Egypt, akin to many countries in the global South, has striven to
promote collective management to overcome the challenges of irrigation
management since the 1990s. Establishing shared pumping stations (SPSs)
has been one of the cornerstones helping farmers better manage water for
irrigation. Operating SPSs successfully poses collective action
problems, for which there is no single set of solutions. This paper
utilizes fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to identify
which conditions or configurations are sufficient or necessary for
well-operated SPSs. The study draws on empirical data gathered through
semi-structured interviews from 45 cases, located in Kafr El-Sheikh
Governorate in Egypt’s Nile Delta. Results show that three different
paths are sufficient to ensure well-operated SPSs. These are: (1) the
condition of effective rules related to allocation, monitoring, and
sanctions; (2) the configuration of small group size of SPSs and large
irrigated sizes of SPSs; or (3) the configuration of adequate water
supply and appropriate location of the SPS command area. The paper
concludes that neither group size nor resource size alone explains the
outcome of collective action, while a combination of both factors does.
Similarly, an adequate water supply is essential to enhance users’
engagement in collective actions only when resource location
characteristics do not provide alternative water sources for irrigation