62) decentralised governance of irrigation water in cambodia - CDRI

Water development and management, from this view, should involve users, planners and
policy-makers at all levels (ICWE 1992). This ideal, however, is hard to achieve. For example,
in the Cambodian context the community approach has been adopted to manage almost all
types of natural resources i.e., fishery community, and community forestry. And since fishery,
forestry and water-ways often intersect, one wonders what the situation would be like if all
these communities were to present their loyalties to their respective technical line agencies
especially when the coordination within and between said agencies is weak at every level.
Ojendal (2000) notes three challenges at national level that prevent ministries from working in
an integrated manner: young constitution; low degree of communication between ministries,
a pattern that sometimes becomes deeply politicised in the administration of each ministry
(reinforcing inter-ministerial strife); and inconsistent funding by donors (creating jealousy and
competition). These coordination problems are presently being resolved under the Organic
Law through the establishment of a unified administration at provincial and district levels. As
planned, the government is working towards improving human resources and structure at these
two governance levels first. Whether a unified administration will function well and be able to
solve the existing coordination issues in Cambodia is yet to be seen.
To summarise, besides the discord between infrastructure and current governance practice,
a number of other issues hinder the match between ideal governance and its actual practice.
Although some of these issues could be addressed at the local level with some minor adjustments
to practice (e.g., integrating FWUCs into the existing power structure), some may need a
much longer time to succeed (e.g. raising awareness about community-based management and
democracy to the community at large so that people understand and accept both their rights and
responsibilities as community members). Others may need still greater efforts by bottom-level
and top-level government bodies (e.g. to modify water policy and make it more practical and
adaptable to the diversity of local environments and multiple constraints), or stronger political
will from all levels (e.g. to coordinate various reform policies together under the overarching
decentralisation reform framework). All of these issues, like the ones mentioned in section 1 of
this chapter, are hard to achieve both in the short and medium-term, but if ignored will likely
hinder the progress of the national programme of irrigation development.
6.3 Concluding Comments and Further Research
This study found discrepancies between actual governance practices, ideal governance
principles as outlined in PIMD and IWRM, and the spatial and infrastructural context of the
schemes. Specifically, it observed that the scale of the command areas is much too large for the
human resources within the FWUCs especially given their inadequate technical knowledge and
limited finances to repair, develop and maintain infrastructure across their respective schemes.
Second, the actual practice of irrigation management at scheme and sub-scheme level has
diverged significantly from the principles of PIMD and IWRM. For example, the actual roles of
the FWUCs have fallen short of their mandate and have not yet been particularly well-executed.
Rather than their principal mandate of competently managing the schemes, the strongest role
of the FWUCs demonstrated across all three case-study schemes is that of a mediator between
farmers and PDOWRAM.. Other roles of the FWUC include water allocation from primary
and secondary canals, conflict resolution between farmers, and ISF collection. However the
execution of these tasks has been inconsistent and often lacking. Despite these discrepancies,
the study highlights the quality of the intertwined relationships between these three components
of irrigation management as one key determinant of good irrigation governance at local level.
38 Decentralised Governance of Irrigation Water in Cambodia: Matching Principles to Local Realities