canal, in the W10 area. The study showed that the inflow of water into the canal was neither continuous nor based on the conventional rotational system, and depended on both supply from the main canal and a connection with made even more uncertain by the fact that around half . A major head-tail difference in water distribution and no equity in water distribution were observed, against IIIMP project goals. Although collective pumps were supposed to replace individual pumps, an intensive use of individual pumps on both canals and drains was very common, especially during the high water demand period in summer, to cover the shortfall of water at canal level. This leads to increasing un-official reuse of water. The management of the pump stations, and of the distribution pipe systems, was found to be quite effective but collective action differed markedly from the formal WUA promoted by the project. KEY WORDS; Water management; Irrigation improvement; Reuse drainage water; Egypt. ________________________ Évaluation des options……………  Correspondence to e-mail: Samir S. Salama. Water Relations and Field Irrigation Department, National Research Centre, Cairo, Egypt. Samirsalamapro@yahoo.com