IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agiwat/v193y2017icp116-130.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Conjunctive use of surface and ground water resources in a community-managed irrigation system — The case of the Sidi Okba palm grove in the Algerian Sahara

Author

Listed:
  • Hamamouche, Meriem Farah
  • Kuper, Marcel
  • Riaux, Jeanne
  • Leduc, Christian

Abstract

Surface water and groundwater for irrigation are frequently used conjunctively, especially in semiarid and arid regions. Planning conjunctive management involves several difficulties, one of which is adapting irrigation institutions and infrastructure to coordinate the management of multiple water resources. This article focuses on the social and material dimensions of the conjunctive use of multiple water resources in a community-managed irrigation system when integrating new water resources. It explores the way the physical characteristics of these new water resources shape and are shaped by human-made arrangements, in particular irrigation institutions and infrastructure. The study was conducted in the ancient palm grove of Sidi Okba, located close to the city of Biskra in the Algerian Sahara. This palm grove has a long irrigation history based on the exploitation of several water resources: floodwater, intentional dam releases, uncontrolled dam leakages, and groundwater. Despite state interventions based on a mono-resource view of the irrigation system, the irrigation community developed the conjunctive use of multiple resources. Throughout its eventful history, the community adapted the irrigation institutions and infrastructure inherited from the spate irrigation period to incorporate new water resources. It also acquired the ability to negotiate with the state to manage its own system of water allocation and distribution. The social practices inherited from surface water irrigation played a crucial role in the integration of groundwater in the irrigation network. This study concludes that the ability of long-standing irrigation communities to renew their irrigation systems and to adapt to different global changes is decisive in explaining the sustainability of these systems. However, the boundaries of these irrigation systems changed with the incorporation of groundwater pumped from the confined aquifers, which means that the water resources cannot only be managed at the local level, putting at risk the sustainability of such irrigation systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Hamamouche, Meriem Farah & Kuper, Marcel & Riaux, Jeanne & Leduc, Christian, 2017. "Conjunctive use of surface and ground water resources in a community-managed irrigation system — The case of the Sidi Okba palm grove in the Algerian Sahara," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 116-130.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:193:y:2017:i:c:p:116-130
    DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2017.08.005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377417302615
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.agwat.2017.08.005?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Turral, Hugh & Svendsen, Mark & Faures, Jean Marc, 2010. "Investing in irrigation: Reviewing the past and looking to the future," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 97(4), pages 551-560, April.
    2. Alam, Khorshed, 2015. "Farmers’ adaptation to water scarcity in drought-prone environments: A case study of Rajshahi District, Bangladesh," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 196-206.
    3. Siderius, C. & Boonstra, H. & Munaswamy, V. & Ramana, C. & Kabat, P. & van Ierland, E. & Hellegers, P., 2015. "Climate-smart tank irrigation: A multi-year analysis of improved conjunctive water use under high rainfall variability," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 52-62.
    4. Ortega-Reig, Mar & Palau-Salvador, Guillermo & Cascant i Sempere, Maria Josep & Benitez-Buelga, Javier & Badiella, David & Trawick, Paul, 2014. "The integrated use of surface, ground and recycled waste water in adapting to drought in the traditional irrigation system of Valencia," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 55-64.
    5. Ciriacy-Wantrup, S.V., 1969. "Natural Resources In Economic Growth: The Role Of Institutions And Policies," 1917-1970 AAEA Conference Archive 284433, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    6. Li, Zhou & Quan, Jin & Li, Xiao-Yan & Wu, Xiu-Chen & Wu, Hua-Wu & Li, Yue-Tan & Li, Guang-Yong, 2016. "Establishing a model of conjunctive regulation of surface water and groundwater in the arid regions," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 30-38.
    7. Minhas, P. S. & Gupta, R. K., 1993. "Conjunctive use of saline and non-saline waters. I. Response of wheat to initial salinity profiles and salinisation patterns," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 125-137, April.
