Search

Since the early 1990s African governments took an active part in the global movement of water reform towards Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). The first step consisted primarily of assimilating the generic principles of IWRM. At this generic level, water reform in Sub-Saharan Africa seems quite similar to water reform elsewhere in the developed and developing world. However, in taking the second step of operationalizing generic principles into concrete actions on the ground, at least three salient differences between Sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere emerged: (a) Africa’s relative abundance of water resources but its scarcity of economic means to harness available water resources; (b) the importance of agriculture and agricultural water development for economic growth and poverty eradication; and (c) the need for systems of water rights and financial resource mobilization that are separated and suit the African reality in which large water users are relatively few, while the bulk of water users are scattered smallholders. This paper discusses the early operationalization with regard to these three unique features and identifies lessons learnt. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper discusses the changes in water law in South Africa since the new dispensation. The focus is on the poverty dimensions of the early experiences of implementation of one of the components of the National Water Act: the establishment of Catchment Management Agencies (CMAs). From a diversity of recent experiences in decentralizing integrated water resources management, key areas emerge where future actions by the government are crucial to establish pro-poor, developmental CMAs. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Understanding the nature of water conflict and cooperation is a crucial element in water governance within Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). Much of the recent attention to the issue has however focused on transboundary aspects, while we know rather less about the nature and dynamics of local water conflict and cooperation. Drawing on the work of the collaborative Competing for Water Research Programme, this article presents selected findings from a quantitative and qualitative mapping and exploration of water conflict and cooperation events in Namwala District of Zambia. It is found that local water competition situations often involve both conflictive and cooperative events in a dynamic succession of each other, but also that the majority of events are conflictive, and that they primarily take place between different types of water uses, and less frequently among the same types of uses. There is a distinct tendency for both conflictive and cooperative events to originate in the dry season, and many events are associated with water infrastructure development, particularly boreholes. The study found that most conflictive and cooperative events took place within individual communities, and only to a lesser extent between two or more communities or between districts. While third parties are involved in some events, these are primarily local village institutions such as Headmen. The article concludes by discussing the implications of these findings for local water governance, including the need to ensure that the very localized nature of such conflict and cooperation events is taken into consideration in the institutional development of IWRM. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]