The centuries-old, self-organizing Muang Fai community irrigation institution in northern Thailand has high potential in illustrating exemplary practices in irrigation cost sharing. This paper examines the cost sharing structure of the Pongsak Muang Fai Irrigation System in Mae Hong Son Province and its relationship with the system water management and sustainability. Results show that this primitive and high cost system accepts costs of the weir, the entire length of main ditch, not only the individually related ditch sections, and the management as common costs that should be equally shared so that it can gather sizeable membership to support the system. The capacity of this small scale run-of-the-river irrigation system with no river flow limitation is a simple summation of all determined farm intake capacities. The maintenance cost of the system every year depends on how much water should be diverted and conveyed, hence the use of "relative" scale of each farm intake capacity as the basis for sharing cost in the wet season paddy farming. Such structure is directly related to the water management under which every intake shall be served with continuous supply without permitting mid-canal water check-up and the members prefer to take collective action to keep enough water supply without leaving any room for suspicion of unfair water distribution. The direct relationship makes the members understand the purpose of payment and be willing to share the costs which T. Ounvichit ( ) Planning Division, Royal are transparently estimated in easily understood terms and clearly de-aggregated into categories.

Thai national irrigation systems, serving a large number of small paddy farmers, require water users' organization for effective and sustainable joint management; however, water users' organizations (WUOs) presently cover only 27% of the total irrigation area. This three-year action research investigated the difficulties in organizing water users in the Khlong Thadi Weir System in southern Thailand by immersion into the socio-economic conditions of Muslim farmers in farm turnout No. 4 of the 1L-4R-LMC canal and the conventional on-farm irrigation development there. We found the following: (1) subsistence farming and unstable tenancy discourage farmers from increasing their formal participation in irrigation management; (2) kinship is important but effective only in a limited space; (3) the conventional method of providing short ditches in a limited project timeframe creates a structural bias; (4) intrinsic internal water conflicts make the hydraulic relationship alone an inadequate basis for water users' organization; (5) alternatively, the social relationship between individual farmers and their community emerges as a promising scaffold for water users' organization; (6) the state irrigation agency should consider adopting a more vital role by supporting WUOs, tambon administration organizations and villages with needed incentives, technical information, and capacity building so that the WUOs are ultimately the decision makers. RÉ SUMÉLes périmètres publics d'irrigation thaïlandais, qui desservent un grand nombre de petits riziculteurs, ont besoin d'organisation des usagers de l'eau pour une gestion commune efficace et durable; cependant, les associations d'usagers de l'eau (AUE) existantes ne couvrent que 27% de tout le domaine irrigable. Ce travail de recherche active de trois années a étudié les difficultés rencontrées dans l'organisation des usagers de l'eau du périmètre du Déversoir de Khlong Thadi, dans la partie australe de la Thaïlande, par immersion dans le contexte socioéconomique des riziculteurs musulmans du lot n84 du canal 1L-4R-LMC et dans les pratiques traditionnelles d'irrigation à la parcelle. Nos résultats sont les suivants: (1) l'agriculture de subsistance et la tenure précaire des terres découragent les riziculteurs de participer de façon effective à la gestion de l'irrigation; (2) les relations de parenté sont importantes mais elles ne sont efficaces que dans un espace limité; (3) la méthode traditionnelle de desservir les fossés courts dans une programmation de courte durée crée un bias structurel; (4) les conflits d'eau internes intrinsèques font que la relation hydraulique seule ne constitue pas une base adéquate pour le dével-oppement des AUE; (5) en revanche, les relations sociales entre les agriculteurs individuels et leur communauté apparaissent comme un levier prometteur pour le développement des AUE; (6) l'agence publique d'irrigation devrait jouer un rôle plus vital en soutenant les AUE, et en fournissant à l'organisation administrative tambon et aux villages les incitati...

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With increasing water conflicts arising from competing demands and global climate changes, it has become paramount to understand how the available water resources can be judiciously utilized for sustaining life. This article extends the previous studies on equal water sharing in water-abundant conditions to water-scarce conditions. On the basis of a case study of the self-managed Chaisombat Muang Fai irrigation group in Chiang Rai Province of northern Thailand, the article analyzes the factors that helped the group in successfully sharing water equally when they faced dry-season water scarcity caused by the competing demands of upstream irrigation systems. Interview data on Muang Fai development and management obtained from all levels of Muang Fai managers and field observations reveal three major success factors. First, Muang Fai managers across all levels recognized that water scarcity is a common problem and that, in their capacity as delegates accountable to all members, they must decide how intense competition for water and extensive crop failure can be prevented. Second, the Muang Fai organization provided a large number of farmers of diverse backgrounds with twoway communication and resilient implementation mechanisms for reaching a mutual agreement and synchronically adapting to a new water environment. Third, the group was ready to constantly update and employ socio-technical information to maximize the total benefit, so that all members obtain a proportionately larger share. These results reveal that in addition to social organization and traditional practices related to the normal condition, in the scarcity condition, it is essential to understand the ''common'' nature of the problem and acquire skills in extracting, updating, communicating, and using socio-technical information for decision making on equal water sharing. Therefore, these capacities should be built, or knowledge on building them should at least be developed, before the water scarcity problem worsens.

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