Rural Water Participatory Management Mechanism

Water conservancy is the lifeline of agriculture. Agricultural water facilities, especially rural small-scale water facilities, are the infrastructure of agriculture and rural economic development, with characteristics of wide distribution, large variety, low standards, fragile bases. In a long period, especially since the end of the 1970s rural economic reform, Chinese small rural water projects mainly have been taking the collective management style of "township-village". But this management mode is difficult to adapt to the market under the conditions of the agricultural household operations, and causes widespread aging, disrepair, mismanagement and other problems of rural small-scale water conservancy facilities,, which affects agricultural production stability and development. Since mid-1990s when China introduced internationally popular mode of "participatory irrigation management (PIM)", many water user Associations (WUAs) has been established in various areas, which provides a new path to the management of small rural water projects. The problem is that more than two-thirds of the existing water users associations are not in normal operation. Thus it became an urgency to establish efficient participatory management mechanism of rural water to meet local situations. And studies on rural water management mechanism in academic circle are still quite weak.Water association of Zhuji, a city of Zhejiang province, is a NGO originated in Ming Dynasty and has been in existance for hundreds of years. Based on the systematic review of the international and domestic theory and research achievement, this study firstly uses game theory analysis methods and built a game model of farmers' participation in management of water facilities. Then the institutional balance mechanism of farmers' cooperation is probed into on the basis of the concept of social capital. Also the internal operating mechanism of farmers' participation into management is analyzed theoretically, taking the case of Zhuji water association, to find the causes of its sustaining and stable operation. Besides, thorough and specific analysis and research on the management situation and operation mechanism of Baita lake water, the largest water association in Zhuji, is carried out. Finally, some conclusions of successful management mode and existing problems were drawn out, and some innovative suggestions on the promotion of water associations are proposed.This study shows that, to realize farmers' participatory management and effective and stable operation, specific organization boundary, democratic decision making mechanism, manager of wide social relational network, effective sharing norms, proper water facility management system and appropriate governmental support are necessary. And it is also important to prevent problems such as beneficiary's escaping from related costs, imperfection of internal management, loss of legal person status, excessive government intervention and so on. Based on the former analysis, some recommendations of clear organization boundaries, wide relationship network, suitable managers, cultivation of sharing norms, well management mechanisms, status of legal person, and necessary governmental support of propaganda, policy, financial and technology are presented.