Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Resource Economics

Dissertation of Ahmad Hamidov

Community-based Agricultural Water Management: Institutions for Water Management and Conditions for Sustainability of Water Users Associations in Uzbekistan

Start: April 10
End: April 13



Soon after independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, the Government of Uzbekistan (GoU) could not provide adequate capitals to maintain secondary and tertiary water infrastructures. This resulted in low yields and subsequently, low incomes for farmers. Meanwhile, the distribution of irrigation water became severely unequal, especially for downstream farmers. Disputes among farmers over water increased. These became a main driving force behind the irrigation reform and forced the GoU to develop new water organizations (reflected as water users associations or WUAs) and new sets of rules for water management and operation and maintenance of irrigation and drainage (I&D;) infrastructures at the on-farm level. Despite the fact that it has already been a decade of WUA experience, today most WUAs have a difficult environment, mainly due to the poor conditions of on-farm I&D; infrastructures. The poor infrastructure has an impact on productivity, timely allocation of water to users, farmers’ ability and willingness to pay for irrigation service fee, and thus contribute to WUA income. This in turn renders WUA’s inability to maintain the infrastructure and leave them as weak organization with lack of effective rules and regulations. Therefore, the main aim of this research is to understand key problems of the Uzbek WUAs associated with poor conditions of irrigation infrastructure and assess the role of institutions to tackle these challenges.

Researcher: Hamidov, Ahmad

Cooperation Partners: Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Melioraton

Advisors: Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Konrad Hagedorn

Funding: Erasmus Mundus External Cooperation Window, EU Commission


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