Water rights in farmer managed irrigation systems in India: equity, rules, hydraulic property and the ecology

24 January 2008Workshop on Water Rights in Central Asia and South Asia

Dr. Peter P. Mollinga

ZEF, Center for Development Research

Bonn University, Germany

Objective

To answer the question:

How have ‘water rights’ in FMIS in India been thought about conceptually ?

Answer:

In four ways: in relation to 1) rules, 2) equity, 3) infrastructure, 4)ecology

Is there a problem?

FMIS

• Why farmer managed irrigation systems?

• What are FMIS? – Tanks (small reservoir schemes)– Diversion canals

• Role of the state

• Famous, but myth of community & tradition

• Why FMIS is the wrong term

Water rights

• Water rights are about water allocation: – quantity or share– timing

• Rules for allocation = central topic in research• Perspectives:

– ‘efficiency’ (collective action, robust organisation)– ‘justice’ (negotiation/contestation, distributive justice)

• Approaches:– NIE, collective action approaches– Political economy of rights (and access)

Hydraulic property (1)

• Coward: 1986, 1986, 1990• The property object becomes more important

“ The untrained observer can easily fail to extract from the rude weirs and rough canal structures the sometimes intricate property relations which such prior investments have created.” (1986 Direct or indirect….)

• Basic idea: the creation of irrigation facilities established property relations

Hydraulic property (2)

• What is the property object in FMIS? – the irrigated fields of farmers– the irrigation works (infrastructure)– the water supply

• One step further: how infrastructure reflects property rights/social relations

• Perspective: materialisation of rights, co-evolution of social and material order

Hydraulic property (3)

Ecological relations (1)

• Similarly: water rights incorporate/express concepts of the ecology

• A story on ponds, land reform and deforestation in Kerala

Ecological relations (2)

• Configuration of land and water rights implies, implicitly or explicitly, a form of ecological management

• Do water (together with other resource rights) incorporate a concept of ecological integrity?

• Perspective: ‘ecologisation’ of rights? Co-evolution of landscapes and social relations

Conclusion

• Social science understandings of water rights– Rules and collective action– Equity and social justice

• Interdisciplinary understandings of water rights– Hydraulic property– Ecological relations

• Towards multidimensional analysis of water rights ?

Thank you for your attentionThank you for your attention!!