Syracuse University SURFACE Theses - ALL May 2018 “WHEN OUR CROPS BURN, WE BURN”: HOUSEHOLD CULTIVATION, INATTENTION AND EXCLUSION IN TAJIKISTAN'S WATER MANAGEMENT REFORM Katherine Jeanette MacDonald Syracuse University Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/thesis Part of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation MacDonald, Katherine Jeanette, "“WHEN OUR CROPS BURN, WE BURN”: HOUSEHOLD CULTIVATION, INATTENTION AND EXCLUSION IN TAJIKISTAN'S WATER MANAGEMENT REFORM" (2018). Theses - ALL. 216. https://surface.syr.edu/thesis/216 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses - ALL by an authorized administrator of SURFACE. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Abstract The Republic of Tajikistan possesses the largest amount of internally produced surface water in Central Asia; however, poor irrigation management has led to water shortages in agrarian communities. In support of government efforts to reform water management, international development actors have established Water Users’ Associations (WUAs) throughout the country. WUAs are non-governmental groups of irrigation water users responsible for local infrastructure maintenance, conflict resolution, and scheduling water distribution. These groups are expected to increase participation in irrigation management, the equity and efficiency of water supply to agricultural plots and by extension, crop yields and food security. Drawing on interviews with development actors, government representatives, and WUA leaders, and rural households, I show that plans to improve rural wellbeing through WUA creation are undermined by legal frameworks that limit formal participation in associations to one water user – farm managers. Reinforced by the actions and inactions of the government and development actors, this policy is drawn from and advances a fragmented understanding of the irrigation landscape, wherein the cultivation of irrigation dependent household plots is devalued or made invisible.