refereed paper
Water Resources Act, 1997 involved development of a Water Allocation Plan. It is a legal document, wh ich fac ilitates the managem ent of grou ndwater and extractions within sustainable limits while balancing the eco nomic, environ mental and social d emands of the resource. Included in this plan is an assessment of the capacity o f the gro undwater resource, and the sustainable limits for extractio n (Barnett, 2002). Although the rules for water allocation and transfer of licensed allo cation rules are set by the WAP, bona fide unlicensed water users such as stock and domestic owners are left out. The licensed extraction of groundwater has led to aquifer drawdown, which has affected wells owned by stock and domestic water users. T h is has resulted in water confl icts. According to the C atchment authority, throughout the WAP p rocess th e community had an u nderstanding that a Cose-S haring Scheme would be established to assist stock and domestic water users affected by Iicensed use of the reso urce for irrigation (SECWMB, 2003).
The Setting In 20 03-04 39.7% o f the total area was irrigated by centre pivot. T intinara is located in rhe upper South East of Sou th Australia ap proximately 2 00 kilometres sou theast of Adelaide and covers an area of 3,423 km 2 and is a part of the Murray Basin which is a large sedimentary grou ndwater basin covering 300 000 km 2 of Southeastern Australia (Figure !). In the confin ed aquifer in the Tintinara Coonalpyn Prescribed Wells Area (TCPWA), there are th ree grou ndwater managemen t areas, namely, Tauragat, Tolmer and Kynoch with the water con fl icts most ap parent in the To lmer M anagement Area,. Water remains available fo r allocation in the con fi ned aquifer management areas of the South East Prescribed Wells Area for industrial o r public water supply purposes. Confined aqui fe r allocations for irrigation purposes are available through the transfer of existing allocations. The available statistics suggest that almost 25 per cent of the total water allocated in T intinaraCoo nalpyn is accessed from the con fined aquifer. Of 1,228 hectares (ha) o f irrigated area, lucerne accounts for about 47.5 per cen t (583 ha) and used almost 54.5 per cent of the water (4562 ML. O lives account for 41 per cent (506) and used 38 per cent (3200 mega litres) of the total water (DWLBC, 2005). 39.7 per cent of the total area was irrigated by centre pivot in 200304.
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Social Response: A Cost-Sharing Scheme Water conflicts, and mechan isms to resolve them, require collective action to build better institutions to address them. Examples from other co untries such as USA (Blomquist 1992), and Mexico, Egypt, India, and Pakistan (S teenbergen and Shah 2003) show that groundwater users have organised themselves without the help of for mal organisations to manage groundwater reso urces. Su ch organisations ach ieve so cial sustainability in chat a shari ng arrangement is agreed upon but it is not clear if they always ach ieve environmental sustainability. However, in Tintinara, the Sou th East Catchment Water Management Board has supported the community's desire to establish a scheme that assists stock and domestic users to access grou ndwater. T his scheme is a 'unique' and ' innovative' approach to manage water conflicts in Australia. T he motivation fo r affected farmers to negotiate with irrigarors came d irectly from the o riginal Cost Sharing Scheme in Mallee Prescribed Wells Area in southeastern Australia and the farmers started to modify the rules to suit their local need s and conditions. Accord ing to the group which started negotiating, they had to be big enough to form a 'committee' to lobby agai nst the irrigators. The first interim committee started with 13 members co nsisting of only stock and domestic owners. The second com mi ttee involved 11 members, 3 representing stock and domestic users, 3 irrigato rs from confined and 3 irrigators from unconfined aquifer and 1 local government representative (Coo rong Council) and 1 representative fro m the Catchment board (SEC WMB). Ar p resent, the T inrinara Coonalpyn Cost- Shari ng Management Committee has 4 members of which 1 is a neutral party, 1 is a local co unci l representative, and 1 each represent irrigators and stock and domestic owners.
Social Research Tinrinara was selected for a social research study with the objective of analysing the dispute resolution mechanism. Prior to data co llection, approval from the H u man Research Ethics of the University of South Australia was obtained . T he M arketing Science Centre, at the U n iversity of South Australia was em ployed to conduct the telephone interviews. Farmers were sam pied after a focus grou p meeting held at local C ouncil Office (Coorong Council) . The researchers had meeti ngs with the officials from the
Journal of the Australian Water Association
Department of Water, Land and Biodiversity Con servation, members of the Coorong Council, C hairperson of the CostSharing Sch eme and irrigators and stock and domestic owners. During the meetings, the possibility of a fi eld survey was discussed, using an openended questionnaire. After telephone con versatio ns with the chai rp erson of the cost-sharing sch eme and a few farmers, it was finall y d ecided to use a telephone interview in June and July 2005. A sample of 23 farmers responded and provided the information required fo r the purpose of th is research. O f 23 farmers, 15 of chem were irrigators and the remaining 8 were stock and domestic owners.
Results This section describes the key elements of the Cost-Sharing Scheme in T intinara, management of the scheme and attitudes to the sch eme.
Key elements of cost-sharing scheme: South Australian model The aim of the Tintinara-Coonalpyn CostSharing Scheme (TCCSS) is to assist stock and domestic fa rmers affected by the legitimate aquifer drawdown. To u nderstand the key aspects of the collective action (cost-sharing scheme), in what follows, some key elements ofTintinaraCoonalpyn Cose-Sharing Scheme are presented: Support is available fo r: • Lowering pumps • Changing the type of pump • Well deepening for wells in u ncon fined aquifer • Well replacement for 50 mm to 80 mm wells, and • Equipp ing p reviously unequipped wells Support is not available fo r: • Wells used for irrigation • Wells constructed or relined after 13 January 1999 • Degraded wells • Well maintenance
• An u pgrade of pump (increase yield) • Wells wh ich are the subject of well orders • Wedge holes
Management of the Cost-Sharing Scheme A sub-committee under the Catchment Board, comprising a chair, project officer and two members, manages the TintinaraCoonalpyn Cost-Sharing Scheme. The committee develops and provides recommendations to the Catchment Board