Consideration of Factors to Promote the Participation in Maintenance Works of Irrigation and Drainage Facilities

In the future, together with a declining workforce as a result of depopulation and an aging population in rural areas, the maintenance of agricultural water utilization facilities is expected to get difficult. Thus, cooperation with farmers and local residents is indispensable for its maintenance. In the present study, we analyzed and evaluated the awareness of local residents to participate in the maintenance of agricultural water utilization facilities, using a questionnaire survey. As a result, we found that many farmers regard the multi-purpose function of agricultural water utilization facilities as “necessary” or “good”. However, we also found that the intention to participate was not so high with regard to maintenance operations for improving the efficacy of the multi-purpose functions. This suggested the necessity of activities that focus on land improvement districts and administration in order to encourage the participation of farmers. Furthermore, among non-farmers, those who are aware of the existence of agricultural water utilization facilities' maintenance operations and participate in these operations are limited to people who are in some way connected to agriculture. However, it was also confirmed that people not involved in agriculture have the intention to participate in the maintenance operations. Therefore, increasing the interest of particularly those who are highly aware of this problem is an effective measure to ensure that more local residents participate in the operations.