Explaining the Good Governance of Agricultural Surface Water Resources in the Gawshan Watershed Basin, Kermanshah, Iran

The purpose of this study was to explain the current water governance at Gawshan Watershed Basin in Kermanshah Province and then provide an alternative conceptual framework for good governance of water resources at the basin scale. Participants were selected purposefully among the representatives of rival groups. Participatory workshop technique was used to collect data with the aid of interviews and focus group discussions. Analysis of the interviews led to classification of the challenges of water governance into several categories. These include the lack of participation, fairness, accountability, responsiveness, legitimacy, transparency and consensus-oriented processes. Then, water governance solutions were extracted based on the consensus among the participants. These include farmers’ contribution to decision- making processes regarding agricultural water consumption, empowering the local people to negotiate and manage conflicts, establishing a participatory mechanism to manage water conflict, holding training courses and workshops for staff to get acquainted with the principles of good governance, creating transparent and accessible information system by agricultural water section, and holding education-extension courses to increase information and awareness of the stakeholders in line with responsibility. Finally, a framework for good governance of water resources in the watershed basin was drawn up after linking the concepts.