78 ref., 1 table, 2 fig IIMI, POB 2075 Colombo - Sri Lanka. E-mail: iimi@cgnet.com

This report draws on the substantial literature on successful self-governing irrigation systems and applies their principles to the design of institutions on government-managed systems. Its basic hypothesis is that single irrigation systems managed by autonomous system-specific organizations accountable to their customers perform better and are more sustainable than systems managed by agencies dependent on the government (organizationally and financially), or by agencies responsible for many different systems. A matrix of autonomy-dependence and single-multiple systems is used to classify selected cases. These are discussed to establish the plausibility of the basic hypothesis. Further detailed research would be useful to refine the hypothesis. This will be difficult to do with existing data, but the report makes several suggestions for further research. The findings are sufficiently persuasive that policy makers can use them in designing reform programs

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