Abstract
The paper examines the performance of participatory water institutions in India’s Eastern Indo-Gangetic plains region using new institutional economics and management governance fundamentals. Water institutions are of great importance for water resource management in India’s Eastern Indo-Gangetic plains since the region has relatively abundant water but lags behind significantly in economic development and growth with a high incidence of poverty. Engineering solutions to water management have been implemented but have not given good results principally because of weak institutional development and design in the region. Effective and efficient participatory water institutions are urgently needed. The research uses concepts from new institutional economics and management governance theory to build a conceptual framework for explaining the performance of participatory water institutions. The framework identifies eight institutional rationalities: technical, environmental, economic, social, political organizational, financial and government; as well as five institutional features: clear objectives, good interaction, adaptiveness, right scale, and compliance, as linked to performance. Based on this, a survey instrument was developed and a survey conducted obtaining responses from more than 500 households across 51 such institutions in the eastern Indo-Gangetic plains states of Assam and Bihar. The data were analyzed through statistical and econometric techniques including Ordered-Probit. The results support the relevance of the concepts in explaining performance of water institutions, and a number of drivers of performance were identified through Ordered-Probit, particularly, four rationalities—technical, economic, social and organizational, (with coefficients (0.4622, 0.3803, 0.4303, 0.2457) and three institutional features—good interaction, adaptiveness and appropriate scale (with coefficients 0.4242, 0.2703, 0.6756) (based on a 5-point Likert scale), as playing a positive and significant role in enhancing performance. The results provide a number of useful insights which can help guide interventions and policy towards better design and development of the water institutions, and help improve water resource management and livelihoods in the region.
Highlights
The paper examines the nature and performance of participatory water institutions in the eastern Indo-Gangetic plains using fundamentals from new institutional economics and management governance theory
The results indicate that the performance on production/economic goals is strongly related to technical rationality (TechR)
The results indicate that the performance on equity goals is strongly related to organizational rationality (OrgR) and political rationality (PolR)
Summary
The paper examines the nature and performance of participatory water institutions in the eastern Indo-Gangetic plains using fundamentals from new institutional economics and management governance theory. Compared to many other parts of the country, the region generally for national development policy. Compared to many other parts of the country, the has better natural resources agriculture including relatively abundant water supply abundant from Himalayan region generally has betterfor natural resources for agriculture including relatively water rivers. Ifthis effectively managed, this could supportsector a strong agriculture sector growth. Morenorth waterand scarce west, northofand south regions of India are doing their limited water resources for growth and development. The consequence of poor better in harnessing their limited water resources for growth and development. Agricultural and overall in in other months and especially times of affects drought This seriously affects development the agricultural the region.
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