1. Games for Social Learning on
(Ground) Water Governance
Interactive session for World Bank SAR
Regional Retreat
6 March 2023
Ruth Meinzen-Dick
Wei Zhang
Hagar ElDidi
(IFPRI)

2. Groundwater
Use
Groundwater
Levels
Prices
Government
Policy
Watershed
Management
Programs Maintenance
of Surface
Structures
Groundwater
Recharge
Rainfall

3. Community
Rules
(Surface & GW)
Groundwater
Use
Groundwater
Levels
Prices
Government
Policy
Watershed
Management
Programs Maintenance
of Surface
Structures
Groundwater
Recharge
Rainfall
Community
Understanding

4. Games +
Tools
Community
Rules
(Surface & GW)
Groundwater
Use
Groundwater
Levels
Prices
Government
Policy
Watershed
Management
Programs Maintenance
of Surface
Structures
Groundwater
Recharge
Rainfall
Community
Understanding

5. Community water management
• Technical tools to improve understanding of water resources, but
what motivation to use them?
• Community water management programs often not sustained
• Social innovations
• From “teaching” to “social learning”

6. Experimental Games for Experiential Learning
• Usually used to measure propensity to collective action
• Can games be used to strengthen collective action?
• Simulate several seasons in
short time
• Shape “mental models”,
understanding of relationships,
social norms
• Try different institutional
arrangements
(Rules)

7. Groundwater game
• Groups of 5 men or women (separately)
• Choose crop
• A takes 1 unit water, gives 2 units money
• B takes 2 units water, gives 3 units money
• 2 units (total) for domestic water
• 7 units recharge
• See effect on water table over multiple “years”
• First set of rounds: no communication, individual
choice
• Second set of rounds: communication allowed

8. • Players individually decide on
contributions to dam
maintenance;
• Benefits from dam depend on
total investment of all group
members;
• Dam benefit equally
distributed amongst all
players; OR in sequential order
• Community debriefing.
Net return per
ha in INR
Water requirement per
ha in cum
Wheat 15000 5500
Gram 13000 3000
Surface Water Game

9. Community Debriefing
• Full village invited
• Basics of game described
• Share general game results
• No specifics about individuals
• Small group discussions led by game
participants
• Engage community in discussions
about:
How this relates to own
experiences and challenges farming
Lessons and insights participants
gained from the experience
Possible solutions

10. Outcomes of Games
Game States Year # habitations Outcomes
Groundwater
pilot
Andhra Pradesh 2013,
2014
17 Some effect on attitudes
Communities more likely to adopt water registers &
rules for groundwater *
Surface water Rajasthan
Madhya Pradesh
2016
2017
30
60
Communities more likely brought swelling water
conflicts to the table and engaged in dam
maintenance activities *
Groundwater
expansion
Rajasthan
Madhya Pradesh,
Andhra Pradesh
2014-
2019
184 Total 3357 farmers adopted less water consumptive
crops or varieties and irrigation scheduling to save
water**
Scaling up AP, Karnataka, MP 2020- 1286 direct Impact assessment ongoing
Project Raj, Maharashtra, Odisha 2023 3715 indirect Strong uptake through partner organizations
Ethiopia & 2021- 40 Impact on mental models but not (yet) on rules
Ghana pilots 2022 needs further support
*Compared to randomly selected control communities where game has no been played
**Compared to farmers’ reported behavior, prior to the games

11. Rajasthan
Semi-arid, Dark Zone, agro-
pastoralist communities, mixed
farming
- Reservation of surface water
sources for livestock drinking
& for groundwater recharge
- Ban on drilling of borewells
- Sharing water from wells
- No use of soap/detergent in
water sources reserved for
livestock
AP & Karnataka
Drought prone, erosion of
traditional tank management systems,
intensive agriculture
- Revival of traditional neeruganti
system of tank management
- No encroachment of tanks &
feeder channels
- Focus on groundwater recharge
- Crop decisions based on water
levels (crop holidays during severe
drought years)
MP & Odisha
Forest dominated, degraded uplands
resulting in siltation & drying of streams,
agriculture and forest dependent tribal
communities
- Fishing rights for traditional fisher
folks
- Community contribution for de-
siltation of channels
- Rules regarding opening/closing of
gates of Stop Dams and for water
• Water sharing
• De-linking land rights and water rights
• Federation to discuss upstream-downstream
issues
• Evolving decisions based on water numeracy

12. Importance of follow up tools
Download from https://cwb.fes.org.in/ Download from https://det.fes.org.in

13. 538
774
300
244
307
99
258
214
627
1062
464
404
395
152
350
405
89
288
165
159
88
53
92
191
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Intercrops (Wheat, Jowar etc.), Mandal, Bhilwara
Wheat, Mandal, Bhilwara
Cotton- CWB, Yavatmal
Cotton+Redgram- CWB, Yavatmal
Wheat- CWB, Yavatmal
Gram- CWB, Yavatmal
Jowar- CWB, Yavatmal
Tomato, Chittoor
Water Used & saved (Litre/ Kg of Prodcue)
Locations
&
Crops
Water Used Before and After Crop Water Budgeting
Rabi - 2019-20
Water Saved
Water used Before CWB
Water used After CWB

