Self-managed organizations in Irrigation Districts: The Case of San Jacinto Module III in Irrigation District 017, Durango, Mexico.

Abstract

The present study documents the presence of self-managed spaces beginning when the Mexican State first became involved water management, through its expansion and the subsequent elimination of Water Boards and, finally, the return of management to the users. It
also documents a case study of small irrigation systems in Module III, Irrigation District 017 (ID 017) to show that the users had continued self-managed organizations before and after the transfer of management. The results were obtained through a review of documents, interviews
and field work. They show that near the end of the 19th century the Mexican state promoted the creation of an institution of users to manage the Nazas and Aguanaval Rivers irrigation system, but shortly thereafter the distribution of water at the river level was left to the Mexican state. During the 1930s, with the land redistribution resulting from agrarian reforms, the new users took over the distribution of the water at the level of the irrigation system. They were organized as Water Boards, and later in the 1960s the Mexican state centralized the operations of IR 017, eliminating self-management in some of the spaces while it continued
in others. More recently, the transfer of management did not take into account the existence of traditional self-managed organizations. Therefore, the San Jacinto module has attempted to incorporate them into its structure, paying a salary to the representatives appointed by the users.