Resistance to the Regulation of Groundwater in Rural Tunisia

Cooperation regarding the use of common pool resources can be difficult to achieve. Different management regimes may channel a resource’s benefits differently among users. This can be a problem when regulatory regimes are uniform in nature – in other words, when the same rules apply to everyone regardless of their different circumstances. To examine the role of this heterogeneity among resource users, we surveyed farmers in Tunisia about policies for managing groundwater pumping. We found that, on average, they would be willing to pay up to 2.5% of their income for a transparent and more credible system of metering the withdrawal of water. However, the largest landholders provide the least support for movement to the uniform water-charging management regime, and in fact withdraw their support in relation to increasing transparency and credibility.