Precious Drops: Local Water Governance in Developing Countries

Insights from two events addressing poverty and water governance

For the rural poor in Africa, Asia and Latin America, secure and permanent access to water is usually a dream rather than a reality. Often, natural water scarcity, insufficient technology and most recently climate change is blamed for this situation. But there are also other factors behind the lack of secure water access, which relate to how water should be governed. How, for instance, is water allocated between different users - who gets how much and on what conditions? And who decides what those conditions are, in the first place? Likewise, when conflicts over access to water erupt at local levels, what are the outcomes for the poorest, and to what extent are they able to take part in conflict resolution and cooperation over water? In the past week, Danish and International researchers and practitioners have explored and debated these issues in two connected events.

Water permit systems and poverty
On November 25, a public seminar at DIIS addressed the implications of water reforms in developing countries for local water governance and the rural poor. At the seminar, Barbara van Koppen from the International Water Management Institute gave a presentation on how the introduction of new permit systems for water access are essentially based on European water laws and may therefore in fact be inappropriate for developing countries. Drawing on experiences from Mocambique and elsewhere, she showed how the introduction of such systems can lead to a breakdown in customary ways of governing and managing water, and can severely disfavour the poorest. Barbara van Koppen’s presentation can be downloaded here (pdf, 2,5 MB).

Constraints and opportunities in integrated approaches
At the same seminar, Professor Imasiku Nyambe from the University of Zambia spoke on the potential implications of the new water management structures that are currently being planned in Zambia. These follow the principles of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), and will among other things lead to the establishment of conflict resolution mechanisms at various levels. While the IWRM arrangements currently envisioned in Zambia provide opportunities for more holistic water management, it also seems clear that they will not be able to address water conflicts that take place at the community level. Such conflicts therefore require other more locally anchored ways of solving conflict, possibly drawing on existing customary mechanisms. Professor Nyambe’s presentation can be downloaded here (pdf, 11 MB).

Are local approaches always pro-poor?
The seminar also provided experiences from Bolivia, presented by Rocio Bustamante from Centro Agua in Bolivia. She described how the well-known “water wars” in that country has led to an extensive institutional reform of the water sector. The new approaches have a relatively strong emphasis on community level water governance and customary rights. Talking a critical perspective on these approaches, Bustamante described how they had been successful to some degree, but also highlighted how local power relations meant that the interests of the poorest community members were not always addressed. She further pointed out that while the locally anchored mechanisms were able to address water conflict resolution at the most local levels, they were not always successful in addressing wider water conflicts where multiple communities and water uses are involved. Rocio Bustamante’s presentation can be downloaded here (pdf, 625 KB).

Water reforms are not magic bullets
In the seminar discussions following these presentations, practitioners and researchers from the Danish and International resource base brought up and debated a number of issues for practice and research. It was pointed out that while ensuring equity in water governance is important, it should not completely overshadow the need to ensure that water use is environmentally sound and sustainable. It was also noted that devolution of water governance to community level and/or customary structures does not in itself ensure water access for the poorest, and that support to such approaches therefore require a keen eye on ensuring that marginalized groups do not remain excluded from secure water access. In general the discussions suggested the need to ensure that the recent wave of water reforms and their various elements (eg water pricing, permit systems and IWRM) are not seen or implemented as one-shot quick fixes for local water governance. Instead, they require careful adjustments to individual national and local contexts, and a greater emphasis on ensuring that possible negative implications of the poorest are mitigated.

Conflict and Cooperation in local water governance
Taking this as a cue, the presenters subsequently joined a larger group of researchers from Vietnam, Zambia, Mali, Nicaragua and Bolivia to take part in a 5-day workshop ending on November 29. The workshop took place under the “Competing for Water” research programme, coordinated by DIIS. This research programme seeks to enhance understanding of the actual dynamics of local water conflict and cooperation at local levels, by documenting the number and character of local water conflict and cooperation in selected countries. The aim is to understand better how such conflict and cooperation affects the poor, and what this implies for the way water policies and development programmes should be designed. More information on the Competing for Water Programme can be found here.

Next seminar in the series
The next seminar in the Poverty & Environment series will take outset in a presentation by Rutgerd Boelens on the politics of local water rights and water governance. It will take place on December 9, 2008, 13.30-16.30 in the DIIS Main Auditorium. The overall programme for the seminar series is available here.

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