Governance of water use for irrigation is a challenging topic, due to alteration in climatic patterns and the resulting resource scarcity in arid and semi-arid regions. Success stories can turn quickly into failures when significant disturbances occur. This contribution focuses on the institutional analysis to highlight factors which enable or constrain the role that Lebanese Water Users’ Associations can play to tackle current and expected water shortage conditions. Furthermore, by integrating Ostrom’s design principles and a dynamic game approach, the study examines the robustness of participative institutions and their operational rules when dealing with climate change generating uncertainty about availability of water resources at local level. Water governance can find a pivotal actor in local institutions (e.g. users’ associations) not only if their organization is based on social cohesion, reciprocity, trust, information sharing and accountability concepts, but also and preliminarily, if higher-level external conditions like public recognition and control, inclusion in collective decision-making processes, and operative subsidiarity are met.