managing water locally: an essential dimension of community water development

8/3/2019 Managing Water Locally: An essential dimension of community water development

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Managing water locallyAn essential dimension o community water development

A joint publication by the Institution o Civil Engineers,Oxam GB and WaterAid


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Managing water locally:

An essential dimension o community water development

2011 The Institution o Civil Engineers,Oxam GB and WaterAid. All rights reserved.Published by The Institution o Civil Engineers,Oxam GB and WaterAid, November 2011.The Institution o Civil Engineers

One Great George StreetWestminsterLondon SW1P 2BPTel: +44 (0)20 7665 2150Fax: +44 (0)20 7222 0973

www.ice.org.ukOxamOxam House, John Smith Drive,Cowley, Oxord

OX4 2JYTel: 0300 200 1292Email: [email protected]

www.oxam.org.ukWaterAid47-49 Durham StreetLondonSE11 5JDTel: +44 (0) 20 7793 4500Email: [email protected]

www.wateraid.orgOxam Online ISBN 978-1-78077-011-6Designed and printed by Progression. www.progressiondesign.co.uk


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contents

Glossary 07

Introduction 11

Options or water resource management 17

Why water resource management is important 25

Integrated Water Resource Management in practice 37experiences rom Sierra Leone and Ghana

Traditional water resource management in practice 45

Experiences rom Oxam and WaterAid eld programmes 57

Aligning national water policy to eld realities 73Conclusions on Community-Based Water Resource Management 81

Appendix 1: Identied attributes or engaging in Community-Based 86Water Resource Management

Appendix 2: Basic monitoring o rainall and groundwater levels 88

Reerences 92

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3Managing water locally: An essential dimension o community water development


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acknowledgeMents

This publication was dratedand prepared by Lisa Bunclark,Richard Carter, Vincent Casey,St John Day and Daphne Guthrie.

Contributors and their association

with chapters in this publication are:Ishaprasad Bhagwat (Chapter 6),Nick Brooks (Chapter 5), Roger Calow(Chapter 3), Richard Carter (Chapter3), St John Day (Chapters 2, 4 and6), Bruce Lankord (Chapter 7), KabirRajbhandari (Chapter 6), Paul Trawick(Chapter 5), Julie Trottier (Chapter 7)and Asad Umar (Chapter 6). Externalreviews were provided by Kerstin

Danert, Sean Furey and Richard Taylor.

An electronic version o thispublication can be ound on theInstitution o Civil Engineers, OxamGB and WaterAid websites.

The publication should be cited as

The Institution o Civil Engineers,Oxam GB, WaterAid (2011)Managingwater locally. An essential dimensiono community water development.

4 Managing water locally: An essential dimension o community water development


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preface

Water resourcemanagement has beenpromoted globally,and is oten thoughtto be the responsibility

o national and multi-national agencies

managing major river basins, includingthose which cross the boundaries omore than one nation state. But thepotential or monitoring and managingwater resources at local or communitylevel should be better acknowledged. Inparticular, traditional water managementpractices must be recognised and usedas a oundation or the development outure water management strategies.

There are many examples o eectivelocal management, or Community-BasedWater Resource Management, romacross the world, some o which havebeen used or millennia by populationsthat have exploited rainall, annualfoods, groundwater and surace waterto satisy their needs. The argument othis publication is that such practices areripe or widespread promotion. Ater all,

those who have the greatest stake in thesecurity o their water supply have thestrongest motivation or participatorymanagement and decision-making.

This publication is the outcome o apartnership between the Institutiono Civil Engineers in Britain and twointernational development agencies:Oxam and WaterAid. In 2009-10

these organisations jointly organisedeight public presentations by a mixo academics and practitionersrom three continents to an openaudience o interested proessionals.

Inormation rom the talks and thesubsequent discussions constitutethe content o this publication.

The publication is intended or watersector practitioners, policy-makers

and donors who wish to improve theirunderstanding o how the global issueso demographic change, environmentand climate change unold at local level,and the role that local water users canplay in adapting to the impact theyhave on water resources. It is or thosewho wish to learn how trans-nationalprinciples o Integrated Water ResourceManagement and common-property

resource management can be put intopractice on the ground. Above all itis or those who wish to know howthe monitoring and management owater resources at community levelcan contribute to greater water securityor those whose livelihoods and waterservices are oten ar rom secure.

This publication is by no means the lastword on the subject o Community-

Based Water Resource Management.Yet i it can contribute to a greaterrecognition o the potential o local levelwater resource management, and i itprovides some pointers towards howcurrent local level approaches can beimproved, built upon and incorporatedinto national and regional water policy,then it will have achieved its purpose.

Sir Crispin Tickell



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glossary

Blue water

Common pool resources

Commonproperty regime

Community-Based

Water ResourceManagement (CBWRM)

Consumptive water use

Functionalsustainability

Green water

Inrastructure

Surace water and groundwater, including waterstored in rivers, lakes, wetlands and reservoirs,and runo that percolates into aquiers.

Locally available resources that communities andhouseholds draw upon to sustain their health

and livelihoods. Resources that are available oreveryone to use ree o charge (however, they arealso nite and require management structures to bein place to reduce potential or over exploitation).

