Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Exploratory assessment of factors that influence quality of local irrigation water governance in Uzbekistan Rob Swinkels, Ekaterina Romanova and Evgeny Kochkin June 2016 Содержание List of abbreviations....................................................................................................................................................v Glossary ........................................................................................................................................................................vi Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................................................vii Executive summary ............................................................................................................................................ 8 Overview .................................................................................................................................................................. 12 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................... 25 Background ................................................................................................................................................................ 25 Objectives ................................................................................................................................................................. 28 Analytical framework .............................................................................................................................................. 29 Land-use and farming practices in Uzbekistan .................................................................................................... 30 Limitations ................................................................................................................................................................ 34 Lessons learned ........................................................................................................................................................ 35 2. Background on the research sites .................................................................................................. 37 Institutional arrangements and practices ............................................................................................................ 37 Overview of the case study WCAs ........................................................................................................................ 39 Staff and other WCA resources ............................................................................................................................. 39 Female farmers ......................................................................................................................................................... 40 Performance .............................................................................................................................................................. 41 3. Design principle 1: Well-defined boundaries ........................................................................ 46 4. Design principle 2: Congruence between the benefits and costs of using irrigation water ................................................................................................ 50 Costs incurred for obtaining water ....................................................................................................................... 50 Irrigation service fees ...................................................................................................................................... 50 Using their own funds to pay for maintenance .................................................................................................. 55 Returns from crop production ......................................................................................................................... 55 Obtaining water for main and secondary crops ............................................................................................... 58 Difference in costs incurred by male and female growers .............................................................................. 59 5. Design principles 4, 5, and 6: Those who monitor water use(rs) and those that sanction violators are accountable to water users .... 62 AIS monitoring and accountability ........................................................................................................................ 62 WCA monitoring and accountability ..................................................................................................................... 64 Conflict resolution ................................................................................................................................................... 65 6. Design principles 3, 7, and 8: Users can modify rules and have the right to devise their own institutions; these are nested in a larger resource system ................................................................................................. 67 WCA decision-making structures........................................................................................................................... 67 Government involvement ....................................................................................................................................... 67 7. Conclusions and recommendations ............................................................................................. 70 Conclusions ................................................................................................................................................................ 70 Recommendations ................................................................................................................................................... 72 Diagnostic tool ......................................................................................................................................................... 73 Rolling out the assessment method to other Central Asian countries ........................................................... 80 References .............................................................................................................................................................. 81 Appendix 1. Sampling ................................................................................................................................... 83 Appendix 2. Description of each research site ........................................................................... 86 Appendix 3. Methodology review and lessons learned ..................................................... 97 List of abbreviations AIS Administrative Irrigation System BAIS Basin Administration of Irrigation System GoU Government of Uzbekistan IMT Irrigation Management Transfer ISF Irrigation Service Fee IWMI International Water Management Institute MAWR Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources O&M Operation and Maintenance VAC Village Assembly of Citizens WCA Water Consumer Association WUA Water User Association v Glossary dehkan farm small-scale household farm, usually up to 1 ha; the farm might be registered or not registered as a legal entity (Uzbek) hashars work parties (Uzbek)—community work activities done on voluntary basis Hokimiyat territorial public and administrative authority (Uzbek) Hokim the head of a Hokimiyat (Uzbek) kolkhoz collective farm enterprise (Russian composite word) mahalla informal self-governance body, neighborhood community (Uzbek) main crops state-mandated crops subject to state procurement quotas, usually wheat and cotton mirob person responsible for distributing irrigation water (Uzbek) oblast region (Russian) private farm large commercial entities that lease land of 50 ha or more from the state secondary crops crops that farmers grow on the land that is free from main crops, or the land where they grow wheat (second harvest); not subject to state procurement quotas shirkat collective/cooperative farm in post-Soviet Uzbekistan (Uzbek) tomorka household plots (Uzbek) Vodhoz (RDAWR) Regional Department of Agriculture and Water Resources (Vodhoz—used informally; Russian composite word—Water Management) Uzbekistani Soum currency of Uzbekistan, US$1 = Soum 2,280 (state exchange rate for May 14, 2014) vi Acknowledgements This report draws on the contributions from many people in Uzbekistan who participated in the study. First and foremost, we need to thank the 145 people who joined the discussions and interviews, including farmers and smallholders and kitchen garden owners, local government officials, and staff members from water consumer associations. We are very grateful they shared their time, experiences, and opinions with us. The research was led by Rob Swinkels and conducted by a core team that also included Ekaterina Romanova, Evgeny Kochkin, and, in the first phase of the study, Nils Junge and Brad Hiller. IJsbrand de Jong provided intensive support throughout the research process. Primary data collection was conducted by Al Mar Consulting. Omina Islamova, Oyture Anarbekov, Bekzod Shamsiev, Mike Thurman, and James Neuman provided helpful suggestions and inputs. Dilshod Khidirov provided