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| Hill irrigation in Valais (Swiss Alps). Recent evolution of common-property corporations. |
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Reference |
| Emmanuel Reynard, "Hill irrigation in Valais (Swiss Alps). Recent evolution of common-property corporations.", Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration (IDHEAP) and Institute of Geography, University of Lausanne, (2002). |
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Introduction to the Institution |
| Hill irrigation in the Swiss Alps has a long tradition of more than 700 years, especially in the Rhone Valley (the Canton of Valais) where a network of more than 1400 km of channels was created. Until the 19th century, irrigation was generally limited to the meadows. In the 19th century, it was extended to vineyards and orchards. Recently, the channels, called locally bisses, were integrated into the tourist industry as paths for hiking. The channels were constructed and managed by the entire local community or by corporations of farmers called consortages. The members of the association (consortages) are common owners of the infrastructure and they benefit from rights on the use of the resource (ex. water rights) or on the products of the association (e.g. wood, cheese). This Swiss mountain irrigation gives an example of a success-story of local management |
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Rules for Management
of the Institution |
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(a) Boundary Rules |
| Spacial Boundaries: The Swiss Canton of Valais (fig. 1) is situated in the central part of the Alps. It is drained by the Rhone River, that flows from East to West and is boarded by two high mountain ranges: the Penninic Alps in the South and the Bernese Alps in the North.Social Boundaries: There are corporations of farmers called consortages. The members of the association (consortages) are common owners of the infrastructure and they benefit from rights on the use of the resource |
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(b) Governance
rules |
| The channels were constructed by the entire local community or by corporations of farmers called consortages. In a same village, various specialized corporations could be created for managing a specific resource (e.g. alpine meadows, forests, dairies, fountains, etc.). These corporations were created and managed by the richest people of the community. The members, called consorts, elect their own committee and people for various specialised functions like the allocation of water, the control, the responsibility of maintaining works, etc. In Valais, 52.5 % of the channels now in use are managed by farmer associations |
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(c) Resource Allocation |
| The members of the association (consortages) are common owners of the infrastructure and they benefit from rights on the use of the resource (ex. water rights) or on the products of the association (e.g. wood, cheese). In the case of irrigation, the water division and allocation is normally organised into the form of a cycle (the so-called tour d’eau). The maintainance is carried out by the members themselves in the form of workdays (the so-called corvées). Rights and obligations are generally calculated according to the surfaces to irrigate. Sometimes water rights are independent of surface (personal rights). In the past, there existed a sophisticated internal regulations that organised water rights distribution between the members and the water allocation (irrigation cycles). Non members were excluded from using the water channel. Selling water rights to non-members was strictly forbidden. |
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Conflict Resolution Mechanism |
| The conflicts between consortages occupying the same watershed, that were very common in the past centuries. However, because of a general decrease in mountain agriculture they are now very scarce.There is nowadays a high competition between different water uses that can provoke conflicts, especially in tourist areas and in watersheds with a high range of goods and services produced by the water resource. |
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Problems Faced by Institution |
| Many corporations, often situated in tourist or suburban areas, have a lot of functioning difficulties. Because of agriculture reduction and urbanization, the consorts do not participate in the consortages’ activities any more. Very often, the committee is composed of old farmers that have difficulties being replaced by younger ones. There is also a reduction of the “official” functions in the consortage and sometimes the committee is composed of only one or two persons. Because of the effective water rights reduction, these corporations often have financial difficulties. The maintenance of the infrastructures is also being reduced, which means that potential risks induced by channel breaking increase. This problem is even more acute where the channels cross urbanised areas. |
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Changes in the Institution over time |
| More than half of the total length of irrigation channels has been abandoned during the 20th century, especially during the period 1920-1970. Water needs for irrigation are highly reduced in respect to the last decades of the 19th century. A lot of former water rights of consortages members are no longer in use because the owners of these rights do not practice agriculture any more or because the former farmed surfaces are now forested or urbanized. Most of these consortages are now trying to be dissolved and to transfer their infrastructures to public administrations. This is clearly a tendency to a transfer from common property management to public management. However, some corporations conserve a high dynamism. Their internal structure (committee, specialised functions) is conserved and they finance their activities (maintaining, technical investments, tourist valorisation) without any problems. The bisses (Water channels) are nowadays not only be considered as pure agricultural infrastructures but as multi-functional objects at the interface of agriculture, culture and tourism. Nowadays, in some valleys, irrigation water use is completely free (e.g. Bagnes Valley) and infrastructure maintenance is paid by the whole population |
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Other Features of Institution |
| Because of the climatic conditions, irrigation has been carried out almost since the 13th century (Mariétan 1948, Ammann 1995, Reynard D. 2002). A network of mountain channels that transport water from nival or glacial rivers to cultivated fields was gradually constructed. These channels are called Bisses. The channels are normally 5 to 10 kilometers long and the longest one is 32 kilometers long. The smaller ones are not more than one kilometer long. The principal channels derive water to secondary and tertiary channels. Meadows are irrigated by aspersion or gravitational techniques; only aspersion is used to irrigate orchards and vineyards |
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Purpose |
| Managing the use of water irrigation channels |
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Country |
| Switzerland |
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Region |
| The Swiss Canton of Valais, the central part of the Alps. |
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Date Of Publication |
| RS-2002 |
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