A social system, oten based on culturaltraditions, that controls and regulatesthe use o a common pool resource.

A strategy that enables local water users

to be involved in and responsible or themanagement o their water resources.

Processes that put water beyond use or otherpurposes because it has evaporated, transpired,been incorporated into products and crops (virtualwater), been consumed by humans or livestock.

The ability o a water source (eg handpump,well or borehole) to continue working asintended into the long-term uture and not

ail or produce decreasing yields as a result oa technical, design or construction ault.

Water stored in the soil as soil moistureand available or use by vegetation.

Physical structures, both large and small, that maybe used in the water sector to help it unction(eg handpumps, taps, pipes and canals).



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Integrated WaterResource Management(IWRM)

Light Integrated WaterResource Management(Light IWRM)

Non-consumptivewater use

Sustainability

Wadi

WASH

Water resource

A process that encourages the cross-sectoralmanagement o water, land and associatedresources. IWRM is based on the Dublin Principles,which acknowledge the vulnerability o waterresources, the need or a participatory approach,the importance o women in the role o water

management and the economic value o water.

A type o IWRM that ocuses specically onthe implementation o eective water resourcemanagement on a day to day basis, with ahigh level o involvement rom governmentsand water companies at the local level tobridge the gap between the lowest levelo private and state regulating authoritiesand community-based institutions.

Processes that make use o water but return itto the environment where it may be used orother purposes.

The ability o water sources and water resourcesto continue unctioning and yielding water intothe long-term uture, without detriment to anywater users, including the environment.

A dry ephemeral river bed that contains water

during periods o heavy rain, or an intermittentstream. Wadis tend to be associated with centreso human population because sub-surace wateris sometimes available in them and they areimportant eatures or groundwater recharge.

All works related to water, sanitation and hygiene,including the provision o sae and aordableaccess to a clean water supply and methods odisposing o waste. This involves the provision o

services and training on how to manage them.

The wider body o water rom which awater source draws its supply, includingaquiers, rivers and reservoirs.

glossary



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Water scarcity

Water security

Water source

Water stress

Water user

Two dierent types o water scarcity can beidentied: physical and economic1. Physicalscarcity occurs when available water resources areinsucient to meet the demand rom all sectors,including the environment; this is oten due tothe over-development o resources and over-

commitment to various users. Economic scarcityis a social construct and occurs when there is alack o investment in water or a lack o humancapacity to keep up with growing water demand.

The continued availability o and access to saewater or all required uses. A household or nationmay be considered water secure when the majorityo the inhabitants are not threatened by insucientor unreliable availability o and access to water or

by too much water which may lead to fooding.A specic point or place where water canbe accessed and used, such as a well, boreholeor handpump.

Water stress occurs when there is water scarcity.Water stress may maniest itsel as confict overwater, over-abstraction, poor health and disease.

Any individual, group or sector that requires

an allocation o water or a purpose,whether consumptive or non-consumptive,or domestic or productive needs.



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chapter 01Introduction



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chapter 01

Introduction

chapter 01

Introduction

The relative roles o nationstates, private companiesand local institutions inmanaging water resourceshave long been debated by

economists, anthropologists and water

sector proessionals. Each o thesedisciplines oers a dierent perspectiveon water management. The IntegratedWater Resource Management (IWRM)model has been widely promoted asthe only option or managing nationswater resources since the 1990s, yetthe debate has been clouded becausethere has been a lack o seriousalternative options or water resource

management beyond state control. Inparticular, the role o communities hasbeen misrepresented because they arerequently excluded rom importantaspects o environmental management.For many people, community-basedinstitutions can ull a undamental role

in the management o common poolresources, such as water resources ororestry. This is particularly true whenstate capacity is weak or communitiesremain on the periphery o supportrom any government. This publication

explores how local water resources canbe managed successully by community-based institutions in support o statelevel initiatives, where they exist.

The role o local institutions inmanaging common pool resources isa theme that has risen in prominencein recent years and it resonatesstrongly in low-income countries

where conventional approaches orwater resource management may beinappropriate and many states areseeking ways in which to improveon current governance strategies.This publication ollows 12 monthso close collaboration between the

Figure 1.1A water queue inEthiopia.(Credit: RogerCalow, ODI).



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Institution o Civil Engineers, OxamGB and WaterAid who are collectivelypromoting Community-Based WaterResource Management (CBWRM) as apractical mechanism or implementingsound water resource management.

pu umm

Despite high prole declarations andinternational plans o action, IWRMtheory continues to run ar ahead oits application in practice. Indeed,there are too ew good exampleso IWRM rom which to draw on

recognised best practice2

. There is aneed to redene the mechanism orwater resource management givinggreater respect to the needs, prioritiesand possibilities o dierent countriesand contexts. There is potential todevelop creative and realistic options

or water resource management,particularly at local geographicalscales, involving water users.

