Hill reservoirs project, a main part of the 10 year strategy about soil and water conservation in Tunisia, is described with its aims, organization and pragmatic reality of first catchments. An associated research programme is conducted with two major components: (i) a hydrological study which leads to an assessment of the available water and expected life of the equipment; (ii) agro-socio-economic inquiries to design a typology of implemented lakes, in order to understand the different reservoir managements by the local population. Real interests, sustainable and effective development with questions on agreement between government authority and local communities are discussed, as well as a definition of essential principles on new resource management.