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Theme 4. Socioeconomics and Policy
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Project 4.1. Socioeconomics of natural resource management in dry areas
Learning from traditional systems of water supply
Qanats are underground tunnels that tap groundwater and direct it to human settlements or agricultural land. The technique originated in ancient Persia and over the centuries, qanats provided a lifeline to irrigated agriculture and settlements in dry areas. Teheran, capital of Iran, was fed by twelve qanats until 1930 and the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria grew and prospered because of its reliable qanat water supply. Qanats rely on gravity alone to transport water from underground aquifers and do not deplete groundwater resources. In the past, social

The qanat is an intrinsically sustainable technique of groundwater extraction and as such, could provide useful lessons in efficient water management. Consequently, researchers from ICARDA initiated a small pilot project to understand the traditional management systems of qanats. They based their research on the village of Shallaleh Sakhireh, southwest of Aleppo. The community there still relies on an ancient qanat system (Fig. 22), now in a poor state of repair, as the sole source of water for its 25 households.

Cleaning work inside the qanat tunnel
Fig. 23. Status of Syrian Qanats (Source: Lightfoot, D.R. (1996). Syrian qanat Romani: history, ecology, abandonment. Journal of Arid Environments 33, (321-336).

In the second phase, the research team interviewed local experts and representatives of government institutions and documented the geographical, socioeconomic, and hydrological characteristics of 42 sites in Syria using a map from Lightfoot (1996) as a reference (Fig. 23). The team identified 91 qanats, of which 30 are still flowing. They also developed georeferenced databases to record the characteristics of each qanat. It appears that the Syrian qanats are drying up and being abandoned as water tables fall due to excessive pumping of groundwater. Once a qanat dries up, the local people lose interest in agriculture and drift into other occupations and off-farm employment. Inevitably, with the abandonmentof qanats, much of the indigenous knowledge about their management is also lost.

structures also regulated water use and ensured that the system was properly maintained. Changes in society and the introduction of new technologies, such as groundwater pumping, have led to many qanats drying up and falling into disrepair.
Fig. 22. A cross-section of the Qanat of Shallaleh Sakhireh, south-west Aleppo, Syria. Lightfoot (1996).

In this community, as in many others in West Asia, water and land ownership go together and the largest landowner is also the largest holder of irrigation rights. Water rights are measured according to the flow over time from a central collection point (berka). At present, irrigation rights are divided among 30 people, but other members of the community are entitled to use the water for other purposes. In recent years, water flow from the qanat has been declining due to deposits of silt and stones in the tunnel and parts of the floor have broken, allowing the water to drain away. The villagers thought that water flow would increase if the tunnel was cleaned and the floor re-lined. Unfortunately, they were unable to organize any collective action to maintain the qanat. Reasons included weak community leadership, inadequate financial resources, and migration to cities, together with community disputes and a perception that the transfer of land had led to an unequal distribution of water rights.

The researchers decided that rehabilitation of the qanat would help to restore the community’s social systems as well as their water supply, and sought help from the Syrian General Directorate of Antiquities and Aleppo Museum, as well as bringing in an anthropologist, an economist, and a hydrologist. Meetings with the community led to the development of a plan. The villagers themselves carried out the work and some of them were trained to continue the maintenance work. As a result, water flow increased by 25% in the following winter season, although it is not known if this improvement will be suistainable.


Although many qanats in Syria have been permanently lost, those still flowing could be renovated and the local communities are generally willing to do the work. For example, in Dmeir, 45 km northeast of Damascus, villagers were keen to renovate their three flowing qanats. Using the experience gained in restoring the Shallaleh Sakhireh qanat, the team was able to design a renovation plan for the villagers to implement. They used their experience and the survey data to define criteria to identify the suitability of other qanats for rehabilitation. Criteria included the community’s willingness to invest in future cleaning and renovation, local technical knowledge, the ability of water users to cooperate, and absence of excessive pumping around qanat sources.

The qanat project has important implications beyond the renovation of ancient community water systems. It highlights how ancient systems can help to identify solutions to current problems of water management. The project shows how social organization and institutional mechanisms can be harnessed for effective community action. Lessons for improved management of qanats may also be applicable to other traditional systems, such as the wadi (stream) diversion systems of Yemen and Oman.

The project was funded by the governments of the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland.

Socioeconomic studies such as the one reported above help scientists understand the different human influences on farming systems.

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