14. Suitability tool

15. Resources
• Project website:https://www.ifpri.org/project/scaling-
experiential-learning-tools-sustainable-water-governance-india
• Commoning the Commons: A Sourcebook to Strengthen
Management and Governance of Water as Commons
https://fes.org.in/resources/sourcebooks,manuals,atlases-&-
ecoprofiles/manuals/strengthening_governance_and_managem
ent_of_water_as_commons.pdf
• Meinzen-Dick, R., M. Janssen, S. Kandikuppa, R. Chaturvedi, K.
Rao and S. Theis. 2018. Playing Games to Save Water: Collective
Action Games for Groundwater Management in Andhra
Pradesh, India. World Development 107(July):40-53.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X1
8300445
• Falk, T., Kumar, S., Srigiri, S., 2019. Experimental games for
developing institutional capacity to manage common water
infrastructure in India, Agricultural Water Management. 221:
260–269
• HTTP://GAMESFORSUSTAINABILITY.ORG/PRACTITIONERS/
• http://g
amesforsustainability.org/2015/12/05/groundwater-game-
for-practitioners/
• https://gamesforsustainability.org/practitioners/#game-
on-managing-check-dams

16. Comprehensive mapping of the bore wells

17. Communication and Planning- Crop Water
Budgeting Dashboard and Discussion
• Prepared & presented before the community
• Along with CWB estimation Rainfall pattern, cropping
pattern, crop wise irrigation requirement, access to
irrigation etc. are included in the dashboard
• Help in triggering the discussion around water & crops
amongst the community
• If there is a deficit in water availability for the present
cropping plan, the community members discuss
possible crop changes to avert the situation of water
deficit. The exercise generates debate and discussion
on water as a collective resource and the need for
better governance.

18. Involving community to trace the resource usage and dependency using -
Trend Line as a tool
• Climatic factors
• Shifting cropping patterns
• Changes in the surface and sub
surface water resources
• Role of external factors like -
Market, Technology, financial
considerations
• ‘Where did we go wrong’ and “
Way forward”

19. Using the advanced GIS tools to map Hydrological flows
• Recharge zones, discharge zones
• Bore wells are close to each other
• Securing recharge zones

20. Water game – a platform for community for collective action
• Has made the ground water from invisible
resource to visible resource.
• An awareness that individual extraction behavior
has an impact on the availability of the resource
for the rest.
• Optimal usage of the resource usage is liked with
cropping choices that are made.
• An awareness that water as resource has
multiple usages – Domestic use, Agriculture,
Livestock etc.
• A need for a commonly agreed rules for
governance the resource.
• At the end evolved the idea of “Groundwater as
Commons”

21. Tools for Ecological Threshold: Crop water Budgeting
Restoration: Consumption less than recharge, to increase
storage and raise groundwater levels
Balance and Buffer: Match consumption to recharge to
stop depletion. Draw down reserves in dry years and
replenish in wet years.
Steady Depletion: Manage drawdown of groundwater
stocks to increase lifetime and productivity.
Race to the Bottom: Uncoordinated scramble. Whoever
has deeper well and bigger pump grabs more benefits.
Water
demand
106,436 Cum
Recharge
81,457 Cum.
• To know the stock of the resource
• Matching the resource availability with the
demands on the resource
• Reveals the resource status - triggering
further action in this case - water balance
was showing the “Deficit”.
• Collective thinking helps in addressing the
larger level issues.

22. Dash board presentation – Information is key to trigger discussion
amongst the community

23. Water Demand
106,436 CuM.
Water Recharge
81,457 CuM.
Deficit = 24,979 CuM.
Proposed crops
Groundnut 37.4 Acres
Tomato 9.5 Acres
Grown crops
Groundnut 30 Acres
Tomato 0.5 Acres
Water Demand
62,324 CuM.
Water Recharge
81,457 CuM.
Surplus = 19,133 CuM.
Enabling
real
time
scenario
planning-
for
dynamic
cropping

24. Outcome
• Evolving the Intervention plans - securing the
public investments in regevunating the
resources
• Farmers are encouraged to adopting package
of practices, water saving technologies, natural
farming practices etc.
Evolved rules
Minimizing the Paddy crop area under
borewells
Prohibiting the extraction of water from
surface water bodies that cater to needs of
the livestock.
Informed Crop choice should be decided
collectively
Moratorium on digging new Bore wells.

25. Thank you

26. Resources
• Project website:https://www.ifpri.org/project/scaling-
experiential-learning-tools-sustainable-water-governance-india
• Commoning the Commons: A Sourcebook to Strengthen
Management and Governance of Water as Commons
https://fes.org.in/resources/sourcebooks,manuals,atlases-&-
ecoprofiles/manuals/strengthening_governance_and_managem
ent_of_water_as_commons.pdf
• Meinzen-Dick, R., M. Janssen, S. Kandikuppa, R. Chaturvedi, K.
Rao and S. Theis. 2018. Playing Games to Save Water: Collective
Action Games for Groundwater Management in Andhra
Pradesh, India. World Development 107(July):40-53.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X1
8300445
• Falk, T., Kumar, S., Srigiri, S., 2019. Experimental games for
developing institutional capacity to manage common water
infrastructure in India, Agricultural Water Management. 221:
260–269
• HTTP://GAMESFORSUSTAINABILITY.ORG/PRACTITIONERS/
• http://g
amesforsustainability.org/2015/12/05/groundwater-game-
for-practitioners/
• https://gamesforsustainability.org/practitioners/#game-
on-managing-check-dams

27. Directions
1. Divide into 2 groups (probably just according to tables you are sitting at)
2. Need 5 volunteers to be game “players”. (come forward around one table at the
front)
3. Everyone else, pick up a colored sheet from the table.
a. Group 1 (Blue color): closely monitor the game players and write down your
observations as the game proceeds.
b. Group 2 (Green color): find relevant questions to ask the players during the
debriefing session and jot down points for facilitating the debriefing session.
c. Group 3 (Yellow color): find if the game was relevant to your programs/
programs you support ( e.g. Atal Bhujal Yojana)