Indigenous Irrigation Knowledge and Sustainable Development in Asia

Indigenous Irrigation Knowledge and Sustainable Development in Asia

David Groenfeldt suggests that village communities need to organize and stabilize their own resources, initially, which will strengthen the development capacity of the village and help to establish an independent institution. Groenfeldt argues that the classic development solution of bringing in and applying new ideas is less efficient in the long run because local indigenous ways are already established and being practiced. The one major point that Groenfeldt makes in his argument for sustainable development is the idea that community involvement from day one needs to be present before the project even has a chance at succeeding. The author writes in order to relay the message that success starts from the bottom up and that developers need to include the communities in the development and design stages of a project so that when the developer leaves the project will sustain itself.

In beginning, one needs to know some basic information on the knowledge presented in the article. In particular, Groenfeldt talks about a charitable organization referred to as AKRSP (Aga Khan Rural Support Programme). This organizations purpose is to raise the spirits of communities through productive development. One example of this organization's work, dealt with a community that was struggling with its irrigation canals. This organizations primary concern is not developing a successful irrigation system, but it is to expand and build up the knowledge of the community. If the community knows more about the "nuts and bolts" of the situation than the community can develop plans to improve their irrigation system. These plans will be overseen by a trained government or Non-Governmental Official, but the framework and the structure of the system will be developed in such a way that the people will be efficiently running the program on their own. In addition, these projects will be chosen from the community’s top priorities instead of from the priorities of outside officials. This system will again aid in sustainability because the people will be excited and encouraged from the beginning.

Groenfeldt develops a three-step plan of the AKRSP approach. The first point that he makes about the AKRSP approach is the idea that the villagers in this community need to come to a collective understanding about what the project will be and how the goal of the project will be accomplished.