Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
pendence and are therefore an inherent part of water management. In many WUAs, hashars are
used for the community contribution to the project or for food for work programs. They are
often organized by the director of the DF or the WUA chair and not by the director of the
mahalla committee. The hashar has its limitations, though. It may be suitable for small canals
but not for large channels that require professional supervision and equipment. One must also
consider that one of the basic principles of hashar is voluntarism. This is lost when it becomes a
compulsory part of donor projects. Therefore, a fundamental question is whether those 'tradi
tional' decision making mechanisms are still applicable to post Soviet realities and can legitim
ize WUAs.
It is also questionable whether the process of setting up a VDC or WUA can differ con
siderably from other local bodies, as the same institutional conditions apply to both. The bot
tom up approach could guarantee a better embeddedness among and ownership by the local
population. However, those projects are also curtailed by their tight timeframes and output
requirements. The structure of the CBO be it a VDC on jamoat or kishlak level, a WUA, or
an initiative group is created rather quickly. The donor organization is in need of a partner in
the village to implement their project, so they usually set up the CBO (typically informally, at
least in the beginning) during the first few weeks after they start working. Real community
awareness raising activities start only after that and through this CBO.
In doing so, many donors follow an idealized notion of the 'village community' and seem
to perceive a village assembly as a public sphere free of domination where competing interests
and opinions are articulated freely. It comes as no surprise that this ideal is not met in reality.
Unsatisfactory mechanisms have resulted in farmers being unaware that they are members of a
WUA. Yet voluntary membership of empowered farmers is a basic feature of WUA. If this is
not achieved, irrigation reform would in essence have the same effect as land reform: present
ing options on papers to farmers who are not free to choose in reality. The case study showed
that often the same people are nominated for all local (formal and informal) organizations.
According to a local UNDP representative, about half of the VDC members in its projects are
also members in the jamoat council. 282 A Tajik NGO hence poses the question
“whether the new [community] institutions, representing the part of the community which has access to
knowledge and resources as well as development donors and agencies contribute to strengthening of social
capital and whether they may cause further social stratification by creating an elite in the community” (ASDP
“NAU” 2003: 5).
Another consequence is that the local population is overloaded with the number of commit
tees, in which they are expected to be members and which substitute state bodies. One repre
sentative of a local NGO therefore criticized, that “if the school is renovated, a school com
mittee is established; if medicine is to be distributed, a medicine committee; if grapes are
planted, a grape committee. For every 50 people there is some kind of committee” (Local
NGO representative, Khudjand, 10/07/2005). In effect, instead of addressing the failure of
state bodies to fulfill certain basic functions, these are outsourced to the impoverished (and
mainly female) rural population.
As a consequence, the majority of the water users interviewed for this study were not
aware of the fact that they were members of a WUA. As seen in the case study, even some
council members were unaware of their membership. A precondition for successful WUA
performance is, however, awareness and understanding of the purpose and meaning of WUA
and ISF by the local leaders and the water users. All programs provide trainings for WUA staff
282 Author's interview with a local representative of a donor agency, Khudjand, 10/04/2005.
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