River Basin Trajectories: Societies, Environments and Development Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture Series Titles Available Volume 1. Water Productivity in Agriculture: Limits and Opportunities for Improvement Edited by Jacob W. Kijne, Randolph Barker and David Molden Volume 2. Environment and Livelihoods in Tropical Coastal Zones: Managing Agriculture–Fishery–Aquaculture Conflicts Edited by Chu Thai Hoanh, To Phuc Tuong, John W. Gowing and Bill Hardy Volume 3. The Agriculture Groundwater Revolution: Opportunities and Threats to Development Edited by Mark Giordano and Karen G. Villholth Volume 4. Irrigation Water Pricing: the Gap Between Theory and Practice Edited by François Molle and Jeremy Berkoff Volume 5. Community-based Water Law and Water Resource Management Reform in Developing Countries Edited by Barbara van Koppen, Mark Giordano and John Butterworth Volume 6. Conserving Land, Protecting Water Edited by Deborah Bossio and Kim Geheb Volume 7. Rainfed Agriculture: Unlocking the Potential Edited by Suhas P. Wani, Johan Rockström and Theib Oweis Volume 8. River Basin Trajectories: Societies, Environments and Development Edited by François Molle and Philippus Wester River Basin Trajectories: Societies, Environments and Development Edited by François Molle Institut de Recherche pour le Développment, France and Philippus Wester Irrigation and Water Engineering Group, Wageningen University, The Netherlands CABI is a trading name of CAB International CABI Head Office CABI North American Office Nosworthy Way 875 Massachusetts Avenue Wallingford 7th Floor Oxfordshire OX10 8DE Cambridge, MA 02139 UK USA Tel: +44 (0)1491 832111 Tel: +1 617 395 4056 Fax: +44 (0)1491 833508 Fax: +1 617 354 6875 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.cabi.org © CAB International 2009. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronically, mechanically, by photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owners. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library, London, UK. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data River basin trajectories : societies, environments and development / edited by François Molle and Philippus Wester. p. cm. -- (Comprehensive assessment of water management in agriculture ; no. 8) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-84593-538-2 (alk. paper) 1.Water resources development --Case studies. 2. Water-supply--Political aspects--Case studies. I. Molle, François. II. Wester, Philippus. III. C.A.B. International. IV. Series: Comprehensive assessment of water management in agriculture series ; 8. HD1691.R58 2009 333.73--dc22 2009000346 ISBN-13: 978 1 84593 538 2 Typeset by Columns Design Ltd, Reading, UK. Printed and bound in the UK by the MPG Books Group, Bodmin. The paper used for the text pages in this book is FSC certified. The FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) is an international network to promote responsible management of the world’s forests. Contents Contributors vii Series Foreword xii Acknowledgements xiv 1 River Basin Trajectories: an Inquiry into Changing Waterscapes 1 François Molle and Philippus Wester 2 Squeezed Dry: the Historical Trajectory of the Lower Jordan 20 River Basin Mauro Van Aken, François Molle and Jean-Philippe Venot 3 Are Good Intentions Leading to Good Outcomes? Continuities in 47 Social, Economic and Hydro-political Trajectories in the Olifants River Basin, South Africa Douglas J. Merrey, Hervé Lévite and Barbara van Koppen 4 From Half-full to Half-empty: the Hydraulic Mission and Water 75 Overexploitation in the Lerma–Chapala Basin, Mexico Philippus Wester, Eric Mollard, Paula Silva-Ochoa and Sergio Vargas-Velázquez 5 Managing the Yellow River: Continuity and Change 99 David Pietz and Mark Giordano 6 The Colorado River: What Prospect for ‘a River No More’? 123 Douglas J. Kenney 7 Sharing Scarce Resources in a Mediterranean River Basin: 147 Wadi Merguellil in Central Tunisia Patrick Le Goulven, Christian Leduc, Mohamed Salah Bachta and Jean-Christophe Poussin v vi Contents 8 Water Competition, Variability and River Basin Governance: a Critical 171 Analysis of the Great Ruaha River, Tanzania Bruce A. Lankford, Siza Tumbo and Kossa Rajabu 9 Buying Respite: Esfahan and the Zayandeh Rud River Basin, Iran 196 François Molle, Iran Ghazi and Hammond Murray-Rust 10 Rural Dynamics and New Challenges in the Indian Water Sector: 214 the Trajectory of the Krishna Basin, South India Jean-Philippe Venot 11 Pumped Out: Basin Closure and Farmer Adaptations in the 238 Bhavani Basin in Southern India Mats Lannerstad and David Molden 12 Much Ado about the Murray: the Drama of Restraining Water Use 263 Hugh Turral, Daniel Connell and