Sociologist Ujjwal Pradhan takes a look at the give-and-take among the villagers of two hamlets in Central Nepal as they jockey for rights to precious irrigation water.
South of the town of Tansen, near the Kali Gandaki river, there are four Magar villages which are tied together in their dependence on the Barangdi rivulet. From upstream to downstream, they are Taplek, Pokhariya, Cherlung and Artunga.
In 1928, Cherlung villagers financed the building of Thulo Kulo (kulo = canal). As partial compensation for right of way, they agreed to give some water to the two upper villages, but not nearly as much as the latter wanted. The single canal could not irrigate both the upper and lower villages, so a second canal, Tallo Kulo, was built in 1938 to provide water for Taplek and Pokhariya.
In 1978, the District Panchayat approved a project to extend Tallo Kulo all the way to Artunga, which had thus far remained out of the picture. The extension project was supervised by the Panchayat and Local Development Ministry. A meeting was held between the canal members of Cherlung, future beneficiaries of Artunga, the Village and District Panchayat members, and the engineer who had carried out the survey. A "Cherlung-Artunga Irrigation Reconstruction Canal Committee" was constituted. The District Panchayat was asked to provide for "proper, just allocation" of irrigation water based on land area.