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| Murcia: a communal system of the tanda type |
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Reference |
| Trawick, Paul. 2005. "The Moral Economy of Water: A Cross-Cultural Study of Principles for Successfully Governing the Commons." (Working Paper)Link:http://dlc.dlib.indiana.edu/archive/00001646/ |
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Introduction to the Institution |
| The Huerta lies 50 km. inland from the coast on the middle plain or vega of the Segura river. The elaborate and ingenious design of the canal system is spread in the region which historically covered nearly 13,000 ha. of land. This canal system use the relatively clean river water (the “aguas vivas”) once in order to irrigate the widest area possible, then collect the runoff from that first irrigation in the drainage canals in order to use the recycled water (the “aguas muertas”) to irrigate again, then again (after collecting it once more), and in some cases even a fourth time before finally passing the remainder—still a substantial flow, but of highly contaminated, dark brown water—into the channel of the Segura River. Traditionally, the Murcia irrigation cycle was called a tanda which plays a vital role in the city and region. The set of basic principles had made this local system both efficient and successful achieving fairness, involvement of individual ware users and transparency. |
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Rules for Management
of the Institution |
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(a) Boundary Rules |
| Spacial Boundaries: The Huerta lies 50 km. inland from the coast on the middle plain or vega of the Segura river. The canal infrastructure consists of a giant weir (the Contraparada) that diverts nearly all of the river’s flow into two enormous and lengthy canals on either side of the river (called Aljufía and Barerras [or “Mediodia”]). These supply canals feed into a long series of secondary and tertiary canals (acequias mayores and menores, and laterales), whose outer extremes are interlaced among, and feed into, a corresponding web of small drainage canals that in effect form a kind of mirror image. The small drains (azarbetas) for collecting excess or runoff gradually grow larger as they join together and constrict as a group into very large and lengthy drainage canales (azarbes and meranchos), which ultimately combine into a single large canal (the azarbe mayor) that leads back into the river. The system today is spread out in with 7,125 ha. land.Social Boundaries: 42 separate Irrigator Communities (Comunidades de Regantes), the groups 14,214 very small farmers (hacendados) whose property is spread out along each of the many canals |
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(b) Governance
rules |
| The activities of total of 14,214 very small farmers (hacendados), are coordinated and channeled through the 42 separate Irrigator Communities (Comunidades de Regantes), the groups of water users whose property is spread out along each of the many canals. The communities vary greatly in size but are legally autonomous and led in each case by an elected representative called a Procurador (a “procurer”). Together these local officials elect, and are led by, a group of officials who make up the Junta de Hacendados, the leaders of the huerta’s General Irrigation Community. This organization includes a select group who meet once each month in an informal Water Court called the Consejo de Hombres Buenos (the Council of Good Men). |
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Conflict Resolution Mechanism |
| Not mentioned |
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Problems Faced by Institution |
| Tajo-Segura Pipeline, the biggest hydraulic project ever carried out in the history of Europe is taking out most of the flow of Segura river. This is now being shared along with the pipeline water with the large agribusinesses and massive tourist housing complexes that have sprung up along the adjacent coastal area during the years since the project was finished. Farmers of Murcia have been the victims, rather than the beneficiaries, of the project Transvase del Tajo-Segura |
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Changes in the Institution over time |
| The theft of most of the Huerta’s water by the project Transvase del Tajo-Segura, which has induced a chronic scarcity, has destroyed the fixed tanda in some local institutions transforming the cycle into a variable turno. The general cycle is being interrupted constantly and now is being stretched out and highly intermittent, and lot of conflict is said to be occurring in certain areas as a result. However except few confined areas there is a surprising amount of continuity in all the other communities of the Huerta in carrying out Tanda system. People have drilled large number of wells which help them in irrigation during stretched time. The 'Communities of Irrigators' have financed them and established them on their own, investing in them communally and operating them in a manner that in each case is ‘traditional’, having been modeled on the earlier tanda system. |
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Purpose |
| Management of water irrigation canal system |
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Country |
| Spain |
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Region |
| The Huerta lies 50 km. inland from the coast on the middle plain or vega of the Segura river. |
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Date Of Publication |
| RS-2005 |
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