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Setting up water users' associations (WUAs) and involving them in the management of delivery systems is an important innovation in improving the performance of public irrigation systems. Most Indian states are in a great hurry to turn over management of “below-the outlet” systems to WUAs. Yet the crucial link between the work done by the institutional organizers who set up these WUAs, the efficacy of the WUAs and the eventual performance of the irrigation systems remains unexplored. This paper attempts to explore this link. It shows that overdrive in the formation of WUAs may reduce their institutional sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]