Agents Negotiating Water Management in the
Indian Himalayas
Saravanan.V.S
Department of Political and Cultural Change
Centre for Development Research (ZEF)
Walter-Flex Strasse 3
D-53113 Bonn
Germany
EMAIL: [email protected]
4th International Workshop on
Hydro-Hegemony 31 May-1 June08
Do not cite without author’s permission
POWER is the ability of A to carry out his / her will despite
resistance from B, regardless of the basis on which this
probability rests.
Power is a material capacity, neither the exercise nor the
vehicle of that capacity – Lukes 2005:479
Power is a property of interaction– Giddens , Foucault,
Bourdieu
‘Power ‘may be defined as the capability to secure outcomes where the
realisation of these outcomes depends on the agency of others.
(Giddens, 1976:111, cited in Mollinga, 2003:39) .
Power is the success in decision-making
Why is so much of contestation over ‘what power
does’?
Does this represent dominance of particular discipline
over the other?
Or does this represent different dimensions of power
in social reality?
Stakeholders
Passively influence the decisions in the arena, from outside – do not
use the rules to take part in the decision-making process. But can be drawn
by agents into the arena, as an actor.
Actors
Structural Actors –incrementally and cumulatively structure agents
capability and their negotiations – implement rules.
Strategic actors –process social experience and devise coping
strategies – Follow or break rules
Agents
Are individuals who have a transformative capacity by pursuing a
project - draw on rules.
Rules are patterned behaviour of a social group that
forbids, permits or requires some actions or outcomes
to enable actor to derive benefit (or loss) from certain
resources (Crawford & Ostrom, 1995; Ostrom, 1998).
Types of Rules (modified from Crawford and Ostrom, 1995)
1.
2.
3.
4.
Statutory Public
Statutory Private
Socially Embedded (norms, values)
Shared Strategies
Resources are of two kinds (Giddens, 1984:xxxi):
Allocative Resources:
Resources derived from the coordination of the
activity of human agents.
Authoritative Resources:
Resources that stems from the control of material
products or of aspects of the material world. They
can be texts, skills and monetary resources
(Callon, 1991).
Arenas are social locations or situations where agents
interact to contest over issues, values, exchange
goods and services and solve problems (or fight).
Alternatives
Policy
Implementation
Crisis
The Interaction is adaptive (Dorcey, 1986; Holling and Gunderson, 2002)
HUMAN
ENTITIES
(Stakeholders & Actors )
FRAMING
THE
PROBLEM
WATER
ALLOCATION
WATER RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT
PROBLEM
CAPABILITY OF
STRATEGIC
ACTORS
AGENTS &
AGENCY
Saravanan, VS (forthcoming) Systems approach to unravel complex water
management institutions. Ecological Complexity.
The framework was empirically applied in a water-related
‘problem context’ of the hamlet Khairwala, in the Indian
state of Himachal Pradesh in the year 2004 (MarchDecember).
Why Problem Context?
Human entities having a shared vision are triggered to
make a well-informed strategic choice;
Helps to focus on the ‘process’ of integration;
Understand complexity in manageable form.
Hamlet Khairwala under the Revenue Village Bikrambagh, in
Sirmaur District, HP
Physiography – highly fragile landscape (soil and water
erosion), and landslides.
Population: about 3000; two dominant caste
Economic activity: agriculture, salaried employment, labour
employment and dairy marketing
Irrigation: Lift irrigation (irrigation based on lifting water from
a stream (here river Markhanda) that irrigates about 4 hamlets
in the region)
The core water related problem in the hamlet
‘inadequate availability of water to irrigate the
command area in the lift-irrigation systems’
– as framed by farmers and local actors
during semi-structured interviews, group discussions and in public
forums.
HUMAN
ENTITIES
(Stakeholders & Actors )
FRAMING
THE
PROBLEM
WATER
ALLOCATION
WATER RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT
PROBLEM
CAPABILITY OF
STRATEGIC
ACTORS
AGENTS &
AGENCY
Saravanan, VS (forthcoming) Systems approach to unravel complex water
management institutions. Ecological Complexity.
These strategic actors adopt diverse forms of
actions.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Resistance-based– stealing, using force, annoying and so on
(12% of sampled farmers).
Negotiation-based – informing others or the leaders of KLIS,
if they don’t get water (30%).
Dissemination-based – informing their concern, but do not
wait for the solution (27%).
Resignation – Withdraw from taking any action, if they don’t
get water (31%).
These strategic actors adopt diverse forms of
actions.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Resistance-based– stealing, using force, annoying and so on
(12% of sampled farmers).
Negotiation-based – informing others or the leaders of KLIS,
if they don’t get water (30%).
Dissemination-based – informing their concern, but do not
wait for the solution (27%).
