Las instituciones intercomunitarias de gestión colectiva del riego. El fracaso del Sindicato General de Riegos del Turia (1850-1883)

Collective institutions for irrigation management in Spain have become a regular matter of reference in the study of common pool resources. However, the success of local water management of irrigation contrasts with a significant failure in the management of this common pool resource at the basin scale. During the second half of the nineteenth century, the water users' associations of the large huertas (market gardens) of eastern Spain attempted to constitute intercommunity institutions to coordinate water management at the basin or sub-basin level. The aim of this fairly unsuccessful institutional initiative, at that time, was to reduce the number and intensity of conflicts and to attain a higher level of enforcement of water rights. This article describes the case of the Sindicato General de Riegos del Turia, whose short experience (1850-1883) was defined by the firm opposition of the upper and middle Turia water users, who were reluctant to join this institutional project. The institution examined here was designed prior to the model set out in the 1866 Water Law, and sought to transpose to the basin level principles successfully implemented at the local level of irrigation management. This article analyses the institutional design principles followed in the creation of the Sindicato, and explores the importance of up-scaling processes in the development of nested institutions.