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information, even if certain tasks are overtaken by NGOs. Consequently, at least as a coordi
nating agency the meso level has to be strengthened.
Paying Attention to the Complexity of Informal Institutions
The crucial role of informal institutions became obvious in various aspects of WIR. Different
informal institutions however also have different effects; it cannot be said that informal institu
tions impede reforms or provide a more suitable governance mechanism per se. Sometimes,
they tend to undermine reforms and hence political actors should try to overcome them. In
other instances, it seems crucial to adapt to informal institutions in order to get people to ac
cept reforms. Sometimes informal institutions replace non functioning formal ones. Also,
informal institutions can be in line with the normative goals of good water governance and
should be promoted. Thus, there cannot be a general recommendation on how to deal with
informal institutions. It is exactly their complexity and different impacts that have to be ac
knowledged and incorporated when planning and conducting WIR. Often, this complexity is
underestimated. Similar to the findings of this study, the aforementioned study by DFID and
Mott MacDonald (2005) on WUAs in Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, and India noted as reasons for the
domination of WUAs by elites and the lack of embeddedness in the community under mere
the external promotion without considerable acknowledgement of the local social and political
context and power relations. Thus, in every case where water institutional reforms are planned,
the specific context of water governance has to be studied before reforms are started.
In a review of WUA evaluations, Meinzen Dick et al. (1997: 28) concluded that “WUAs
that are adapted to local conditions will be more effective and sustainable than those that fol
low a single blueprint design.” This is an insight that seems to be followed by those WUAs
developed in community development projects, involving informal local institutions such as
elders and
hashar
. Although the community oriented programs strive to integrate local institu
tions and adapt to local society and culture, in fact this happens only partially and instrumental
ly. The role of the local institutions is limited by the decision to establish new structures in
stead of incorporating water management into existing ones, e.g. by broadening the responsi
bility of the
mahalla
committee. This was recommended by a local NGO in Tajikistan, as this
would be suitable for the complex character of local water management and ease acceptance by
the population. The task of irrigation reform would then be to strengthen the capacities and
democratic features of existing institutions. On the global scale, there are different examples of
how the domination of WUAs by local elites has been tried to prevent using mechanism that
ensure the inclusion representatives of marginalized groups such as women, small farmers,
tenant farmers, or tail enders (Meinzen Dick et al. 1997: 29f; UNDP 2006: 19).
Galvan (2002: 3), based on his experience in the African context, also stresses the fact
that institutionalization efforts should not concentrate on the CBO and its leaders, as they are
inevitably short term, but rather address socio cultural rules of participation and representation
in order to establish an institutional environment that would enable the regular emergence of
local organizations in a community. Hence, the strategy for addressing local institutions should
be similar to that concerning the meso level of water administration: in the light of democratic
shortcomings of existing structures, the strategy should not be to establish new ones (which
then work similarly because the informal patterns persist), but to address and transform exist
ing ones certainly a considerably more ambitious and longer task than the timeframes of
donor projects and election periods seem to allow.
When adopting a broad water governance perspective, religion and religious authorities
should be included in analysis and integrated in reform activities. In both countries religious
life was restricted during Soviet time. In general, religious authorities today are not involved in
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