Cascade based irrigation systems are one of the amazing innovations demonstrating our ancient irrigation heritage and wisdom of water harvesting techniques. The restoration and rehabilitation of minor irrigation have been one of the strategies of developing dry zone Agriculture, second only to river diversions and development of major irrigation systems by al the past governments. The need for water storage structures has become critical with climate change and the high variability of rainfall in order to tackle the problem of water scarcity. The objective of this study is to draw lessons from the selected rehabilitation interventions made in the recent past with alternative approaches which had a substantial component of both software and hardware aspects of their development. The findings of this report indicate that, investment made on small scale irrigation rehabilitation had made positive impacts on enhancing farm level income and household food security. Adoption of holistic and cascade based integrated development approaches was key in addressing various issues affecting sustainability. The report suggests that tank selection for rehabilitation should be done with the participation of line agency and approved Divisional Agricultural Committees. This report would be useful to fill the knowledge gap in achieving sustainable existence of small irrigation systems from the lessons learned from three past projects implemented by different organizations adapting different approaches.