1 Overall Management by PJTII
1.1 The JIS System
1.2 System Organisation
The JIS is managed by 4 Divisions under PJT II and each Division
has Section and Pengamat offices as seen in Figures 1.
There are number of staffs of Provincial Water Resources Office
(Dinas PSDA Provinsi) seconded as gate operators in the field.
The operators of weirs of local headworks are staff of BBWSC.
1.2.1 Water acquisition process for irrigation
PJT II annually issued “Instruksi Direksi” as a plan of water
allocation for irrigation (including water allocation for DMI) based
on the result of coordination meeting with 5 Kabupaten
Governments within Jatiluhur Irrigation area in which legalized by
Governor decree. The water allocation for irrigation is computed
based on number of ‘golongan’, area of each golongan, and stage
of crop growth. Subsequently, the allocation of water in WTC,
ETC, NTC and main canals of local sources (Bekasi, Karang,
Beet, Salamdarma, Gadung, Macan, Jengkol, Barugbug) are
determined.
It is noted that the role of Irrigation Council to coordinate
stakeholders in defining cropping pattern and its schedule in
which officially stipulated in Minister Decree of Public Work and
Housing (Permen PUPR) No 12/2015 and (Permen PUPR) No
17/2015 has not been followed.
‘The Instruksi Direksi’ is used as guidance for offices of Divisions,
Sections and Pengamats in the operation of canal system.
Pengamats and its field staffs (Juru) disseminate defined
golongan and its cropping schedule to farmers through meetings
and sending official letter to related offices of kabupaten
governments.
The actual field condition of practiced golongan and cropping
schedule are not in accordance with ‘the Instruksi Direksi’ so that
delivering water at turn out structures is following the actual stage
of crop growth. Pengamats and Jurus record the area of actual
cropping schedule and report to Section Office and then it is
reported to Division Office.
Section Offices record discharge at the intakes of local headworks
and division structures of WTC, ETC and NTC. Discharge
measurement is carried out by measuring devices structures. It is
noted that most of the measuring devices at the intake of the local
headworks need to be rehabilitated.
Almost all of measuring devices at turnout structures along
secondary canal are missing so that releasing discharge at the
turnout is carried out by estimation from the opening gate.
Division Offices and other PJT II staffs carry out regular meeting
to discuss the actual cropping schedule and the implementation of
water distribution for evaluation and are reported in annual report
of PJT II.
Cropping schedule is different in each village. Local farmers
decide the start of planting date through farmers’ meeting.
Basically, the start of planting date is based on the experience of
farmers on water reliability and arrival time of pest. There is
communication between farmers and local field staffs of
Pengamats in the process of distributing water. There are formed
Water User Association (Mitra Cai) and Agriculture extension
worker in some particular villages. The cropping pattern is mostly
two times rice crop a year.
Most of tertiary canals are in good condition and Kabupaten
Agriculture Office providing budged assistance to line the canals.
Most of quaternary canals and tertiary boxes do not exist so that
water distribution within tertiary blocks is carried out by field to
field and ultimately the rest of water flowing into drainage canals.
Field staffs of Pengamats know about the location of the
boundaries of each tertiary block.
1.2.2 Water allocation, formal water use rights and the
golongans system
The actual cropping schedule is not following PJT II ‘Instruksi
Direksi’ as illustrated in Figure 2. The beginnings of planting
season in both rainy and dry cropping seasons are late compare
with what is planned in ‘Instruksi Direksi’. Apparently, farmers are
deciding themselves on when they like to start cultivation based
on their tradition although Pengamat field staffs encourage them
to follow ‘golongan’ as planned in ‘Instruksi Direksi’.
Most farmers are not willing to plant third crop, neither rice nor
palawija crops, due to some reasons however, it is very likely that
third crop is not in their tradition. Farmers grow palawija crop
along the bunds of rice field while at the same time they grow rice
crop. During fallow period after harvesting they work as labor for
cultivation in the other villages. According to them working as
labor is more reliable to earn income rather than planting the third
crop.
Released discharge into main canals of WTC, ETC and NTC
basically follows scheduled half monthly discharge in ‘the Instruksi
Direksi’ although the planned golongan is not followed by farmers.
This condition potentially creates water distribution issues in the
field. In the current condition, issues on water allocation are
locally discussed and solved in the field between farmers and the
field staffs of Pengamats. It seems that social unrest due to water
shortage has never happened.
1.2.3 Distribution systems including gilirans / rotations
Water distribution from turnout structures along main and
secondary canals into rice fields is based on actual cropping area
and stage of cultivation of rice crop. However due to missing of
measuring devices and might be missing of computation of crop
water requirement the amount of allocated water through turnout
gate is carried out by estimation. The estimation of released
discharge might be based on consideration that the amount of
discharge should allow field to field water distribution in tertiary
block and to satisfy farmers. Thus such water delivery is
considered less effective because there is waste water flowing
into drainage canals. This might be one of the causes of water
shortages at the locations shown in Figure 3 and Table 1 with
total area of about 12,240 ha. Figure 3 shows that the locations
of water shortage are mostly located at downstream end of
secondary canals.
The implementation of rotation of water distribution (called gilir-
giring) as seen in Table 1 is carried out by fully open and fully
close of the gates of turnout structures and control structure. Prior
to the implementation Pengamat conduct farmers’ meeting to
discuss and to get agreement on the rotation system.
1.2.4 Water delivery and measurement
Minister Decree of Public Work and Housing (Permen PUPR) No.
12/2015 on O&M of Irrigation System stipulate procedure of
operation of irrigation system including water delivery and
measurement. This is the rational way to effectively operate the
irrigation system. However, the operation of Jatiluhur irrigation
system has not followed that Minister decree. This might due to
the following reasons;
- Lengthy process in implementing participatory works to
include WUAs and Irrigation Councils to plan cropping
pattern and cropping schedule
- Require routine and tight daily activities of field staffs to
record data as input for computation of required discharges
for implementation of half monthly water delivery
- Lack of infrastructures such as measuring devices to support
the implementation of that activity
- It is felt that the implementation of the current water
distribution including rotation system is sufficiently adequate
because there have never been any serious problems
coming from farmers' community as beneficiaries.
It needs deeper study about those constraints particularly the
last one in relation with 12,240 ha of area of shortage water
mention above for improvement of outcome of irrigation system
operation in the form of increasing cropping intensity and
cropping yield.
1.2.6 Performance and productivity of Jatiluhur operational
staff
The field staffs of Section Offices regularly record and reported
components of water distribution activities such as areas of
cropping stages, discharges at intake, division and turnout
structures, daily rainfall, rice field conversion areas etc. They
know boundary of each tertiary unit in the field.
Communication between field staffs and farmers are intensively
underway. That can be informally discussions in the field and in
the form of formal meetings. Local agriculture extension workers
involve as well.
1.2.7 Illegal canal water abstractions
In the locations of water shortage as shown in Table 1 some
farmers are using pump to take water from canal when their area
is turned to be not provided water in the rotation system. In some
places local people taking water from secondary canal by drilling
dike of canal to put pipe for fish ponds.