In Chapters 2 and 4, various alternativeoptions or water resource management

are presented and explored, usingexperiences rom Ghana and SierraLeone to demonstrate that theimplementation o a successulstrategy is achievable in low-incomecountries. These chapters examinethe role that grassroots practitionerscan play in local level water resourcemanagement, through CBWRM.

cmx Chapter 3 outlines how governments andnon governmental organisations (NGOs)that work to improve access to water inlow-income countries tend to ocus ondelivery o water supply assets, whether

Figure 1.2

Community waterresource mappingin Al SalaamIDP Camp, NorthDarur, Sudan,2008. (Credit:St John Day,Oxam GB).



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chapter 01

Introduction

they are or domestic or agriculturaluse. The sustainability o the service,both rom a unctional perspective androm an environmental (water resource)point o view, is oten neglected orinsuciently emphasised. Practical

guidance to improve the situation ispresented later in the publication.

The pressures on global waterresources are increasing and the needto put water resource managementinto practice at various levels is bothurgent and compelling. Examples romChina, Ethiopia (Figure 1.1, previouspage) and Malawi (Chapter 3) set

the scene or understanding whyeective water resource managementis more important than ever beore.

r mmu-

In some areas, water users arealready practising communal watermanagement by applying their ownrules and traditions. In Chapter 5,

examples rom Peru, Spain and theSahelian zone o Arica demonstratethe importance o recognisingand respecting traditional watermanagement techniques that continueto survive, but highlight that thesenow need to be strengthened tocope with increasing variability.

eXperiences froM oXfaM and

wateraid field prograMMes

Chapter 6 describes on-going eldexperiences rom India, Nepal andNiger, where country programmes

have engaged with local institutions toput water resource management intopractice using fexible, adaptive supportmechanisms. The implementation oCBWRM in these regions has includedinvolving communities in activities

such as water resource allocation,undertaking local level monitoring,implementing rules or operatingprinciples or day to day water usage,and establishing a managementsystem with clearly dened rulesand regulations. CBWRM gives localwater users the opportunity andmeans to engage in water resourcemanagement, recognising the

economic value o water and its rolein sustaining peoples livelihoods.



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Figure 1.3Farmers inUsangu, Tanzania,discussing ideasor managingwater orirrigation (Credit:

Bruce Lankord,UEA).

Mv m

One o the main problems with waterresource management is that nationaland regional water policies oten donot take account o or incorporate

successul operational practiceswhich are present at the local level;the bridges between science, policyand practice are weak. Chapter 7explores methods or involving localinstitutions and water users in decision-making processes (as shown in Figure1.3), so that water policy is moreaccurately aligned to eld realities.

The nal chapter summarisesthe issues and draws conclusions

as to how collaborationbetween local institutions andcommunities, and water sectorpractitioners and policy-makers,can dramatically improve waterresource management.

M ub

Assessing the balance betweensupply o and demand or water isextremely complex, and requireshydrological monitoring to beundertaken locally. The role ocommunity-based institutions inmonitoring rainall, groundwater

fuctuations, collective abstraction,as well as bargaining over waterallocation and establishingoperating principles or waterusage, can all complement broaderwater resource managementrameworks, where they exist.

This approach represents newthinking within the water supply,sanitation and hygiene (WASH)

sector, where previously communitymanagement structures have beenpromoted as a panacea or the solepurpose o maintaining physicalwater supply inrastructure orhardware. To date, considerationo the water resources that sustainwater supply systems has otenbeen a neglected component ocommunity management systems.

This is a more ruitul approachor WASH organisations thansimply advocating or the adoptiono generic IWRM rameworks.



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Options or water resource management

Overview: This chapter examines some othe current mechanisms or managing waterresources, including Integrated Water ResourceManagement, Light Integrated Water ResourceManagement and Community-Based WaterResource Management.

chapter 02



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o agriculture, ecology and industrialwater usage as well as fooding, droughtand water quality. IWRM is otenpromoted within the WASH sector as anapproach to support service delivery. Tobe eective, IWRM requires substantialpolitical will and commitment,meaningul collaboration by multipleorganisations as well as the existence

o national IWRM plans, policies,water laws and regulation, adequatebudget lines and sucient technical,nancial and human capacity atnational and local levels. These actorsare all essential aspects o the enablingenvironment i IWRM is to be realised.

There are some examples where IWRMcan be eective, but this requires

signicant collaboration among allstakeholders, active participationby key water user groups, such asarmers and pastoralists, and projectsdesigned and implemented with

thorough contextual understanding.The commitment o central and localgovernment to the IWRM process iscrucial. Experience shows that IWRM isa lengthy and time consuming processthat oten means IWRM principles arenot applied locally. IWRM clearly hasgood intentions, aimed at improvingmonitoring, allocation and management

o water resources. Yet the broadscope o it may inadvertently presentsignicant technical and institutionalchallenges that appear overwhelmingor governments and state utilitieswith limited capacity. Unortunatelythe IWRM mechanism does notpropose an alternative approach,suitable or a more local scale, i thesemultiple enabling actors are not

present. Without direct engagementin water resource management, thereis a risk that water managementpolicies become theoretical.

