Barrio San Antonio irrigation system, Tabaco City, Philippines

Resource System
Watershed and associated topography
Resource Units
Freshwater

The Barrio San Antonio irrigation system is located at the northern foot of Mount Mayon approximately 7 km west of the city of Tabaco, Albay province, in the Philippines. It also faces Mt. Masaraga on the west and Mt. Malinao on the northwest.  No jeepneys nor buses exclusively ply the Tabaco-San Antonio route but it is accessible to different towns of the Albay and Camarines Sur because of public transportation. Vehicles that travel this route go between various towns of Camarines Sur and Albay and between Manila and Albay use the Sabloyon route which passes through San Antonio.

The original case spans from approximately the 1930s to the late 1970s.  It catalogues an action situation in which an older dam provides the irrigation needs of approximately 30 rice farmers tilling 20-25 hectares of land, respectively (depending on wet or dry season).  In comparison, a government-built dam completed in 1977 distributes an unpredictable amount of water to approximately 16 rice farmers inhibiting the regular irrigation of land.  Water from the Bandero River is the main fugitive resource, and rice is the main agricultural crop.

Due to distrust and poor coordination of appropriation or allocation of water, this case study is an example of an unsuccessful sharing of a common pool resource. 

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.