Indigenous organisation, bureaucracy and development: The case of irrigation

Abstract

Increasingly, irrigation development is implemented through large‐scale projects constructed and operated by the central government. In such projects, successful articulation between the project administrators and water users is often absent. In locations where the project serves local water users with previous irrigation experience, one solution to this problem is the adaptation of indigenous irrigation leadership roles to link the water bureaucracy and local users. This paper discusses a situation in western Laos in which a traditional pattern of irrigation leadership has been adapted to the requirements of a modern irrigation project. From this case, the hypothesis is developed that indigenous roles can be used for articulating bureaucracy and locality if accountability for job performance largely remains with the local water user groups.