Calaoaan irrigation system, Calaoaan, Villa Laurencia, and Gabor barrios, Santa Cruz municipality, Ilocos Sur, Philippines

Resource System
Watershed and associated topography
Resource Units
Freshwater

The resource appropriated is water for irrigation, and the system is comprised of a network of canals that divert water from the Canayon Creek to farms situated in three barrios of the municipality of Santa Cruz in Ilocos Sur, Philippines: Calaoaan, Villa Laurencia, and Gabor. There are 51-100 total appropriator teams appropriating from the resource who are always formally organized. The system is used to cultivate rice during the wet season from July to December. During the dry season, the canal dries up and farmers shift to grow tobacco by water drawn from open wells.

This case study is part of the original Common-Pool Resource (CPR) database. A summary of the original CPR coding conducted in the 1980s by Edella Schlager and Shui Yan Tang at Indiana University may be found under the CPR tab in the Institutional Analysis section below.