Development of Community Participation on Water Resource Conflict Management

Abstract

Water conflict has been encountered frequently in various river basins including the Pong River Basin where land use along this river is occupied with agriculture, irrigation area, communities and industry. Meanwhile, the effluent discharge of water if treated improperly and inadequately may cause quality deterioration to the river. This study was an action research regarding community participation on water resource conflict management of the Pong Watershed. There were 170 households used as study samples coming from the three villages including Huai Jode, Nong Bua Noi, Non Kham Par located at Kud Namsi Sub-District, Pong District, Khon Kaen Province. This study consisted of three phases by studying current situation, problems and needs of community, analysing the factors affecting to community conflict on the use of water resources by focus group discussion, and developing community participation on conflict resolution of water resource by community dialogue. Collection of data comprised of survey, focus group discussion and community dialogue. The findings in the first phase indicated the insufficient data on water use provided by the governmental sector, and the villagers need an equity principle on its use in order to attain the users’ purposes. The significant factor affecting the conflict was the one who took advantage of water use from the Pong river. In conclusion, a mutual agreement of tri-sectors should be made possible to accomplish water use management and solution to water conflict. Participatory action research is very significant to solve conflicts of water use and other problems. There are more hands-on techniques to be identified that contribute to the conflict thus on how to address it. Finally, there is a need to learn how to handle difficult participants in public meetings around conflict arising over watershed management planning.