Water rights in southern Kyrgyzstan

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Water rights in southern Kyrgyzstan
Legal provisions and social practices for access
to water
Dr. Christine Bichsel, Institute of Geography,
University of Berne
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Ferghana Valley
Source UNEP / GRID-Arendal (2005)
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Water rights

• Relationships between people over water
• Individual/group claims to water
• Power arrangement in society

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Legal provisions and social practices

• Legislative framework
• Peoples everyday interaction
• Regularised patterns of behaviour

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The gap between ought and is

• Legal is not empirical
• Normative evaluation of social facts
• Law as a legitimate source of order
• Governance for human improvement

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Legal framework for reform

• Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic (1991)
• Law on established tariffs for irrigation service
  (1995)
• Regulation/Statute On Water User Associations in
  rural areas (1995-97)
• Law On (Unions) Associations of Water Users
  (2002)
• Water Code (2005)

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Legal provisions

• State property on water resources
• Right to water use
• Irrigation service fees
• Decentralised ownership and competences

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Objectives of irrigation reform

• More democratic governance
• More efficient water use
• Enhanced collective action
• Equitable water allocation
• Sustainable maintenance and operation

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Analysts on irrigation reforms

• Frequent illicit abstraction
• Distribution and allocation conflicts
• Low collection rates
• Weak institutional capacity
• No efficient water use

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Example of irrigation system
Source own data, processed by Christoph Hösli
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Better be at the head of water

• Powerful geographic position
• Ownership / use rights to land
• Chasing water
• Situational, contextual and temporal
  collectivities
• Downstream resistance

El bashy bolgucha, suu bashy bol (Kyrg.)
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Irrigation as power-resistance

• Riparian rights
• Upstream-downstream relationship
• Power and conflict system
• Uncertainty of access
• Water without a master

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The fate of the land is the fate of people

• Symbolic meaning
• Collective claims
• Historical narratives
• Value of land and water
• Strategic interests

Jer tagdyry el tagdyry (Kyrg.)
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Irrigation as socially embedded

• Prior appropriation
• Historico-legal aspects
• Identity and attachment
• Burden of ownership
• Political nature of infrastructure

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Close to water means close to God

• Water as a gift of God
• Life and livelihood
• Gendered institutions
• Poverty and access

Suuga jakyn Kudaiga jakyn (Kyrg.)
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Irrigation as moral economy

• Right to water
• Inequalities (age, gender, wealth)
• Moralities of access
• Economised water

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Water rights today

• Western water governance
• Pre-independence structures and imaginaries
• Local moralities and norms (tradition)
• On-site power relations

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Legal and empirical at odds

• Bricolage / legal pluralism
• Dysfunctionalities
• Rule of law
• Post-socialist transformation
• Normative models of society

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Conclusion

• Dimensions of irrigation systems
• Irrigation systems reflect societal systems
• Infrastructure as nodal points

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