Pumpa Irrigation System, Central region, Nepal

Resource System
Watershed and associated topography
Resource Units
Freshwater

The Pumpa Irrigation System draws water from the Pumpa river to serve approximately 120 households.  It is a "north-south" system and is in an area with relatively steep terrain.  This case was analyzed using a stylized dynamic model to assess its capacity to cope with new challenges from global change.  The model suggested that the adaptive water allocation rules used by the community (sequential, 12 and 24 hour rotations) could significanty enhance the robustness of the system to increased water scarcity and shocks to infrastructure.

General SES typology classification:  

  • Biophysical structure helps solve the the problem of monitoring rule conformance
  • The soical dilemma is mainly one of coordiantion of labor in space and time rather than of cooperation
  • The system structure is weighted toward 1, 4, 5, and 6 (these links are strong) and links 2 and 3 are weaker.  This may result in a situaion in which the formal role of public infrastructure provider is not well developed in general, nor is the formalgeneral process of public infrastructure provision. This may limit the capacity of the community to solve more abstract collecitve action problems - i.e. conflict resolution, distribution of monetary resources, etc.