The institutional landscape for water resource management

Sectorleadership

and

regulation

Servicedelivery

andprovision

IntegratedWater ResourceManagement

Light IntegratedWater ResourceManagement

Community-BasedWater ResourceManagement

Increasedde

centralisation

andlocalknowledge

Ministries, departments and agencies

National

Regional

Local

Regulating water resource authorities

Local government

State utilities

District councils

Community-based institutions

WASH organisations

Figure 2.1The institutionallandscape orwater resourcemanagement.(Credit: St JohnDay, Oxam GB).



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chapter 02

A number o specifc issuesarise around IWRM:

First, the IWRM approach isoten seen as being dicult toimplement, largely because global

IWRM models do not consider theinherent complexities that mayexist in low-income countries.It is not possible to apply onestandard model to all contexts.

Second, river basins are notnecessarily the natural unit or watermanagement, because a) they vary interms o administrative, hydrological

and socio-political complexity andb) the river basin needs to be brokendown into smaller sub-catchmentsso communities and householdscan meaningully engage.

Third, water issues especially inrural locations need to be resolvedlocally, involving community leadersand community representatives.Water management is oten a social

and moral dilemma that requiresparticipatory approaches involvinglocal people. Niger, or example,has more than 17,000 villages,many o which are situated indrought prone, arid environments.The challenge o implementingIWRM in such a resource-poornation is overwhelming, unlessnew options or water resource

management can be ound.

l i wru Mm

IWRM requires a process o devolvingdecision-making towards waterend-users. Naturally, this requires

substantial political will and eectivebuilding o technical, nancial andhuman capacity, within district councils.One pragmatic approach to decentralisewater resource management is theconcept o Light IWRM6. This is seenas a complementary mechanism toull IWRM that can be better adaptedto the local governments who workin close proximity to communities

and households. Light IWRM, whereit exists, must thereore address theinterace between the lower levelso recognised state management andlocal community-based institutions.Clearly, i there is a disconnectbetween water users and theirrepresentatives who have access tolocal regulating authorities, communityinterest and enthusiasm to engagewith authorities will diminish.

Responsibility or managing waterresources oten sits with nationalgovernments. However, state utilities,district councils and community-basedinstitutions all have an importantrole to play. I central governmentdoes not provide the leadership,strategic guidance and continuedsupport or putting water resource

management into operation, locallevel stakeholders may not havesucient inormation or supportavailable to them. The eectivenesso Light IWRM is constrained by the




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limited capacity (human, technicaland nancial) that may exist in districtor local government oces. This mayrender local authorities ineective inmanaging water resources especiallywhere other development needs

are prioritised, such as education,agriculture and inrastructure. LightIWRM thereore is only possible wherelocal government capacity is strong. Ilocal government capacity is perceivedas weak, many implementing agenciesmay inadvertently bypass the lowestlevels o government authority whenimplementing community developmentprojects. This may lead to unplanned

development o groundwater andsurace water resources and mayinadvertently place increased burden onlocal government structures tasked withmanaging water and land resources.

cmmu-B wru Mm

In situations where nation states arecategorised as ragile or communities

remain on the periphery o supportrom central government, Community-Based Water Resource Management(CBWRM) may be a more realisticoption or involving local water users.CBWRM aims to engage directly withcommunity-based institutions andwater user groups so that they mayplay an active role in water resourcemanagement rom the beginning.

The idea is that CBWRM providesan opportunity or communities toengage in water resource managementwith roles and responsibilities clearlydened alongside those o regulating

water authorities. CBWRM does notattempt to be a direct replacement ornational IWRM plans. It provides WASHorganisations with a very practicalapproach or engaging in water resourcemanagement as part o their ongoing

service delivery work, and it recognisesthe need to improve managemento water resources at a local level.

CBWRM provides tangible benetsor development organisationsbecause it encourages agencies toconsider aspects o water quantityand quality that sustain water supplysystems. Furthermore, it encourages

agencies to engage in hydrologicalmonitoring and to undertake innovativewater resource management workthat can be replicated and scaledup by larger service providers.Other benets include:

Encourages organisations, whichpredominantly engage in provisiono domestic water supply andsanitation services, to consider

productive water requirements whendesigning water supply systems.

Encourages practitioners, whoare responsible or designing andimplementing water supply systems,to consider issues o water quantityas well as water quality. Domesticwater supply in community watersupply programmes typically

places low demands on availablewater resources. However, therisk o over-abstraction at watersources needs to be considered,especially where water usage is



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chapter 02

multipurpose. Important issues ogroundwater depletion, recoveryand recharge are not routinelyconsidered in many communitywater supply programmes.

Community management structureshave typically ocused on physicalwater supply inrastructure (waterassets), not water resources. CBWRMthereore provides developmentorganisations with a practicalmechanism or engaging in waterresource management, ensuringenvironmental sustainability isconsidered alongside operation

and maintenance duties.The CBWRM approach is alsorelevant where large-scale humandisplacement occurs and reugee orinternally displaced person campsare ormed. Densely populatedcamps place large demands on localwater resources and the protractednature o many humanitariancrises (such as Darur, Chad and

Dadaab camp in Kenya) requiresmedium and long-term planningor water resource management.

