Multiple Water Use System (MUS) is a combination of facilities for both productive and domestic water use to meet the multiple needs of water in the community. Operation and maintenance of such facilities require a collective action by the users of irrigation facilities, water points, cattle trough or washing basins. One of the conditions to create an enabling environment for collective action is a common understanding of a particular issue between individuals. Differences in values and interests held between them often challenge the process of developing such an understanding. MUS, intending to cater for diverse needs, challenges the assumption of collective action by involving different users’ groups with varying levels of interests and needs in water use.

Gender relations, although being a critical factor in understanding the mechanism of collective action, are embedded in a society and often invisible. They can be overlooked in the process of organizing collective action. This paper examines how the gender relations affect the management of irrigation, water point and irrigation with multi-purpose facilities in Adidaero watershed in Tigray region, northern Ethiopia and analyzed by using the Gender Performance Indicator for Irrigation.