Water Users Association Development for Romania
Client: U.S. Agency for International Development
Location: Romania
Period: 2002 – 2004
Project Summary
On-site field training
Romania required modern irrigation technologies and institutions to support its agricultural development and commercialization. Riverside Technology, inc. staff designed and implemented a series of Water User Association training programs throughout Romania.
Project Details
A key component to modernizing and commercializing Romania’s agricultural sector is the establishment and development of viable and sustainable irrigation Water Users Associations (WUAs), owned, operated, and managed by local farmers.
Through a subcontract with PA Consulting Group, Riverside Technology, inc. (Riverside) provided extensive training to newly formed WUAs for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)/Romania’s Water Users Association Development Project (WUADP).
Riverside staff worked with and trained over 90 Romanian WUAs, covering tens of thousands of hectares of irrigated land. Hundreds of WUA officers, members, and Romanian government officials participated in these training programs.
The training programs focused on:
- The purpose and function of WUAs in Romania.
- Building local rural organizations in Romania.
- Designing key organizational principles.
- Properly managing and sustaining the WUAs.
The training program used WUA-to-WUA training, where managers of older, already-established WUAs took an active role in training newly established WUAs. The WUADP training programs developed and conducted by Riverside staff were so popular and successful that many Romanian WUAs representatives from outside WUADP areas arrived unexpectedly at training sessions, asked to be included, and were accommodated.