Water Users Association and Irrigation Management - Institute for ...

attempting to achieve collective benefits. The underlying issue in these concepts is the free
rider problem. Whenever one person cannot be excluded from the benefits that others
provide, cach person is motivated not to contribute to the joint effort, but to free ride on the
efforts of others. If all the farmers choose to free ride, the collective benefit will not he
produced. The temptation to free ride may dominate the decision process, and thus all will
end up where no one wanted to be. Alternatively, some may provide while others free ride,
leading to less than the optimal level of provision of the collective benefit.
Against this backdrop, the study tries to identify the factors underlying the issues of
collective action in the selected command area. Our enquiry into the nature of the collective
action or the lack of it begins at the outlet level where water is appropriated as a common
property. Once it is received as a common property, the users within the command area
have to allocate the water amongst them according to the localization pattern. We apply the
principles of collective action in detail to two different situations discussed below.
1. The case of Gundur where WUA is functioning
In Gundur, the presence of WUA provided a useful laboratory for the study of collective
action. An attempt is made to identify the incentives of independent individuals to work
collectively and the conditions under which the users are likely to come together and work
etlectively. Further, the conditions under which collective action emerges, become
etlective, and is sustained over time are explored.
2. The case of Hagedal where there is no WUA
In Hagedal, the people never felt the need for collective action. Even an informal kind of
collective effort is sparse. An attempt is made to explore the local and external factors,
which affects individual incentives to participate in collective etTorts and why associations
are viewed as constraints that individuals place on themselves.
The conceptual framework for the study can therefore be illustrated as in the following
figure:
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