Although CBWRM has not been hithertounambiguously dened, this publicationproposes the ollowing denition:

CBWRM is about involving waterusers in the management o local

water resources. Communitiesplay an important role in both

water quantity and quality aspects.Communities monitor resourcesin order to establish appropriatemanagement techniques andcommunities respond to changes in

water availability through collectivedecisions bound by clear operatingprinciples or water usage.

At the heart o CBWRM is a continuousprocess o risk identication and riskmanagement. This approach linksintegrally with water saety planningwhich is becoming increasinglyprominent within water supplyand ood security programmes. Bycombining issues o water qualityand water quantity, communitiesare provided with an opportunity

to engage in resource management.This is important because oten therole o communities in saeguardingthe environment may have beenrestricted to resource mappingduring assessments not actualmonitoring and management olocally available water resources.




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CBWRM does have its limitations,not least the questionable abilityto scale up or the management otransboundary water resources. Itis not a replacement or regional ornational water plans, i they exist.

Indeed, without access to and infuenceover decision-makers, CBWRMsystems may be viewed by some waterauthorities and decision-makers assmall-scale or isolated. Its limitationsare thereore expressed in associationwith scale and sustainability.

However, the role o community-based institutions should be ormallyrecognised by central government andregulating water authorities, so thatwater users can be active participantsin the bargaining process over water

allocation. This will be strengthenedurther where domestic water usageand the needs o communities andhouseholds are prioritised over large-scale industrial users. This requiresregulations to be established orwater abstraction and discharge.

Figure 2.2Aerial viewo Abu ShoukCamp, El Fasher,Darur, 2008(Credit: St JohnDay, Oxam GB).



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chapter 03Why water resource management is important

Overview: The pressures on global water resourcesare increasing and the need to put water resourcemanagement into practice at various levels is bothurgent and compelling. More emphasis needs tobe placed on water security, both rom a unctionalperspective and rom an environmental (waterresource) point o view.



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chapter 03

Why water resource management is important

Many o the issues acedin water resourcemanagement are part oa bigger environmentaland socio-economic

picture comprising a system o

pressures, states and responses (Figure3.1). Two key pressures driving thesystem are population growth andrapid urbanisation, which are closelyaccompanied by increased demandsor water, ood and other naturalresources. In Arica, which is themain area o ocus or this chapter,agriculture is largely rain-ed andarmers ace the continual challenge o

trying to maximise productivity in thepresence o a highly variable climate.Issues associated with the combinationo population-related pressures andpractising agriculture in dicultenvironments in many countries areintensied by a state o confict and/

or weak governance. The responseto this combination o pressures andstates in many cases is increasing oodinsecurity, poverty and vulnerability,accompanied by pollution and foodingin urban areas, and the mining o

soil nutrients and land clearancein rural areas. All this is leading toenvironmental catastrophe and acorresponding crisis or livelihoods andsocio-economics, which is increasinglybecoming uelled by climateinstability and change (Chapter 5).

pu ub

Until recently, population growth andthe impact it has on issues relatedto water resource management havetended to be ignored the elephantin the room. However, the potentiallycatastrophic eect that an ever-growingglobal population could have on water

Population growth andrapid urbanisation

Increased and concentrated demands for water, food and fuel

Socio-economic andenvironmental crisis

Basic agriculturaltechnologies

Challenging andvariable climates Conflict Weak governance

Increasingfoodinsecurity

Increasingpoverty andvulnerability

Urbanpollution andflooding

Soil nutrientmining, landclearance

Pressures

States

Responses

Figure 3.1The unolding oan environmentalcrisis (Credit:Richard Carter).



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Box 3.1

Implications o rapid population growth in Ethiopia

The population o Ethiopia is expected to almost double over the coming our decades,

growing rom about 80 million people in 2010, to roughly 150 million by 2050. Although

population levels themselves are not necessarily unsustainable, it is the rate o growth that

presents a major challenge.

One cause o livelihood vulnerability in rural Ethiopia is low levels o water supply

coverage, despite signicant progress in recent years. Government gures suggest that

rural water supply coverage is now around 60%, but high levels o breakdown and system

downtime mean that real access is likely to be much lower7.

An additional cause o vulnerability in Ethiopia is the act that less than 3% o potentially

irrigable land is currently irrigated and a signicant proportion o the population depend

on rain-ed agriculture. Historical data or the country suggest a strong correlation between

rainall variability, GDP growth and the number o individuals requiring ood aid8. Even in

a normal year, chronic ood insecurity aects approximately 10% o the population, which

leads to reliance on support systems providing ood aid or cash or work (Figure 3.2).

Owing to this history o drought and amine, Ethiopia is considered highly vulnerable

to uture population growth and climate change, although the nature o climate change,

particularly or rainall, remains uncertain. However, the water crisis in Ethiopia is less

about changes in climate, and more about underlying vulnerability, and an inability o the

population to cope with even existing levels o climate variability.

Running two year means of Mar-Sep rainfall anomalies

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60

Millions needing food aid

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Twoyearrainfallanomalies(mm)

Millionsneedingfoodaid

Year

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

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Figure 3.2Rainall and

numbersrequiring oodaid or the period1996-20048.



