Comparative Research Design - The Politics of Water Institutional Reform in Neopatrimonial States - page 51

Besides the mirab , another informal water governance institution still in use today has been the
hashar or ashar. 32 Hashar refers to collective voluntary work by community members, tradition
ally organized by the mahalla committee or the court of elders . 33 It is part of a broad system of
reciprocity at the village and neighborhood level. There are two types of hashar that can be
distinguished: First, hashars are organized to help other community members in need, e.g. in
case of sickness, repairs, or construction work. Second, hashars are organized as unpaid labor
for joint community interests, such as construction and repair of schools, roads, irrigation
channels. The latter form of hashar has been an important institution in local water manage
ment, used for construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of small scale channels, so called
aryks . People who did not participate in it were fined or excluded from water allocation. Hashar
was also used during the Tsarist period, especially for irrigation management. During that time,
however, it was more of a duty in kind service or even corvee with pseudo traditional legitimi
zation. In the Soviet Union, hashars were transformed into “ Subbotniki ”, the Soviet form of
collective voluntary work on Saturdays, and organized by the leadership of the sovkhoz or kolk
hoz . It was however again absused for actual corvee, such as the building of the Great Fergana
Channel under Stalin, which was officially done by hashar while it was in practice forced labor
of prisoners (Thurman 2002: 6; Bichsel 2006: 113f; O'Hara 2000: 373ff).
In the official water governance structure of the Soviet Union, all water resources were
controlled centrally in Moscow by the Ministry of Melioration and Water Management ( Min
VodKhoz ). In Central Asia, a regional agency ( SredAzVodKhoz ) was responsible for the whole
Aral Sea basin that also received orders from Moscow. This is often mentioned as a positive
aspect as it led to a basin wide approach with integrated water and energy management. The
Republican MinVodKhozes merely implemented the decisions of the central Ministry in Mos
cow. They were responsible for the distribution of financial resources and were accountable to
higher ranking officials. Water allocation was standardized with fixed schedules for republics,
provinces ( oblasts ) and districts ( raions ).
The administration of Soviet water management itself was fragmented into many agencies
subordinate to the MinVodKhoz with competencies not clearly alloted. Overlapping functions
and competencies resulted in inconsistencies and ineffective implementations. Soviet authori
ties did not actively attempt to improve the situation, which caused some scholars to speculate
that the internal rivalries between the agencies were not considered disadvantegous by the
highest political level as this situation allowed them to lead a relatively calm office life. Fur
thermore, the USSR MinVodKhoz was responsible for planning, supplying, receiving, and con
trolling, i.e. all of the relevant functions were combined in one agency with minimal external
oversight and control. Consequentially, the Ministry on the one hand focused on reclamation
and construction projects rather than on operation and maintenance (O&M), and on the other
hand the work was of poor quality in order to meet production plans (ISRI, Socinformburo,
FES 2004: 26, 48, 53ff; Thurman 2002: 5f).
Also the local water management level was restructured under Soviet rule. During collec
tivization, all of the small land plots were combined into huge collective and state farms ( kol
khoze s and sovkhozes , s/k). Communal water administration was centralized. All customary
institutions and regulations were officially abolished. Informally, their influence persisted. The
administration of the s/k was responsible for O&M of the on farm systems. It also regularly
used hashar for maintenance work. Formally, the respective labor each individual had to contri
32 Ashar in Kyrgyz and hashar in Tajik language. For convenience reasons, I will in the following always use the spelling
hashar .
33 On mahalla committee and court of elders see below chapter 5.5.4.