Shaping Stakeholders Perspectives: Survival of the Common Traditional Tanks in South India

Abstract

"Tanks, one of the major water and common property resources in Southern Peninsular India, are owned, managed and maintained by the 'State' ever since, the British centralized the tank administration. These structures have multiple use and multiple users. As the stakeholders are many with varying stakes on the CPR the modern management systems established by the British colonial administrators which is still followed, could not cope up with the declining performance.

"Various attempts for reforming the system and administration were made by the various stakeholders like farming community, government and non government agencies and other research academic institutions. A series of stakeholders meets discussion groups, future search meets and farmer's conventions held in five major river basins of the South Indian state of Tamilnadu had the aim of sharpening the understanding on tanks by various stakeholders in today's context of sweeping global changes.

"The objectives of these stakeholders meet were to bring together the major actors involved in the theme evolve and shape the future of tank administration and policy issues and set the agenda for all the primary stakeholders, including the government agencies, non-government development organizations, research institutions, philanthropic organizations and the community. While it is found that the relevance of the CPRs are more than ever, the question of reforms and coping with the changes, and accepting the realities of changes make the various stakeholders hard to settle for the new norms and procedures of resource management."