Democratic Functioning of the Water Collectives and Going the Extra Mile

A Case of Water Users Associations in West Bengal, India

Bibliographic Data

ID12705693
AuthorsIndranil De (0000-0002-6174-2310, Institute of Rural Management Anand, “Tribhuvan” Sahkari University Anand India, corresponding author), Hippu Salk Kristle Nathan (0000-0002-0329-4898, Institute of Rural Management Anand, “Tribhuvan” Sahkari University Anand India), Prabhat K Mishra (0000-0002-8507-8194, Government of West Bengal), Prabhat Mishra (Government of West Bengal Kolkata India), Akhilesh Parey (West Bengal Accelerated Development of Minor Irrigation Project (WBADMIP) Government of West Bengal Kolkata India), Subhasish Dutta (0000-0003-1510-4825, West Bengal Accelerated Development of Minor Irrigation Project (WBADMIP) Government of West Bengal Kolkata India)
Year2025
Volume25
Issue4
Publication date2025-09-29
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Public Affairs (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1472-3891 • E-ISSN: 1479-1854
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/pa.70078
OpenAlexW4414678808
LanguageEN
References cited18

Upholding the democratic governance of functioning in water collectives has always remained a challenge. Democratic governance involves egalitarian decision‐making, a participatory election process, equitable handling of defaulters, management of conflicts, and maintaining transparency, among others. In this paper, we do a comparative analysis of functioning and non‐functioning (at the time of the survey) water user associations (WUAs) promoted by the West Bengal government. We find that democratic governance is correlated with the functioning of the WUAs, suggesting its association with core service delivery. Also, the democratic nature of governance is reflected in members' collective faith when asked about the sustainability of their associations in the future after the withdrawal of government support. We have undertaken case studies of better‐performing WUAs to assess their best practices and mapped them to Ostrom's principles. We also find that some of these WUAs, while managing natural resources, have also acted as public institutions by providing support to members and non‐members alike during the pandemic. The paper concludes that practitioners and promoters should focus on collectives' sustainability through continuous monitoring and ensuring good‐quality core service delivery. Well‐run collectives should also look beyond their core responsibilities to emerge as salient public institutions

Citizen journalism · Core (optical fiber · Corporate governance · Democracy · Faith · Government (linguistics · Salient · Service delivery framework · Sustainability · Child Nutrition and Water Access · Social and Economic Development in India · Water Governance and Infrastructure

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