Institutional Improvement of Irrigation Management System in Korea

There are two major operation and management (O & M) systems in Korea, one by the Korea Agricultural and Rural Infrastructure Corporation (KARICO), a government corporation, and the other by non-KARICO, which includes Irrigation associations (IAs) and individual farmers under the supervision of city or county authorities. Main issues and constraints in the irrigation facility management are: (1) The dual system of the irrigation water management system; management by KARICO and that by IAs, and (2) From the commencement of KAICO in 2000, farmers were exempted from water charge. This is opposite to the international trend, which follows' user pay principle: Main specific strategies to improve irrigation management system are: (1) Introduction of water metering for water charge as well as water conservation, (2) Adoption of demand-oriented irrigation rather than supply-oriented to reduce waste of water, (3) To augment farmer's participation by forming water user associations, (4) To maintain consistency of government policy, (5) To promote roles of local governments, and (6) To reestablish the role of KARICO.