The Indonesian island of Bali is famous for its unique system of
irrigation. Guided and informed by religious values, it combines
impressive feats of engineering with complex and elaborate
social structures.
Most of the 162 large streams and rivers that flow from Bali’s
mountainous interior have cut deep channels into its soft
volcanic rock. This has made it impossible for farmers to dam
and channel water for irrigation in the usual way. Instead, they
have taken to cutting tunnels through the rock, and constructing
elaborate aqueducts and bamboo piping systems to carry water
to the top of a series of terraced rice fields. From here it can
flow, with gravity, from sawah (field) to sawah.
Community organisations called Subak control the water
irrigation system to ensure reliable, fair and equitable
distribution. Besides its technical functions, the Subak also
provides social benefits including strengthening the possibilities
of its members to maintain social contacts. This is reflected in
the various communal activities undertaken in the form of taskoriented self-help groups (seka).
Community groups and group activities are traditionally very
important in Balinese society. They reflect the significance
attached in Hindu philosophy to the relationships an individual
has with others members of society. This is a highly valued
principal particularly in rural society.
Bali’s famous Subak system is one of the most vital components
of Balinese society. Built over the course of several centuries, it
remains an integral part of Balinese life and is a product of the
island’s history and culture.
Subak
Irrigation is essential to Balinese agriculture because of the long
dry season that extends from April to October. The elaborate
system of channelling water from lakes, rivers and springs
across countless sawahs is controlled by fully autonomous
Subaks. Their engineering knowledge is sophisticated and the
tunnels they build and maintain through the hills can be up to
3km long and 40m deep.
The distribution of irrigation water among Subak members is
based on the principle of ayahan. This is the right of the Subak
members to make use of available water resources in exchange
for ngayah or free communal work on Subak activities. All
Subak members have the same right to irrigation water. The
amount of water is computed by dividing the total amount of
water available by the number of Subak members.
A Subak consists of all the landowners – or their representatives
- in a particular rice production area. The Subak is not only
responsible for the construction and maintenance of canals,
tunnels, aqueducts and dams, and for the distribution of water,
but also coordinates the planting and organisation of ritual
offerings and festivals.
Registered Subak members are mostly men because they are
regarded as the representatives of their family. However, women
are also involved in meetings as they play a major role in the
various religious ceremonies.
There are about 1500 Subaks on Bali (1999) each with about
200 members and they cover a total irrigated area of more than
90 000 ha. The organisation of the Subak includes the Paruman
Subak (General Assembly), the Prajuru Subak (Board), and the
Kerama Subak (Members). The general assembly is the highest
forum, and allows for open and democratic discussion among the
Subak members, in order to create consensus on issues of general
interest. The Subak Board is elected through the General Assembly.
Participatory management is typical in Subak organisations.
A Subak head can call for meetings to discuss and decide upon
issues such as maintenance work, cropping plans and the allotment of water to members. Responsibilities and duties for
Subak activities are equally distributed among the members,
regardless of family status or social position. Obligations are in
direct proportion to the amount of water Subak members receive
for irrigating their rice fields. For example, farmers who receive
one tektek - the amount of water necessary for one-season
irrigation of rice fields with an area up to about 1 ha - are asked
either to take full part in manual activities, or to provide
financial compensation as specified in Subak regulations.
Participation
Subaks are not societies for Balinese Hindu’s alone. Farmers of
other religious beliefs living in the Subak areas may also
participate in the system and those farming other people’s land
are also included in the Subak system. Their ‘share-cropping’
contracts state who is responsible for paying Subak fees and this
is usually the landowner.
It is possible to distinguish three types of Subak members.
Apart from the special members, such as Hindu priests, there
are ‘active’ members, who carry out the essential work of
maintaining the irrigation systems and ‘passive’ members who
prefer to pay for maintenance. There are also two types of
meetings: the more regular, short meetings where work is
divided between the ‘active’ members and, only if necessary,
general meetings to discuss more serious issues. All members
are expected to attend these.
Why cooperation?
What is the basis for this widespread cooperation? It might be
thought that upstream participants in this cooperative network
would be less inclined to cooperate because cooperation means
they would have to leave some water for the farmers downstream
and therefore would not be able to use it all themselves. However,
in the particular ecology of Balinese rice paddies the flow of
irrigation water affects the population dynamics of rice pests. If
fields are planted randomly, rice pests can easily move from one
field to the next after harvest, allowing pest populations to
escalate. By coordinating planting over a wide enough area,
farmers can create large fallow spaces that prevent pests from
migrating between food patches. In this way pest populations are
kept small. The rather low incidence of pests and diseases in the
rice might, however, also be attributed to other specific agricultural
practises, such as the collective burning of rice straw, maintaining
water layers on fields after harvest and herding ducks in harvested
fields. Even ceremonial offerings have been identified as possible
reasons for pests being lured or scared away.
In short, both upstream and downstream participants gain
advantages from cooperating with each other. Pest damage is
reduced upstream, while downstream farmers experience less
water stress.
Collaboration
Officially there is no link between the Subaks and government
institutions and the autonomy of Subaks is guaranteed by their
legal status defined in local Balinese regulations. However,
government agencies have sometimes tried to ‘use’ the existing
Subak cooperatives for their own purposes. These have included
agricultural extension, introduction of new rice varieties, as well
as the provision of credit for chemical fertilisers. At one stage
taxes were also collected through the Subak heads. Most of these
government ‘intrusions’ have back-fired and the Subaks have
proved their resilience by surviving these attempts to hijack the
community groups for reasons other than their main objective:
fair and equal provision of irrigation water to farmers.
Farmers see the Subak as their one and only agricultural
organisation. Such aspects of their agriculture as planning the
time when a new crop should be planted or the use of fertiliser,
for example – can be dealt with through the Subak if there is a
clear relation with the provision or use of irrigation water. A
Subak, for instance, decides on the type of rice to be grown,
depending on the amount of water that is expected to be
available. In some cases, when there are signs of water
shortages, a Subak can also decide, as a group, not to grow rice
but to plant alternative crops (palawija) that are less water
demanding.
Resilience
Irrigation water management by community organisations on
Bali has proven to be effective, efficient and durable. The Subak
system has adapted itself time and again over the last 1000
years. Any minor conflicts that have arisen have generally been
effectively solved. This capacity to resolve problems is only one
of the strengths of this system that is deeply rooted in Balinese
traditions.
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I.G. Suarja and Rik Thijssen. Vredeseilanden Indonesia, Jalan Letda Kajeng 22,
80234 Den Pasar, Bali, Indonesia