    8. Naresh, R. K. & Minhas, P. S. & Goyal, A. K. & Chauhan, C. P. S. & Gupta, R. K., 1993. "Conjunctive use of saline and non-saline waters. II. Field comparisions of cyclic uses and mixing for wheat," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 139-148, April.
    9. Edella Schlager & William Blomquist & Shui Yan Tang, 1994. "Mobile Flows, Storage, and Self-Organized Institutions for Governing Common-Pool Resources," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 70(3), pages 294-317.
    10. S. V. Ciriacy-Wantrup, 1969. "Natural Resources in Economic Growth: The Role of Institutions and Policies," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 51(5), pages 1314-1324.
    11. Iglesias, Ana & Garrote, Luis, 2015. "Adaptation strategies for agricultural water management under climate change in Europe," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 113-124.
    12. Giordano, Mark & Villholth, Karen, 2007. "The agricultural groundwater revolution: opportunities and threats to development," IWMI Books, Reports H040039, International Water Management Institute.
    13. Schlager, E., 2007. "Community management of groundwater," IWMI Books, Reports H040045, International Water Management Institute.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Houda Mazhoud & Fraj Chemak & Hatem Belhouchette & Roza Chenoune, 2022. "A Bio-Economic Model for Improving Irrigated Durum Wheat Performance and Regional Profits under Mediterranean Conditions," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-25, April.
    2. Rossetto, Rudy & De Filippis, Giovanna & Triana, Federico & Ghetta, Matteo & Borsi, Iacopo & Schmid, Wolfgang, 2019. "Software tools for management of conjunctive use of surface- and ground-water in the rural environment: integration of the Farm Process and the Crop Growth Module in the FREEWAT platform," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 223(C), pages 1-1.
    3. Vos, Jeroen & Boelens, Rutgerd & Venot, Jean-Philippe & Kuper, Marcel, 2020. "Rooted water collectives: Towards an analytical framework," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    4. Meriem Farah Hamamouche & Nicolas Faysse & Marcel Kuper & Caroline Lejars & Mostafa Errahj & Zakaria Kadiri & Nadhira Ben Aissa & Ahmed Benmihoub, 2023. "Local development organisations in Saharan regions of North Africa: Expanding horizons," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(1), pages 79-96, January.
    5. Hamamouche, Meriem Farah & Kuper, Marcel & Amichi, Hichem & Lejars, Caroline & Ghodbani, Tarik, 2018. "New reading of Saharan agricultural transformation: Continuities of ancient oases and their extensions (Algeria)," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 210-223.
    6. Abbas Afshar & Mina Khosravi & Amir Molajou, 2021. "Assessing Adaptability of Cyclic and Non-Cyclic Approach to Conjunctive use of Groundwater and Surface water for Sustainable Management Plans under Climate Change," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 35(11), pages 3463-3479, September.
    7. Boutelhig, Azzedine & Hanini, Salah & Arab, Amar Hadj, 2018. "Geospatial characteristics investigation of suitable areas for photovoltaic water pumping erections, in the southern region of Ghardaia, Algeria," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 165(PA), pages 235-245.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dennis Wichelns, 2015. "Achieving Water and Food Security in 2050: Outlook, Policies, and Investments," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 5(2), pages 1-33, April.
    2. Meinzen-Dick, Ruth & Janssen, Marco A. & Kandikuppa, Sandeep & Chaturvedi, Rahul & Rao, Kaushalendra & Theis, Sophie, 2018. "Playing games to save water: Collective action games for groundwater management in Andhra Pradesh, India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 40-53.
    3. Choudhary, O.P. & Ghuman, B.S. & Josan, A.S. & Bajwa, M.S., 2006. "Effect of alternating irrigation with sodic and non-sodic waters on soil properties and sunflower yield," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 85(1-2), pages 151-156, September.
