To the hands of the poor: Water and trees Robert Chambers, N.C. Saxena and Tushaar Shah
| Date | 01 February 1993 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230130114 |
| Author | Anthony Bottrall |
| Published date | 01 February 1993 |
86
Book
Reviews
I
hope that readers with little interest in Pakistan will not ignore this book for that reason.
The principles and methods and problems are almost universal: as the authors say we should
look forward to a series of studies
of
other countries using broadly similar methods.
DAVID COLLARD
Universiry
of
Bath
MANAGING CANAL IRRIGATION: PRACTICAL ANALYSIS FROM SOUTH ASIA
Robert Chambers
Cambridge University Press, 1988,279 pp.
TO
THE HANDS
OF
THE POOR: WATER AND TREES
Robert Chambers, N.C. Saxena and Tushaar Shah
Intermediate Technology Publications, London, 1989,273 pp.
Drawing on South Asian, predominantly Indian, experience, both of these books are aimed
at policy makers, professionals, researchers and teachers who are looking for new, politically
practical ways to benefit
poor
rural people through better management of natural resources.
The first explores the context of large canal schemes, the second small-scale lift irrigation
(mainly from groundwater) and tree cultivation.
Both books are similar in form and philosophy. They begin by estimating the potential
benefits available to the poor in each context. After diagnosing the main constraints
to
change,
they then put forward agendas for action aimed at widespread, quick and sustainable impact.
Those actions must pass
a
‘practical political economy’ test, which requires that any benefits
they bring to the
poor
should not cause
loss
to the rural rich and politically influential.
Urgent advocates of doing the doable now, the authors have
no
time for idealist insistence
on radical political reform
as
a
precondition (or alibi) for any other change. Both books
end crusadingly: ‘There is no need to wait’.
As stimuli to new debate and action, both hooks are highly recommended. Their hallmarks
are an impressive combination of scholarly analysis (drawing on the authors’ own extensive
field experience, as well as a vast body of secondary material), well-marshalled argument
(aided by excellent summary tables) and consistent commitment to the causes and viewpoints
of the rural poor. That one may not always agree with their conclusions is a secondary
consideration.
Of the two books,
Munuging
Canal
Irrigation
has a structure, dealing as it does with only
one type of relatively homogeneous environment
-
one where, within single schemes, key
decisions about the distribution of scarce but valuable water to thousands of users
is
controlled
by powerful and often highly centralized irrigation departments
(IDS).
Chambers clearly estab-
lishes that the performance of many of these schemes has been lamentable; that huge numbers
of
poor
people
(landless labourers as well
as
small farmers) stand
to
gain greatly from better
performance; and that the key to improving performance lies not in ‘educating farmers’ (an
old but waning misperception among researchers, still sedulously fostered by
IDS)
but in
better management of the main distribution system.
If the IDS are culpable, the next question is why? Possible explanations include insufficient
technical skills, insufficient sensitivity to users’ needs and capacities to participate in system
management and/or strong vested interests in mismanagement. If the first only is responsible,
then the gradualist measures recommended in the book’s last chapter-such as improved
techniques of main system operation, increased user participation, performance monitoring-
make good practical sense. However, if misallocation of water (and-insufficiently emphasized
in the book-bad planning, design and construction) stems from high-level corruption, involv-
ing ID staff, rich farmers, contractors and local politicians, more fundamental structural
reforms appear to be essential.
For countries where such conditions prevail (and Chambers presents plenty
of
damning
evidence from India in his chapter on ‘Managers and Motivation’), the concluding recommen-
dations read unconvincingly. Chambers h vision of possible long-term structural change-
where there would be ‘direct accountability of staff to farmers, including incentive payments
to staff related to service provided and fees collected’
(p.
242)-but recent Indian experience
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