Discursive Framing: Debates over Small Reservoirs in the Rural South

"Why small reservoirs? Why the rural South? What is meant by small reservoir? Why such a specific topic? These are questions readers of this collection of essays are likely to ask. This special issue on Policies, Politics and Realities of Small Reservoirs in the Rural South was prompted by a simple observation: since the 1980s, the questions that revolve around small reservoirs have evolved little despite continous development and academic attention to the topic worldwide. Continuous interests and related investments in small reservoirs in the context of long-known challenges and opportunities echo an observation by Diemer and Vincent (1992) on the 'failure of collective memory and collective action' and reinforces a tendency to reiterate long-known problems in the field of irrigation in Africa."