Jennifer McKay Index 293 Contributors Mohamed Salah Bachta has a PhD in agronomic science from the University of Louvain, Belgium. He is Professor of Rural Economy at the Institut National Agronomique de Tunis. He specialises in agricultural economics and policies. Institut National Agronomique de Tunisie, Avenue Charles Nicolle 43, Tunis Mahrajène 1082, Tunisia. E-mail: bachta.medsalah@ inat.agrinet.tn Daniel Connell has a joint appointment at the Australian National University, with the Crawford School of Economics and Government and the ANU Water Initiative. Previously he worked as a journalist in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Murray–Darling Basin Commission. He is now researching water governance in large cross-border hydrological systems and public participation in environmental policy. This includes a comparative study of water management institutions in federal political systems in Australia, South Africa, the United States, Europe, India and China. His recent book, Water politics in the Murray–Darling Basin, examined the National Water initiative and the debate about institutional change in Australia's Murray–Darling Basin. Room 214, Crawford Building # 13, Ellery Crescent, The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia. E-mail: [email protected] Iran Ghazi was Senior Geographer at the University of Esfahan, Iran. Dr Ghazi is a scholar specializing in river-basin development planning. She is now retired. 1242 Saeb Avenue, Esfahan, Iran, 81848. E-mail: [email protected] Mark Giordano is a geographer and economist with broad experience in water management and agriculture. He is currently Principal Researcher and Leader of the Water and Society Theme at the International Water Management Institute, headquartered in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Mark has been a frequent visitor to, and sometimes resident of, China for the past 2 decades. International Water Management Institute, PO Box 2075, Colombo, Sri Lanka. E-mail: [email protected] Doug Kenney is a senior research associate of the Natural Resources Law Center, University of Colorado, where he also directs the Western Water Policy Program. His research is primarily focused on legal and policy arrangements for the allocation, management and use of western USA water resources, given stressors associated with population growth and climatic change. University of Colorado, Natural Resources Law Center, UCB 401, Boulder, CO 80309- 0401, USA. E-mail: [email protected] Bruce A. Lankford is Senior Lecturer in Natural Resources at the School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia, UK. He has 25 years’ experience in irrigation and water vii viii Contributors management, with an emphasis on sub-Saharan Africa. He is particularly interested in the linkages between irrigation systems and the behaviour and management of river basins. School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK. E-mail: [email protected] Mats Lannerstad is a PhD scholar at the Department of Water and Environmental Studies, Linköping University, Sweden. His educational background includes an MSc in Environmental Engineering and an MSc in biology, with specialization in limnology. His PhD studies include a basin closure case study analysing the water use dynamics in the Bhavani basin, India, and an analysis of present and future water demand for food production in agriculture. Welanders väg 7, SE – 112 50 Stockholm, Sweden. E-mail: [email protected] Christian Leduc is Research Director at IRD (Institute of Research for Development) and Deputy Director of the G-EAU research unit in Montpellier (France). His research focuses on hydro(geo) logy in semi-arid and Mediterranean areas, where he has spent many years. He has a special interest in the impacts of climatic and environmental changes on water resources, considered at multiple scales of space and time (from the season to the millennium). Hydrogéologue, Directeur de Recherche IRD, BP 64501, 34394 Montpellier, Cedex 5, France. E-mail: [email protected] Patrick Le Goulven is a hydrologist and Senior Researcher at the IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement), with 35 years of experience in hydrology, irrigation and water resources management in Africa, South America, Maghreb and France. Co-founder of laboratory G-EAU (water management, actors and uses), he currently directs a research project on the effects of climatic changes on the water management in the Ecuadorian Andes and on the adaptations necessary. Hydrologue, Directeur de Recherche IRD, UMR G-EAU (Gestion de l’Eau, Acteurs, Usages), IRD Apartado 17 12 857, Quito, Ecuador. E-mail: patrick. [email protected] Hervé Lévite is a water