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Research papers

Formalization of water allocation systems and impacts on local practices in the Hingilili sub-catchment, Tanzania

, , , &
Pages 213-227
Received 08 Jan 2012
Accepted 04 Feb 2012
Accepted author version posted online: 09 Feb 2012
Published online: 28 Feb 2012
 

Water scarcity caused by increased demands often leads to competition and conflict over water in many river catchments in Sub-Saharan Africa. At the local level, water users have in many places been able to solve water allocation problems by crafting institutions based on customs and traditions. These self-governing arrangements are not necessarily fair or good, but are able to adapt to the changing resource context. Simultaneously, many African governments have adopted new policies and laws, and established new institutions to achieve equitable and sustainable management of water resources. The formalization of the property right to water is often part of the recipe. This paper analyses the impact of one such government-led formalization process on local water allocation practices. Based on a field study in the Hingilili sub-catchment, Tanzania, we find that government interventions do not achieve the goal of equitable and sustainable water management. However, we find that the principle of good neighbourhood that still exists between the highland and lowland farmers in Hingilili could form a base to reconcile diverging water interests between the highland and lowland farmers. The paper shows that the concept of bricolage [Cleaver, F., 2002. Reinventing institutions: bricolage and the social embeddedness of natural resource management. The European Journal of Development Research, 14 (2), 11–30] is useful to demonstrate the need for new institutions to be sufficiently embedded in existing local practices to succeed, but this is not a sufficient condition. The hydraulic position of the various actors (upstream or downstream) must also be taken into account, and may be considered a driver for institutional innovation.

Acknowledgements

This paper is based on the MSc thesis of Mwakalukwa (supported by the Lamminga fund) and the additional field work in the Hingilili conducted by Komakech which was undertaken as part of the Smallholder System Innovations in Integrated Watershed Management (SSI) Programme funded by the Netherlands Foundation for the Advancement of Tropical Research (WOTRO), the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the Netherlands Directorate-General of Development Cooperation (DGIS), the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education. We acknowledge the support of SNV Arusha staff, PAMOJA, PBWO Moshi, and thank all local translators for their services and appreciate the time of the local water users’ communities, villages, wards and districts we worked with during the research. We also thank Dr Hodson Makurira for his insightful comments on an earlier version of this paper. We thank the anonymous reviewer and the editor of the International Journal of River Basin Management for their comments and suggestions.

Notes

Areas that are declared as a natural resource and are protected as such by formal government law for the purpose of administration and management. For water, the Minister for Water publishes the declaration in an official government publication or paper.

A person engaged in bricolage is called a bricoleur.

Matupio is a Swahili phrase used by farmers to argue that floodway water is water that they do not need at a particular time, but the water availability cannot be guaranteed.