Foundation for Ecological Security 2022. Commoning Water: Playing Games to Strengthen Water Governance. PowerPoint presentation given during the Atal Bhujal Yojana Training, India, December 8, 2022

1. Commoning Water
Playing Games to Strengthen
Water Governance

2. ‘Conserve nature and natural resources through coordinated human efforts
for improved economic opportunities’
Our Mission

3. • 119 districts of 14 states
• 40,000+ village institutions
• 2.48 crore lives impacted
• 49 lakh hectares common land under community
governance
• 35 field teams, 4 Regional Offices, 320 staff
• Partnering with 101 NGOs / NGO networks | 7
State Governments
Current Presence

4. Secure
community
land rights
Collective action for
inclusive management
& governance
Access to resources
& finance for
restoration
Ecological
health
Resilient
livelihoods
Core Model

5. Session overview
• Introductions & agenda setting
• Introduction to experimental games
• Playing the Water Game
• Debriefing and feedback
• Sharing experiences & way forward

6. • Is groundwater a private property or common property?
• How difficult is it for people to understand groundwater as a
shared resource?

7. • 13th most water stressed country in the world.
• 60% of irrigated agriculture & 85% of drinking
water supplies dependent on groundwater.
• 70% of water resources is contaminated.
• Declining water levels can reduce agriculture
productivity
• Rural-urban inequities; socio-economic inequities
within the village.
Context

8. Water as Commons
• High subtractability and low excludability
• Multiple users and uses (multiple decision makers)
• Multiple resource systems
• Upstream & downstream interactions

9. Water as Commons
Further challenges of groundwater:
• Low visibility
• Lack of understanding of resource dynamics
• Lots of disbursed users
• Difficult to identify aquifer boundaries, esp. in hard rock
• “Traditional knowledge” insufficient with rapidly developing
pumping technology
• State regulation not enough
Need for collective action to manage the resource

10. • High investments on improving surface water supply,
but many communities fail to sustain the benefits over
time.
• Water easily depletes if there is no effective
coordination among users to ensure provision and
regulate withdrawals.
• Blueprint rules introduced in a top-down manner have
not made much impact.
• Research & practice demonstrates that self-
governance by communities can be very effective for
sustainable management of water and other shared
natural resources. But examples of such efforts are
limited and diffused.
How to promote coordination, rules and behaviour in a participatory way without external imposition and
in a low-cost manner that supports large-scale implementation?

11. Field Experiments
• Field experiments have been used during the last two decades to test hypotheses on collective action and the
commons.
• During these studies anecdotes appeared on the potential effect on the community of doing field experiments and
debriefing with the community.
• Experiments provide opportunities for dialogue with community members regarding collective action, and the
exercises and discussions may offer a safe environment to experience a shared challenge so they can discuss and
ponder the significance of the situation.
• It also helps understand the behavioral and institutional foundations of why would people, despite the clear
incentives to free-ride, engage in cooperative behavior and refrain from overexploiting a common-pool or contribute
voluntarily to the provision of a public good.
• Provide a tool to create a real like situation where community can understand impact of their behaviour on a given
resource or target groups; and can discuss likely institutional options to overcome them.

12. How can games
and debriefing
influence
behavior?
Source: Games for experiential learning: Triggering collective changes in Commons management

13. Water game
• Groups of 5 men or women (separately)
• Choose crop
• A takes 1 unit water, gives 2 units money
• B takes 2 units water, gives 3 units money
• 2 units (total) for domestic water
• 7 units recharge
• See effect on water table over multiple “years”
• First set of rounds: no communication, individual choice
• Second set of rounds: communication allowed

14. Community Debriefing
• Full village invited
• Basics of game described
• Share general game results
• No specifics about individuals
• Small group discussions led by game
participants
• Engage community in discussions about:
• How this relates to own experiences and
challenges farming
• Lessons and insights participants gained
from the experience
• Possible solutions

15. • Understanding the local context (gender & power
dynamics; cropping pattern; biophysical conditions –
geology, soil type, forest cover, rainfall patterns, trend
analysis)
• Mobilizing the community and selection of participants
(representation from different sections – caste/religion/age,
village leaders / decision makers, borewell owners and
users)
• Selection of game site, timing and other logistics
(common sites where everyone can participate - under a
large shade tree, school room / community hall etc., select
good time and date for game & debrief)
Prior to the Game

16. • Making it an informal setting; ensuring participants are
comfortable
• Using local examples and units to explain the rules of the
Game
• Adapting some flexibility (but not changing the rules of the
Game)
• Avoid making statements such as ‘Oh….your water is
depleting too fast !’ or, ‘You should be conserving water’
• Observing and taking a note of non-verbal communication as
well
During the Game

17. • Mix group including women & men from different social and
economic backgrounds
• Interconnectedness between cropping patterns and
groundwater use
• How the game was played, what we learned and what we
might do as a village?
• Multiple users and uses (multiple decision makers); Options
for optimal water use
• Upstream & downstream interactions
Post Game
Community Debriefing

18. Resources
• Meinzen-Dick, R., M. Janssen, S. Kandikuppa, R. Chaturvedi, K. Rao
and S. Theis. 2018. Playing Games to Save Water: Collective Action
Games for Groundwater Management in Andhra Pradesh, India.
World Development 107(July):40-53.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X18300445
• Falk, T., Kumar, S., Srigiri, S., 2019. Experimental games for
developing institutional capacity to manage common water
infrastructure in India, Agricultural Water Management. 221: 260–269
• Commoning the Commons: A Sourcebook to Strengthen Management
and Governance of Water as Commons
https://fes.org.in/resources/sourcebooks,manuals,atlases-&-
ecoprofiles/manuals/strengthening_governance_and_management_of
_water_as_commons.pdf
• HTTP://GAMESFORSUSTAINABILITY.ORG/PRACTITIONERS/
• http://gamesforsustainability.org/2015/12/05/groundwater-game-
for-practitioners/
• https://gamesforsustainability.org/practitioners/#game-on-
managing-check-dams
• Project website: https://www.ifpri.org/project/scaling-experiential-
learning-tools-sustainable-water-governance-india

19. Let’s Play !!

20. Group exercise
Group 1:
• What are the behavioral patterns that you see?
Group 2:
• What are the rules that you see emerging?
Group 3:
• How do you see the relevance of Games to the initiatives being
undertaken in Atal Bhujal Yojana?