Obstacles to Water User Participation in Managing Irrigation and Drainage Systems of Doroudzan Area in Iran

Irrigation and Drainage System of Doroudzan is the most modern system in Iran and the largest one in Fars province. This site was selected and studied to identify the obstacles that water users face when participating in the management of irrigation and drainage system.The required data were collected through interviews and 118 questionnaires were filled, using a two-stage random sampling method. We used multiple choice Likert scale and relative frequency percentage. Study results indicate that the water user participation in various stages of complementary program for the Doroudzan irrigation and drainage system tends to be at a low level in general, while another finding of the study shows that the water users recognize the advantages of participation. The obstacles to participation in the Doroudzan system area based on their priorities include: government organizations, local organizations, economic problems of the water users, lack of adequate understanding and cooperation among water users, inadequate attention to training and extension, and insufficiency of water distributed. In order to remove or reduce these obstacles, the paper recommendations include: a revision of the present roles of the public organizations related to the system, improving and enhancing the formations and structure of local organizations, an urgent attention paid to the economic problems of water users, more attention to training and extension, and distribution the of adequate water.