Feasibility Investigation of Good Governance in the Participatory Water Management in Aqqal County

Nowadays, participatory water management receives much attention as one of the key elements of sustainable water resources management. The feasibility of good governance in the process of participation of stakeholders in water exploitation can meet the interests of all users in a fair way. The purpose of this research was to investigate the feasibility of good governance in the process of participatory water management. The study was conducted in Payvand Production Cooperative (PPC), Aqqala County. Research method was survey and questionnaire tool was used for collecting the required data. Target population included 400 farmers who were members of PPC and received services related to participatory water management. The data was collected from 196 farmers from 7 targeted villages. Reliability of research questionnaire was approved based on opinion of experts, and its validity was confirmed by Cronbach`s Alpha coefficient in two parts: importance and feasibility of good governance components. Results of evaluating the feasibly of good governance components showed that the majority of respondents believed that the components of good governance in the process of participatory water management in the study area had been considered at an acceptable level. Also, the results of one sample t-test showed that the process of participatory water management in the study area was successful in terms of attention to all five components of good governance, namely, public participation and collective agreement, responsibility and law enforcement, accountability and transparency, fairness and efficiency and effectiveness. Results of independent sample t-test indicated that respondents whose main job was farming (compared to those whose main job was not agriculture) and respondents who received water share in a group manner (compared to those who received water individually) evaluated the feasibility of good governance components at high level.