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chapter 03


supplies can no longer be ignored.Concerns have been raised regardingan expected population rise oapproximately 15% in the UK between2010 and 2050, yet Aricas populationis set to double in the same period

according to median projections by theUnited Nations9. The implications osuch a dramatic population increase inArica in the context o ood insecurity,highly variable climates and weakeconomies and governance are likelyto be severe (Box 3.1, previous page,outlines the situation in Ethiopia).

Further complications are caused

by the act that this populationincrease will not be evenly distributedgeographically and population growthwill be concentrated in urban areas.For example, the percentage o Aricaspopulation residing in urban areas isset to rise rom the current level o40%, to greater than 50% by 20309,including the growth o small towns aswell as larger cities. Moreover, or manycountries in Arica, urban population

growth rates will actually be aboutdouble the national average. In thesecountries the incidence o poverty willalso increase rapidly as inrastructureand opportunities in urban areas ailto keep up with population growth.

In China, urbanisation is aectingboth levels and patterns o wateruse (Box 3.2, p30). In contrast to

Ethiopia, water resources in Chinaare already heavily committed and, inareas such as the North China Plain,patterns o use are unsustainable.Industrialisation in China is also a

major driver and is having signicantimpacts on water quality as wellas demand, and rising incomes areleading to more water intensive meatproduction and consumption.

Despite rapid urbanisation, 80% othose without access to sae wateror an improved supply in Arica arestill located in rural areas, althoughthe distinction between what can bedened as urban and rural is becomingless clear over time. Approximately80% o these individuals depend ongroundwater to meet their householddomestic and productive needs.

Groundwater has many advantages:it is generally o good quality, it canbe developed over wide areas to meetdispersed demands, and development isrelatively cheap in most areas. Despiteits importance, however, groundwaterresources remain poorly understoodin many countries, with minimalmonitoring and assessment, and mostclimate change studies ocus on suracefows, not groundwater recharge and

storage. However, dependence ongroundwater across Arica is set toincrease to meet the needs o growingpopulations. A key issue is whetherthere will be sucient water in theuture to meet the needs o bothdomestic supply and irrigation10.

cm vb

In many parts o the tropics and sub-tropics, but particularly Arica, theclimate, and more specically thevariability o rainall, poses a signicantchallenge to livelihoods and water



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resource management. For example,in Salima, central Malawi, althoughmean annual rainall is considerable at

around 1,250mm, annual rainall dataover a 29 year period (1977-2005)show values varying rom a minimumo 450mm in 1995 to a maximum o2,050mm in 1978. Variations in monthlyrainall can be even greater still. Forexample, in November (the plantingseason) the monthly rainall can varyrom 100% below to 100% above thelong-term mean. Further complicationsare caused in Malawi because the

overwhelming majority o annualrainall occurs during the crop growingseason (November to April). Due tothe lack o rain outside this period, soilmoisture is negligible by the beginningo November and crops depend entirelyon seasonal rainall to meet theirwater requirements. Large variations inrainall thereore pose a major threatto rain-ed agricultural livelihoods in

Malawi and many other sub-Saharancountries1. In contrast, in moretemperate climates, rainall is not onlymore evenly distributed throughoutthe growing season (April to

September in the northern hemispheresummer), but also throughout theyear, as shown in Figure 3.3.

l

The crisis occurring in many ruralenvironments stems rom the increasedneed or ood production as a resulto population growth, which in mosto sub-Saharan Arica, is achieved byexpanding the area under cultivationrather than by intensiying existingcropping areas11 (see Figure 3.5, p31).

In a bid to meet growing ood demands,allow periods on armland are alsoreduced and nutrient mining occurs asnutrients are taken rom the soil at amuch higher rate than they are returnedthrough the addition o organic orinorganic ertiliser. New land is clearedo vegetation or the creation oadditional cropland but yields continueto all as increasingly unsuitable

areas are used or production.

Factors relating to land use, and thechange in that use due to populationgrowth, alter the water balance in

Figure 3.3Cumulativerainall,November to April

1977-2005, orSalima, centralMalawi (let).Cumulativerainall, Aprilto September1961-2008,or Cambridge,UK (right). Ineach case, thestarting pointor the graphs isthe assumed soil

water storageprior to thegrowing seasonrains. (Credit:Richard Carter).

Cumulative rainfall during the growing season (Salima, Malawi) Cumulative rainfall during the growing season (Cambridge, UK)

2500

Cumul

ativerainfall

Cumulative rainfall at end

of growing season (high range)

Cumulative rainfall at end

of growing season (low range)

Soil moisture at start of

growing season

~ 0 mm

Soil moisture at start of

growing season

~ 250 mm

Unevenly distributed

Evenly distributed

Cumul

ativerainfall

Months of growing seasonMonths of growing season

2000

Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep

1500

1000

500

0

2500

2000

1500

1000

500

0



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Box 3.2

The eect o urbanisation on water use in China

In China, the diversion o water to agriculture has enabled ood production to keep pace

with population growth. In a rapidly urbanising and industrialising economy, however,

competition or water is intensiying, leaving the Government with the challenge o

mediating between the claims o dierent uses. Agriculture lies at the heart o allocation

tensions as irrigation is the principal user o water (roughly 70%). The impact o growing

water demand on river fow is seen most dramatically in northern China where fows in

the Yellow River have declined over the last 40 years. In the late 1990s, the river stopped

fowing into the Bohai Sea or a short period12.