    4. De Janvry,Alain F., 2015. "Quantifying through ex post assessments the micro-level impacts of sovereign disaster risk financing and insurance programs," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7356, The World Bank.
    5. Philippus Wester & Jaime Hoogesteger & Linden Vincent, 2009. "Local IWRM organizations for groundwater regulation: The experiences of the Aquifer Management Councils (COTAS) in Guanajuato, Mexico," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 33(1), pages 29-38, February.
    6. Minhas, P.S. & Dubey, S.K. & Sharma, D.R., 2007. "Comparative affects of blending, intera/inter-seasonal cyclic uses of alkali and good quality waters on soil properties and yields of paddy and wheat," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 83-90, January.
    7. Zhang, Yuehong & Li, Xianyue & Šimůnek, Jirí & Shi, Haibin & Chen, Ning & Hu, Qi & Tian, Tong, 2021. "Evaluating soil salt dynamics in a field drip-irrigated with brackish water and leached with freshwater during different crop growth stages," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 244(C).
    8. Alves, Gabriel de Sampaio Morais & Fulginiti, Lilyan & Perrin, Richard & Braga, Marcelo José, 2021. "The Use Value of Irrigation Water for Brazilian Agriculture," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315861, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    9. Wegmann, Johannes & Mußhoff, Oliver, 2019. "Groundwater management institutions in the face of rapid urbanization – Results of a framed field experiment in Bengaluru, India," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 1-1.
    10. Eric C. Edwards & Todd Guilfoos, 2021. "The Economics of Groundwater Governance Institutions across the Globe," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(4), pages 1571-1594, December.
    11. Su, Han & Sun, Hongyong & Dong, Xinliang & Chen, Pei & Zhang, Xuejia & Tian, Liu & Liu, Xiaojing & Wang, Jintao, 2021. "Did manure improve saline water irrigation threshold of winter wheat? A 3-year field investigation," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    12. de Fraiture, Charlotte & Giordano, Meredith, 2014. "Small private irrigation: A thriving but overlooked sector," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 167-174.
    13. Marcus Wijnen & Benedicte Augeard & Bradley Hiller & Christopher Ward & Patrick Huntjens, 2012. "Managing the Invisible : Understanding and Improving Groundwater Governance," World Bank Publications - Reports 17228, The World Bank Group.
    14. Minhas, P.S. & Ramos, Tiago B. & Ben-Gal, Alon & Pereira, Luis S., 2020. "Coping with salinity in irrigated agriculture: Crop evapotranspiration and water management issues," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).
    15. Mandare, A.B. & Ambast, S.K. & Tyagi, N.K. & Singh, J., 2008. "On-farm water management in saline groundwater area under scarce canal water supply condition in the Northwest India," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 95(5), pages 516-526, May.
    16. Pakmehr, Sedighe & Yazdanpanah, Masoud & Baradaran, Masoud, 2020. "How collective efficacy makes a difference in responses to water shortage due to climate change in southwest Iran," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    17. Fadul, E. & Masih, I. & De Fraiture, C., 2019. "Adaptation strategies to cope with low, high and untimely floods: Lessons from the Gash spate irrigation system, Sudan," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 217(C), pages 212-225.
    18. Qiuqiong Huang & Jinxia Wang & Scott Rozelle & Stephen Polasky & Yang Liu, 2013. "The Effects of Well Management and the Nature of the Aquifer on Groundwater Resources," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 95(1), pages 94-116.
    19. Verma, A.K. & Gupta, S.K. & Isaac, R.K., 2012. "Use of saline water for irrigation in monsoon climate and deep water table regions: Simulation modeling with SWAP," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 186-193.
    20. Chauhan, C.P.S. & Singh, R.B. & Gupta, S.K., 2008. "Supplemental irrigation of wheat with saline water," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 95(3), pages 253-258, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:193:y:2017:i:c:p:116-130. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/agwat .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.