Impact of Irrigation Management Transfer on Land and Water Productivity and Water Supply in the Gediz Basin, Turkey

In the 1990s, Turkey started a fast transfer program in which a large proportion of government-managed irrigation systems were put into the hands of Water Users’ Associations (WUAs) in a very short space of time. One of the first systems to be handed over was the Gediz Basin. This study aims to set out the effects of the transfer of irrigation management in this basin on water and land productivity and water supply. For this purpose, the indicators of productivity and water supply proposed by the International Water Management Institute have been used to show changes between the pretransfer, transfer, and post-transfer periods. WUA averages for the post-transfer period calculated from the results ranged $2,076–$2,898?ha?1 for output per command area, $2,747–$4,585?ha?1 for output per irrigated area, $0.26–$0.68?m?3 for output per irrigation supply, $0.30–$0.63?m?3 for output per unit water consumed, 0.88–1.49 for relative water supply, and 0.99–1.99 for relative irrigation supply. During the period evaluated by the study, there was a decline in water supply indicators, as against a steady increase in the productivity of water and land use. The basic reason for this decrease in supply is the long-lasting and ongoing drought in the region.