The management challenge is essentially about who gets what: arms versus cities,

upstream versus downstream users, and human versus environmental needs. These are

major political issues. Managing the growing competition or water puts agriculture in thespotlight because agriculture is the major water user. But agricultures claim to water is

based on social and poverty grounds, as well as concerns about ood security.

Getting more crop per drop and capping irrigation rights are essential i water is to be

released or other users. China has made remarkable progress in introducing a modern

system o water rights that is

able to allocate dened shares

in a reasonably transparent

way to end users. Managinggroundwater in this way is

much more dicult, not least

because o the numbers o

people involved. Nonetheless,

Chinas pragmatic and learning

by doing approach to water

management, and economic

trends that are reducing the

importance o agriculture as asource o rural income, create

a platorm or sustainable

management.

Figure 3.4Groundwater-based cashcropping, BashangPlateau, northernHebei, China(Credit: RogerCalow, ODI).



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a region (Box 3.3, p33). Althoughthis may not necessarily have adetrimental impact, in many regionso Arica such changes have hadsevere consequences or soil and landquality. According to the International

Centre or Soil Fertility andAgricultural Development, Alabama:

three quarters o Aricasarmland is plagued by severe soildegradation caused by wind and soilerosion and the loss o vital mineralnutrients... [As a consequence]agricultural productivity in Aricahas remained largely stagnant or

40 years, while Asias productivityhas increased threeold13.

In act, yields o maize and othercereals have increased in the vastmajority o areas across the world

while cereal yields in sub-SaharanArica have actually decreased14.

cm

Projections o annual runo rom the

Inter-governmental Panel on ClimateChange (IPCC) indicate large scalechanges in runo or 2090-2099compared with a baseline period o1980-199915. However, agreementon these changes is greater in someareas than others. The white areasin Figure 3.6 (overlea) indicateregions where the projections madeby dierent global climate models

do not agree on the direction ochanges and huge uncertaintyremains about uture runo levels.

One area where projections o bothrainall and runo rom dierentmodels dier signicantly is Arica16 widely viewed as the continentmost vulnerable to climate change.Most projections suggest thatrainall and runo will decrease in

the northern Sahara and southernArica, but across large areas o thecontinental interior even the directiono change is uncertain. Nonetheless,most models suggest that rainallwill become increasingly variablein both intensity and duration.

At times, statements regarding theinfuence o climate change on water

resources are too simplistic, especially insituations where rainall is expected todecrease. It is sometimes assumed thata decrease in rainall will automaticallyresult in a reduction in water resources

Note: arrows signify cause/effect linkages

Population

growth

Reduced

fallow

Extreme

degredation

of farmland

Stagnant or

falling yields

Increased use

of marginal

land

Increased

or decreased

runoff andrecharge

Nutrient

mining

Alteration

to water

balance

Expanded

cropping area

Land

clearance and

deforestation

Soil

erosion

Figure 3.5Cause/eectdiagram orenvironmentalcrisis in Arica.(Credit: RichardCarter).



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but, although this may appearintuitively correct, the reality may bedierent (Box 3.3). Many challengesare associated with modelling potentialuture changes to water resources as aresult o climate change. These include

down-scaling general circulation modelso projected uture climate change topredict changes at regional and locallevels along with the large assumptionsregarding uture changes to land use,land cover, land management andsoil properties that drive such models.Modelling the impact o climatechange on green and blue water leadsto the propagation or compounding

o all these uncertainties17

. Moreover,distinguishing between the impactso climate change and those romother drivers aecting the supplyo water, demand or water, orboth, is extremely dicult.

sub u uu

It is important to acknowledge that

water levels and yields rom a watersupply well or borehole can appear toall or many dierent reasons. Designand construction quality issues withthe well or borehole can result in low,declining or ailing yields. Boreholesilting can reduce yields. Pump risingmain sections can corrode and leak,reducing yields, especially during dryseasons when deeper groundwater

must be accessed. Wells that are notconstructed to sucient depth toaccommodate seasonal fuctuationsin groundwater levels or withsucient storage to accommodate

demand will suer reduced yields.High demand at a water source can

lead to localised draw down in lowpermeability soils/aquiers, resultingin a reduction in yields at the source.This does not necessarily mean thatthe water resource has been depleted.

Broader environmental anddemographic pressures can, on theother hand, result in depletion othe wider resource. The extension owater supply coverage, or example,

may inadvertently lead to localisedgroundwater depletion i multipleagencies, operating in the same locality,are installing modern pumping devicesthat abstract ar greater volumeso water than traditional human oranimal-powered water-liting devices.However, the collective impacts odemand increases rom numerous watersources drawing rom a particular

water resource are rarely assessed.

Manually operated communityhandpumps are associated with lowabstraction rates (around 0.2 litres/sec).

%

-2-5-10-20-40 2 5 10 20 40

Figure 3.6 IPCC projectionso annual runo

or 2090-2099(Credit: IPCC)15.



