Revealing the Foggara as a Living Irrigation System through an Institutional Analysis: Evidence from Oases in the Algerian Sahara

Une analyse institutionnelle qui révèle le caractère bien vivant des Foggaras actuelles: L'exemple des oasis du Sahara Algérien

Salem Idda (), Bruno Bonté (), Marcel Kuper () and Hamidi Mansour
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Salem Idda: LEESI Laboratory, Faculty of Sciences and Technologies - Université Ahmed Draia d’Adrar
Bruno Bonté: UMR G-EAU - Gestion de l'Eau, Acteurs, Usages - Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - AgroParisTech - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Institut Agro - Montpellier SupAgro - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement
Marcel Kuper: UMR G-EAU - Gestion de l'Eau, Acteurs, Usages - Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - AgroParisTech - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Institut Agro - Montpellier SupAgro - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement, Cirad-ES - Département Environnements et Sociétés - Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement
Hamidi Mansour: Laboratoire de Géoressources et Risques Naturels, Université d'Oran

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Abstract: The foggara in the Algerian Sahara has often been portrayed as a traditional ingenious but immutable irrigation system incapable of keeping up with the radical socioeconomic and environmental transformations of the 20 th and 21 st centuries. Yet, oasis populations continue to use a large number of foggaras. The aim of this study was to reveal the importance of institutions in adapting and preserving the living character of foggaras. Adapting the physical infrastructure and the institutions governing the use of contemporary foggaras are key to adapt to change, weaving different threads of tradition and modernity to maintain collective action and keep the foggaras flowing. We show that Ostrom's design principles are not only an interesting lens to explore the durability of long-standing self-governing irrigation systems, but also, when these principles are challenged, to characterize transformations of the foggara at a time of contested change.

Keywords: institutional adjustments; design principles; commons (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-12-22
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ara
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Published in International Journal of the Commons, 2021, 15 (1), pp.431-448. ⟨10.5334/ijc.1128⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03527669

DOI: 10.5334/ijc.1128

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