Resignation – Withdraw from taking any action, if they don’t
get water (31%).
Two persons were contacted by the farmers adopting
negotiation-based actions to get water:
Mr. Abdul Ali (AA), the President of KLIS, and
Das Gupta (DG) a member of the KLIS, but leader of Rajputs.
Both these agents take an active role as agents by pursuing a
‘Projects’ - is a plan developed out of actor-defined issues or problematic
,due to inadequacy of existing institutional and bio-physical resources.
AA: Demands installing an additional lift irrigation to solve the problem.
DG: demands for efficient water distribution, which can only be done by
DoIPH, and not KLIS.
Fig. 5. AGENTS AND ACTORS NEGOTIATING CHANGE
National
Level
State Level
District level
Parliament
House, GoI
State Legislative
Assembly, GoHP
Executive
Engineer, DoIPH
Deputy
Commissioner,
Nahan
Block/
Constituency
Parmesh, Water
Operator
Village/ Hamlet
Das Gupta
KHAIRWALA
Suresh Kumar, SDO,
DoIPH, Nahan
Abdul Ali
VARIABLES INFLUENCING DAS GUPTA
EDUCATED AND
YOUNG MEMBER
OF RAJPUT
ELECTED AS
WARD MEMBER
INADEQUATE
DISTRIBUTION
OF WATER
INADEQUATE RESPONSE
FROM THE PRESIDENT OF
LIS
INFORMAL LEADER
OF RAJPUTS
INFORM THE
PRESIDENT OF
KLIS
INFORM THE
WATER OPERATOR
OF DOIPH
EFFICIENT DISTRIBUTION
OF IRRIGATION WATER
VARIABLES INFLUENCING PAREMESH
DoIPH
INADEQUATE DISTRIBUTION
OF WATER
WATER OPERATOR
MONITOR WATER
DISTRIBUTION
CALL FOR A GENERAL
BODY MEETING
WALKING OUT OF
THE PRESIDENT OF
KLIS
NO OPPORTUNITY FOR
CONSENSUAL
DECISION
VARIABLES INFLUENCING ABDUL ALI
ASSOCIATION WITH
JUNIOR ENGINEER
LARGE
LANDHOLDER
AVAILABILITY OF
IRRIGATION SCHEMES
ELECTED
PRESIDENT
OF KLIS
DEMAND FOR ADDITIONAL
LIFT IRRIGATION
SCHEME
PROSPECTS TO
RECONSOLIDATE
LEADERSHIP
LEADER OF
GUJJAR
COMMUNITY
SUPPORT FROM
GUJJAR COMMUNITY
VARIABLES INFLUENCING SURESH KUMAR
DoIPH
SDO, IN-CHARGE OF
IRRIGATION
DEVELOPMENT
HIGH COST
OF MAINTAINING
LIFT IRRIGATION
PROJECTS
MAINTAIN COMMUNITYBASED PROGRAMMES
RESIDENT
OF SUKETHI
PANCHAYAT
RETAIN KLIS
NO DECISIVE SOLUTIONS
FROM THE GENERAL
BODY MEETING OF KLIS
REDUCED COST AND
SHOWCASE COMMUNITYBASED IRRIGATION
MANAGEMENT
Implication of this Negotiation
DAS
GUPTA
(member
of WUA)
ABDUL ALI
(President)
PARMESH
(WO)
SURESH
KUMAR
(SDO,
DoIPH)
Power is everywhere and with everyone (Foucault), but
is realised when:
Structural Actors by constraining water management
offers context for the emergence of agents.
+
Strategic actors through their actions provide an
opportunity for the agents.
+
and habitus or practical consciousness of agents that
legitimises their transformative capacity or power.
But it is displayed, revealed, maintained or renegotiated,
using the prevailing rules and resources, only during the
interaction with other agents.
Just by playing in this political power game, agents attempt
achieve their goal, which makes them as a ‘cunning player’
(Randeria, 2003).
Agents are ‘cunning’ players (Randeria, 2003)
DG– Represents the interest of Rajputs and his own interest to
be a future leader.
AA– Represents the Muslim Gujjars and to retain his position as
President of KLIS.
Parmesh – Supportive role to Rajputs.
SK – Represents the DoIPH and his position as SDO.
Agents play an important role in being adaptive
and in their ability to integrate different rules.
By creating opportunities for sharing and debating on
the available heterogeneous information, their agency
can facilitated for an informed decision-making.
But facilitating agents alone will not address sustainable
water management, or address poverty.
Thank You
Saravanan.V.S
Department of Political and Cultural Change
Centre for Development Research (ZEF),
University of Bonn
Walter-Flex Strasse 3
D-53113 Bonn
Germany
Email: [email protected]