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Depuis plus de trois décennies, le modèle de gestion participative de l’irrigation promu par gouvernements et bailleurs de fond rencontre de nombreuses difficultés. Partant du constat que la gestion de l’irrigation présente des dimensions tant techniques que sociales, nous mobilisons les champs de la political ecology et des études des sciences et techniques et montrons qu’une politique publique prend de multiples facettes à l’aune des conditions matérielles qu’elle rencontre. Une comparaison de quatre périmètres irrigués au Cambodge illustre le fait que l’émergence d’associations d’usagers de l’eau comme acteurs de la gestion des périmètres irrigués dépend de l’existence de « points d’ancrage », c’est-à-dire d’éléments d’infrastructures de distribution et de partage de l’eau sur lesquels ces associations peuvent exercer leur contrôle et ainsi « s’inscrire » dans le paysage sociotechnique de l’irrigation.

Policy and materiality: water user associations and irrigation infrastructures in CambodiaFor over three decades, the model of participatory irrigation management promoted by the government and donors faces severe difficulties. Considering that irrigation management has both social and technical dimensions, this paper uses political ecology and science and technology studies to show how public policy can assume many forms, depending on the material conditions it faces on the ground. Four irrigation systems in Cambodia are documented on the basis of qualitative interviews; these enabled us to show that water user associations emerge as irrigation management actors only if they can exert control over water sharing infrastructures that we call “anchor points”. Whether water user associations play a significant role in irrigation management largely hinges on (1) the process followed for their establishment and the support they receive, (2) the process followed to design irrigation infrastructures and (3) the relations between the water user associations and other power holders. This paper highlights that a hybrid political ecology approach that would not only look at social structuring forces (e.g. power) but also at the material conditions of the environment (e.g. infrastructures) is particularly adapted to study irrigation sociotechnical dynamics, and notably the way water user associations and irrigators engage with their environment through a process of “inscription”, that is of building “into infrastructures” their expectations about how these have to be used.