Where Water Meets Agriculture: The Ambivalent Role of Water Users Associations

Abstract

This chapter investigates the role of water users associations (WUAs) in managing the Fergana Valley's irrigation system at a local level. WUAs were established in the Uzbek section of the Fergana Valley only from the early 2000s onwards and are generally not regarded as having been effective to date, although individual instances of modestly successful WUAs indicate their future potential as viable entities for collective modes of water management. This chapter begins by explaining the origins, purpose and structure of WUAs in the Fergana Valley as set out in policy guidelines and then contrasts this with a study of how they are working in practice. In the concluding section, the effectiveness of WUAs in the Uzbek section of the Fergana Valley is assessed in terms of criteria derived from the literature. This chapter reveals that Uzbekistan's WUAs lack the funding, water user representation and resources to tackle the major structural problems confronting Fergana Valley's post-socialist irrigation system. Their heavy dependence on powerful institutional regimes for irrigation and for agriculture also severely restricts their action. There exist important exceptions, where WUAs are exploring innovative ways of coping with the enormity of their tasks, in isolation and in collaboration, but these represent only a small minority of WUAs in the region and are, to a large extent, dependent on temporary donor funding.

How Can Intentionality and Path Dependence Explain Change in Water-Management Institutions in Uzbekistan?

“…During the past century, expansion of irrigated agricultural areas was a key component of nation-building processes in Soviet Central Asia (Abdullaev and Rakhmatullaev 2015) and, in recent decades, international donor agencies have been heavily investing in supporting the now-independent countries in the region to modernize their large-scale irrigation facilities and make water use and management more efficient (Moss and Hamidov 2016). There is, however, a critical discussion in the contemporary literature on water management in Central Asia about the role of shared visions and path dependence (Van Assche et al 2014) in shaping the potential outcomes of these reforms.…”

Implementing the Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS) and environmental policies in Central Asia

“…In Uzbekistan, the first WUAs were created in 2000 in the Khorezm Region and in 2002 in the Fergana Valley (Moss and Hamidov, 2016). However, this transition from administrative to hydrographic management units is still ongoing, even in the very productive Fergana Valley (Dukhovny et al 2013).…”

Impact of Institutional Change on Irrigation Management: A Case Study from Southern Uzbekistan

“…The non-payment of ISFs may seriously limit the WCAs' scope and undermine their effectiveness [53]. ISFs are the main source of WCA revenue.…”