Co-creating Water Commons: Civics, Environmentality, and "Power With” Bryan Bruns Society for Applied Anthropology Pittsburg, March 24-28, 2015

Overview Co-creating Water Commons Background – Challenges of groundwater governance – Water Commons Project Environmentality: Seeing Commons – Shifting perceptions and values Civics: Creating Citizenship – Inclusive governance through universal membership “Power With”: Working on Watersheds – Efficacy in changing flows and stocks

Challenges of Groundwater Governance Wells and pumps improve livelihoods, but risk depletion Groundwater provides over 60% of India’s irrigation Common pool resource – One person’s use subtracts water from others – Hard to exclude – Hard to monitor use, understand aquifers Few successful examples of groundwater governance

Water Commons: Influencing Practice and Policy FES: Foundation for Ecological Security Practitioner perspective as a consultant Funding from – HUF: Hindustan Unilever Foundation – NABARD: National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development 5 states, 8 districts, 700+ villages (habitations)

Water Commons: Activities and Results

Environmentality: Seeing Commons Changing environmentality: – Perceptions and values – What people see, and what they want PRA: Sketch mapping, transect walks, etc. Participatory hydrological monitoring: – measuring local rainfall and well water levels, – wall paintings Simulation: groundwater game Crop-water budgeting: – rainfall, storage versus crop demand – Coordination crop choices Watershed conservation planning: – bunds, ponds, trenches, tanks, etc. for reducing runoff, – increasing storage in soil, surface water bodies, and aquifers

Civics: Creating Citizenship Habitation-level governance: – Village Organizations Universal membership: – Inclusion in terms of gender, caste, indigeneity (tribals), poverty – Inclusion in voice, action, and benefits Polycentric governance – Linkages with smaller and larger scales and groups – Hamlets, user groups, revenue villages, panchayats, blocks, sub- basins, districts, states, basins

“Power With”: Working on Watersheds Improving collective action Power with, by acting together – Interacts with “power to,” capabilities – And with “power over” authority, sanctions, etc. Water harvesting Ecological restoration: forests, pastures Balancing water demand and supply Claiming commons

Monitoring Process – Sequence of activities, meetings, plans, agreements, resolutions Results Triple bottom line: – social: equity, governance organizations, rules – Economic: crops and income – environmental: water storage capacity, water levels

Conclusions Co-creating Water Commons Environmentality: – Changes in environmental perceptions and values Citizenship: – Changes in governance: – inclusive organization in habitations Power with: – Cooperation to balance water supply and demand, – claim commons, – ecological restoration

Overview Co-creating Water Commons: Civics, Environmentality and “Power With” In Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, and other parts of India, the Foundation for Ecological Security is working with communities to develop better institutions for managing surface and groundwater. Sketch mapping, participatory hydrological monitoring, experimental games, crop-water budgeting, watershed conservation, and other activities develop shared knowledge of water resources and consider options for improvement. Habitations, containing dozens to hundreds of households, organize based on universal membership, within nested contexts of larger landscapes and social networks. From a practitioner's perspective, this paper explores ways of facilitating the co-creation of citizenship in water commons.