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Irrigation Management Transfer and WUAs' dynamics: evidence from the South-Kazakhstan Province

Zinzani, Andrea

In: Environmental Earth Sciences, 2015, vol. 73, no. 2, p. 765-777

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    Title
    • Irrigation Management Transfer and WUAs' dynamics: evidence from the South-Kazakhstan Province
    Author
    • Zinzani, Andrea. Department TESIS, University of Verona, Verona, Italy
    Document Type
    • Postprint
    Language
    • English
    Published in
    • Environmental Earth Sciences, 2015, vol. 73, no. 2, p. 765-777. Springer Berlin Heidelberg
    Other Version
    OAI-PMH Identifier
    • oai:doc.rero.ch:332676
    Summary
    Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, in Kazakhstan, as in the other Central Asian republics, significant changes in both the water and agricultural sectors have emerged; water management shifted from a purely technical issue to a sociopolitical and economic one leading to several institutional and organizational changes. To address this transitional context and its issues, since the 1990s international donors have supported the establishment of Irrigation Management Transfer (IMT) and the Water Users Associations (WUAs), both initiatives sponsored and related to the IWRM framework. This paper discusses these processes in the South-Kazakhstan Province, 10years since the enactment of the law formalizing WUAs; three districts were selected for the analysis. The paper concludes that the IMT has been implemented in different and ambiguous methods and times, reflecting specific district dynamics and issues; furthermore, government support of IMT has decreased, leading to unexpected changes in its role in local water management and a reconsideration of the future scenario.