Session 1. 3. B.

Water is one of the most studied common pool resources (CPR) with concerns for access to safe drinking water especially in rural, arid and Semi-arid regions (ASALS) regions that remain vulnerable to climate change and variability. The allocation and access to water across Kenya has been managed locally with state and non-state actors engaging communities towards attainment of SDG 6 and ensure regular and adequate supply of safe drinking water. Water as a common pool resource (CPR) is defined largely by the actions on the part of the individuals who use it to maintain its productivity. Communities and individuals can take water management and governance actions variously. The actions can fall into the category of contribution of real resources like money, time, or physical capital, or in the restriction of the use of the common-pool resource associated activities for sustainability. An exploratory study that anchored on an ethnographic approach utilised participant observation complemented by in-depth interviews (IDIs) and focus group discussions (FGDs) to interrogate the emic perspectives informed by attitudes, perceptions and practices regarding informal norms and formal rules that enable diverse forms of cooperation for water management in a Rural community in Kenya. Water initiatives often overlook community participation in the design and management of water projects. The paper argues that emic perspective that include community attitudes, perceptions and practices influence water co-management as a common pool resource to enable sustainable access to safe drinking water by rural communities in resource limited settings. For sustainable water governance, community empowerment through participatory establishment an institutional arrangement, with formal and informal rules, norms and practices is necessary for collective management of water.

Sustainable groundwater management is an important and challenging issue. It is challenging since groundwater continues to be treated as private property regardless of its Common Pool Resource (CPR) nature. Establishing the collective property rights for groundwater is one way of managing this precious resource. Proposals for groundwater governance have taken many approaches, including market-based (Nsoh 2022), government regulation, privatisation, self-governance (Cosens 2018) and polycentric (Ostrom 1990).

The current study is based on the Groundwater Collectivisation agreements conceptualised by the Hyderabad (India) based non-profit Watershed Support Services and Activities Network (WASSAN) and operationalised since 2007 through its partner NGOs across the rainfed regions of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in India. The collective facilitates the sharing of groundwater for critical irrigation in the hitherto unirrigated patches of land of borewell-owning and rainfed farmers via a piped network. The water-sharing mechanism is enforced via a formal agreement between the parties signed before the land revenue officer. From polycentric, the sharing arrangement is expected to shift to self-governed following the cessation of the agreement period of 10 years. What drives these potential shifts and sustaining collective sharing has been the core of Elinor Ostrom’s works on commons and the central question posed in this study.

Through farmer surveys, group discussions, interviews and mapping of change in cultivation/cropping patterns,, this study locates the following outcomes from the sampled collectivisation locations across Andhra Pradesh: 1) Establishment of new norms and governance structures related to groundwater management, 2) Dynamics of the decision-making processes, and 3) Impact on groundwater level, cropping pattern, income and livelihood.

Small-scale irrigation in India have complex institutional and resource structures. These systems serve as adaptive strategies for vulnerable communities during droughts when large-scale irrigation fails, while also enabling collectivization and representation. To establish this finding, the paper uses a polycentric framework to study a traditional community-owned small-scale irrigation system called Gonchi in Anantapur District of Andhra Pradesh, India. This study employs a case study methodology, utilizing qualitative tools to analyze discourses and narratives about this small-scale irrigation system within the prevailing policy push for large-scale state driven irrigation. The findings reveal that Gonchi serves as a collective platform for advocacy and representation for small farmers. However, insufficient attention is given to ensuring justice for women and farm labour.

In 1990, the government of Punjab, Pakistan introduced community-based water governance in dual water zone areas (sweet and brackish). The jointly completed rural water supply (RWS) was handed over to a community-based organization (CBO), accompanied by CBO members' training and signing of the agreement for adherence to rules by the CBOs and the government. The study is framed in the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) Framework and collaborative policy design to comprehend the self-organizing capabilities of CBOs in ensuring compliance with institutions in a collaborative process for RWS governance. There has been little investigation as to why and how the CBOs tend to comply with rules-in-form and how the informal rules influence the operation & maintenance (O&M) of RWS. The results of focused group interviews with CBO members, community, and government officials reveal that the formal institutions partially adhered. Still, the self-organizing capabilities of the CBOs sustain the RWS. Some households are unwilling to get a water connection and pay charges. At the same time, others with water connections are unwilling to pay. These are some of the challenges in the O&M of RWS and reasons for the CBO's financial deficit, which are covered through philanthropic donations, a predominant local value. The study proposes a water metering system, payment for consumption, and mandatory water connections for the RWS.

Keywords: Rural Water Supply, Institutional Analysis and Development Framework, Collective Action, Collaborative Design, Collaborative Compliance