In upland villages, ‘commuvatization’ answer to water woes

In upland villages, ‘commuvatization’ answer to water woes

A plain solution offered by a cooperative venture.


BAGUIO CITY—Although based in the United States, Andrew Bacdayan, a retired economics professor, had closely monitored the intertribal conflict in the villages of Fidelisan and Dalican in his hometown of Sagada, Mt. Province, in the 1990s.
Since the 1990s, several people had been killed after Dalican residents diverted the stream to their village to the detriment of their neighboring Fidelisan villagers.
The conflict between the villages ended after the tribes, in April 2005, agreed on a truce in which Dalican members recognized that the springs belonged to Fidelisan. The truce guaranteed both villages a share of water supply.
To avoid similar conflicts from erupting again, Bacdayan, who was born in Bangaan, a neighboring village of Fidelisan, proposed  the creation of a community-managed cooperative to supply water to households and establishments as an alternative.
He called this approach the act of “commuvatization,” which, he said, is a cross between government and private, for-profit organizations.
“The centerpiece of this approach is the water cooperative, which delivers and sells water not only to tribal members but also to members of other tribes,” he told participants in the recent 9th International Igorot Conference in Baguio City.
Bacdayan, a former economics professor of Northwestern State University in Louisiana and Lamar University in Texas, said a water cooperative is better than a government-run water district or a privately-owned water business firm.
Price mechanism
“A cooperative uses a price mechanism to allocate water, generates revenues, recognizes tribes as owners of their water source and ensures that an equal number of shares is distributed to each household,” he said.
“A water cooperative has also the potential to transform idle water resources to active capital for human development.”
He said cooperative members own shares that earn dividends and these can be used as bank loan collateral.
In contrast, a government-run water district, he said, is “susceptible to political patronage that breeds corruption and inefficiency.”
Similarly, a private water firm does not usually sit well with indigenous peoples who feel their water resource is their birthright, he said.
Through privatization, the tribe grants a concession to a business firm, which builds the infrastructure and operates the enterprise purely for profit.
“But indigenous tribes are usually poor so investors almost always come from outside,” Bacdayan said. “Since we feel the resource is our birthright, the investors will be regarded as interlopers and are not welcome to the tribe.”
And if there is animosity between the tribal users and the providers, business will not be sustainable, he said.
‘Commodifying’
Still untested, commuvatization, however, involves concepts which, Bacdayan said, are “alien to our culture” and will be difficult for many to accept.
These are “commodifying” or buying and selling water, the need for a regional approach to water development and exporting water to other tribes.
Under the tribal system, access to a common property resource, such as water, is open and its use is free.
But this is where the problem lies, Bacdayan said. “When a resource is free, people waste it because there is no consequence for careless and irresponsible behavior,” he said.
As a result, there is no revenue to fund the cost of maintenance and repair.
“This results in the breakdown of the water system and the water supply disappears altogether. That is the tragedy,” he said.
To sell the idea of a community-run water cooperative, Bacdayan has begun consulting tribes of Agawa and Tanulong in Besao, a neighboring town of Sagada, as well as the local government of Sagada to demonstrate the feasibility of this approach.
“The solution to our water supply problem is a regional endeavor that can succeed only when undertaken as a joint project by all parties,” he said.