Local Perception of the Multifunctionality of Water Tanks in Two Villages of Tamil Nadu, South India

Abstract

Using data from free listings and a survey in two villages of Tamil Nadu, India, we discuss local perceptions and uses of water tanks, a traditional irrigation infrastructure. We hypothesize that both farmers and nonfarmers perceive and use water tanks for purposes other than irrigation. We found that informants recognized the importance of water tanks for irrigation, but also acknowledged other socioeconomic uses and ecological functions. Marginal sectors (i.e., Scheduled Castes) use tank resources in more diverse ways than other sectors of the population. Findings are relevant for development. International organizations working on the revival of water tanks aim to transfer water management to farmers for the purpose of irrigation. By recognizing that tanks benefit people other than farmers and in ways other than providing irrigation water, organizations working on tank rejuvenation could achieve a more equitable management of tank resources.

Keywords:

• irrigation
• local perception
• multifunctionality
• Tamil Nadu
• water tanks

Acknowledgments

This research was funded by a Marie Curie International Reintegration Grant (CT-2006-036532). Ariza-Montobbio, Galán-del-Castillo, and Serrano-Tovar benefited from an internship at the French Institute of Pondicherry to conduct field work and to get logistic support. Our thanks go to I. Prabakhar (IFP) for his help and advice, to R. Nithya and Anamalai for daily support in the field, and to GT-Agroecosystems, ICRISAT-Patancheru for office facilities to Reyes-García. Thanks also go to the people in Endiyur and Attur for their patience with our questions. J. Bouma, M. Celio, D. Tabara, and J. P. Venot gave valuable comments to previous versions of this article.

Notes

Note. Econ, economic uses; Ecol, ecologic uses; Socio, sociocultural uses; Agri, agricultural uses; NoAgri, nonagricultural uses; Domestic, domestic uses.

Note. Regressions include clustering by village of residency and a constant (not shown). Statistical significane indicated by *p < .1 and **p < .05.

^a Dummy variable that takes the value of one for the name of the variable and zero otherwise.