Water Institutional Reforms in Kyrgyzstan - The Politics of Water Institutional Reform in Neopatrimonial States - page 129

WUA chair or director that convinces people to pay and not the theoretically attached timely
and guaranteed delivery. Water institutional reforms are thus undermined by their incoherency.
Furthermore, the reform to transfer irrigation management was implemented without
adequate laws. It was mentioned that WUAs faced many difficulties, as their legal status was
not clarified until the Law on WUA of 2002 and regulations on the transfer of I&D systems
are still lacking. The yearly contracts on water delivery between the RaiVodKhoz and the WUAs
also lacked legal foundation until the new Water Code of 2005. Previously, these contracts did
not provide a codified right to water. Due to the inexperience of WUAs, they often do not
succeed in completing their lists of water demands before the beginning of the irrigation sea
son. That results in the commencement of water delivery while contracts have not been signed
yet or are subject to change (i.e., when more or less water is needed than anticipated). Such
changes often are only made orally.
Both inter institutional linkages hence affect the water law. The reform of water law
lagged behind the reform of water policy and organization. Water law reform went through a
partly democratic process in which various stakeholders participated. Due to conflicts of inter
est, it was a long process. Certain policies, such as the IMT to WUAs, begun without that
process being finalized but instead were decided by the government and donors. They were
implemented more quickly, but not more successfully among others due to the described
interdependencies.
Inter institutional linkages are important to consider in order to assess the implementa
tion of laws and policies. The broad non implementation of ISF is besides the factors dis
cussed above also a consequence of a water administration that is not in the position to im
plement these. After land reform, the RaiVodKhozes were given the task not to deal each with
several sovkhozes and kolkhoze s, but instead with hundreds of individual farmers. Yet no addi
tional means were allotted to manage the systems, collect ISF, train water users, etc. On the
contrary: the budget allocations from the government even declined as it was expected to cov
er 50% of its expenses by collecting the ISF. In addition, the Parliament hindered cost
recovering fees. So even if all ISF were collected, the meso level administration of the Rai
VodKhozes would not have enough means to carry out all its tasks. The precarious financial
situation is also an obstacle to the routine performance of daily work. For example, at several
meetings of the author with officials at the district as well as the province levels, the telephone
line was dead as the Ministry could not pay the bill.
Several features of water administration are not only evidence of their patrimonial charac
ter but also have severe impacts on water institutional reform. In its hierarchical culture, ac
countability is only perceived upwards. This has effects on WUAs, which are supposed to be
independent from state structures and accountable to its members rather than to local water or
government bodies or the donors that finance them. However, although formally independent,
they can de facto be considered as subordinate to the RaiVodKhoz , the donor agencies
represented by the WUA support department, and the aiyl okmotu . WUAs depend financially on
the donors and on the RaiVodKhoz for water. Accountability is perceived and exercised from
the bottom up ( RaiVodKhoz , donors/WUA support department, aiyl okmotu ) and not from the
top down to the members. As a matter of fact, reform could not challenge the hierarchical
style of water administration. The director of Sokuluk RaiVodKhoz appreciates WUAs as they
make the work of the RaiVodKhoz easier: “In principle, it is a structure like the Soviet system,
when we gave water to the FSK. A similar system”. 191 This quotation reveals once more that a
technocratic view on WUA prevails.
191 Author's interview with the director of a RaiVodKhoz , Chuy oblast , 05/10/2005.