Phetchaburi Operation and Maintenance Project, Phetchaburi Province, is one of the Royal Irrigation Department’s large-scale irrigation and drainage projects. It has been in operation since 1950. Presently, the Project’s command area is 829 sq.km (82,935 ha.), 785 sq.km (78,483 ha.) of which is the irrigable area. The Project Area covers the areas in Phetchaburi and Prachuap Khiri Khan provinces. The Project’s primary source of water supply is Kaeng Krachan Reservoir, with Phet Diversion Dam as the headwork for diverting Phetchaburi River flow into the irrigation canal system. The Project delivers water for irrigation, domestic, industrial and other uses. As the project has been in operation for a long time, its irrigation system has deteriorated. Furthermore, the water demand and other conditions have greatly changed from the original conditions at the project planning stage. These have adversely affected the Project’s irrigation efficiency, thus, there is a need to undertaken the systematic improvement of the Phetchaburi O&M Project to raise the project efficiency to its full potential, as well as to respond to the project roles which have greatly changed from the original plan.

The study results recommend the project improvement by both non-structural and structural improvement measures. The non-structural measures comprise the management and organization improvement which includes developing a database for efficient management of the irrigation system, the capacity building for the Project staff and water user association representatives, providing assistance and supporting the water user associations, and providing technology transfer in irrigation and agricultural technology, and public relations work. The structural measures comprise the improvement works on the irrigation canals and control structures, the development of an information system for irrigation system management, the improvement of the control and instrumentation system including the installation of the telemetry system for irrigation management, the establishment of the Irrigation Control Center, and the increase in Kaeng Krachan Reservoir storage volume via fusegates’ installation. The total project improvement cost is approximately 24.3 million US$.

The services provided include :

1. Data Collection and Review: The consultant performed survey and gathered data in order to implement project planning and project procurement. It includes primary and secondary data collection, data analyzing and evaluation of the data. This step concern on current status and forecast condition of the project and shall apply to all aspects such as engineering, water distribution and allocation management, economic, environment and ecology, and organization management.
   
   
2. Project Evaluation: A project evaluation on the Phetchaburi Operation and Maintenance Project to assess its performance on water delivery, service level, water users’ satisfaction, as well as to investigate the engineering aspects of the Project’s irrigation canals and control structures. The evaluation results were used to formulate project improvement measures.
   
   
3. Feasibility study for project improvement.