the main objective of the reform was to anticipate and manage the risk of shortage by apportioning available water among water users france was looking for an option for allocation reform that would combine the capacity of users to selfregulate and provide an incentive to farmers to act collectively this option reflected french experience with the development of irrigation and the management of scarcity in france experience shows that when water users associations were in place at catchment level overallocation was properly managed as the chair of the water user association along with the members regulates water uses among members in cases of scarcity