Irrigation in the province of San Juan, Argentina: institutional dynamics in the past two centuries

Abstract

This article will present the periods in the trajectory of irrigation institutions in the province of San Juan, Argentina, during the past two centuries. The different laws for water management and use that came about from the constitution of the new organization as a country, after independence from the Spanish Empire, will be examined. The formulas implemented were not always successful, since the new institutional environment always included at its core some of the norms that needed to be overcome. Therefore, many of the problems that can be found in the first years of post-colonial irrigation development, such as, for example, the lack of cooperation among irrigators, the endowment of rights to water use as a strategy for power, and the difficulties to implement equitable collective action strategies, still persist today. In the analysis, a succession of three periods was identified, when there were different institutional trajectories to regulate water use for irrigation.