The robustness of Montane irrigation systems of Thailand in a dynamic human - water resources interface

As an initial effort to understand the Asian irrigation systems dynamism and their robustness overtime, this paper examines two irrigation systems of Kok river system within Mekong river basin in Northern Thailand in the context of changing governance mechanisms and evolution of technological and market forces. Since the processes involved in first starting collective action are different than those of maintaining them overtime, the paper examines dynamism over three stages; initial, medium and long-term. During the initial stage of starting an irrigation system various attributes of the users including the benefits they could obtain from starting an organization to the skill of public entrepreneurs of brining them together affecting trust have been examined. The medium stage of irrigation systems development inquiry includes the process of development of rules, and the level of autonomy to develop their own rules over time. The long term stage focuses its analysis of external factors affecting the sustenance of these irrigation systems with special reference to the impact of changes in economic prices and labor mobility on the one hand and changes in the authority over irrigation and the availability of funding for irrigation on the other. The analysis is based on the framework developed by Ostrom, Anderies and Janssen (2003) in the linkages and relationship between the five elements, namely: resource, resource users, public infrastructure, public infrastructure providers and external disturbances. Thus, the paper evaluates the dynamism and robustness of irrigation systems overtime at operational and collective choice levels of analysis. 1 Paper to be presented at the Workshop on Workshop-3 at the Workshop on Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University, 513 N. Park, Bloomington, IN-47408-3829, USA during June 2-6, 2004. Funding for the research was provided by the Ford Foundation Project Grant Number 1015: “Asian Irrigation Institutions and Systems in Transition: Sustainability Implications” made to the Asian Institute of Technology which is duly acknowledged.