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The interaction o rainall, temperature,evapotranspiration, land use and geology makepredicting changes to both surace water andgroundwater resources extremely dicult.

Figure 3.7Factors aectingwater balancein vegetationand crops18.

Box 3.3

Non-intuitive water balance resultsin the West Arican Sahel

The water balance o vegetation and crops on the soil is a unction o three broad actors:

1. Weather-related actors (particularly rainall and evapotranspiration).

2. Properties o the soil (including its inltration capacity and water-holding capacity).

3. Properties o the vegetation (including seasonality and cover).

Together these three actors determine what proportion o water enters the soil and is

available or rain-ed agriculture (reerred to as green water) and what proportion either

runs o the soil or drains deep into the aquiers to orm groundwater recharge (part o what

is reerred to as blue water)19. This is shown in Figure 3.7. The result o this green water-blue

water relationship is that in some circumstances an increase in (blue) water availability mayoccur despite a decrease in rainall, as experienced in the West Arican Sahel.

The Sahel region o West Arica is the region that has experienced the largest climatic shit

globally within the duration o written records, with a trend o steadily declining rainall

since the 1960s. However, in signicant areas, stream fows have increased and the water

table in the region has been rising. At the same time, the population in this region o Arica

has been increasing

and land use has

been changing, withareas o natural

vegetation being

replaced with arable

cultivation. The

explanation or this

phenomenon is that

the changes in land

use have altered the

local water balanceprooundly, more than

compensating or

decreases in rainall.

In In Runoff

Bare soilevaporation

Rootsextractwaterfrom soil

Infiltration

Transpirationfrom leaves

Soilzone

Potential recharge

Rootzone

Greenwater

Rainfall andevapotranspiration

Vegetationproperties

Blue water:runoff and

recharge

Soil properties



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Even when operated to ull capacitythey do not exert signicant demands ongroundwater resources over wide areas.It is the case however, that localiseddepletion may arise i they are drawingrom very limited pockets o groundwater.

Where more intensive mechanisedabstraction is practised (more than 1litre/sec) there is a higher risk o widerimpacts on the resource. Inevitably,community water-use priorities extendbeyond water or drinking and healthto livelihood activities that consumear greater volumes o the resource. Itis important that these wider needs,priorities and associated risks orm a core

component o WASH agency planning.

Table 3.1 highlights the relativevulnerability to depletion o dierentgroundwater aquier types across

sub-Saharan Arica. It is notable thatbasement complex aquiers are lowyielding and have high vulnerability todepletion, particularly where there islow inter-connectivity between ssuresand limited groundwater movement.

It is important that the actors at playat a water source are well understoodso that appropriate remedial actionmay be taken should problemsarise. This requires a distinctionto be made between design andconstruction issues at the watersource and broader environmentalissues impacting on the resource.

Community-Based Water ResourceManagement (CBWRM) providessome o the vital tools required tohelp diagnose the root causes owater source and resource ailure.

Aquier type Deep

sandstone

basins

Volcanic rocks Alluvial Basement

Complex

Groundwaterpotential

Moderate

highModerate

Moderate

highLow

Typicalboreholeyield (l/s)

1-10 0.5-5 1-20 0.1-1

Typical watertable depth (m)

30-110 ? 2-10 15-55

Typicalboreholedepth (m)

200-350 50 10-40 30-75

Relative aquierstorage capacity

Very high ModerateModerate

highLow

Relativevulnerability todepletion

Very low HighLow

moderateHigh

Table 3.1Example oaquier propertiesand vulnerabilityto depletion20.



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summ

Climate change is one o manypressures on water resources, andwe need to be wary o holding itresponsible or other problems,

including poor management. Driverso change aecting the supply owater, the demand or water, orboth, vary by location but includepopulation growth, urbanisation,land use change, pollution, changesin income and diet, and the conditiono water supply inrastructure.

Current water resource debates tend

to over-emphasise issues o wateravailability as i water scarcity wasphysically determined. In Malawi, asin many parts o the tropics and sub-tropics, the variability o rainall (asopposed to the average quantity) posesa signicant challenge to livelihoodsand water resource management. In

Ethiopia, and throughout much osub-Saharan Arica, the scarcity elt bymillions o households is attributableto diculties in extending andmaintaining access to sae water, notto water availability. Extending reliable

and aordable access thereore remainskey to strengthening livelihoods andreducing poverty. I the capacity osub-Saharan communities to maintainaccess to water in variable climatescan be raised, then the resilience ocommunities to longer-term climatechange will increase22. In China andother ast-growing economies, therapid development o water resources

both ground and surace water has underpinned growth and povertyalleviation. In China, the challenge isnot about developing new supplies, butrather managing demand. Reducingthe amount o water consumed byagriculture and getting more crop perdrop lies at the heart o this challenge.

Many drivers infuence uture waterstress and other actors may have a greaterinfuence [than climate change] in mostregions and over most time horizons21.



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chapter 04Integrated Water Resource Management in practice experiences rom Sierra Leone and Ghana

Overview: Experiences rom Sierra Leone andGhana demonstrate the contextual challengesor implementing successul water resourcemanagement strategies in low-income countries.



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Integrated Water Resource Management in practice experiences rom Sierra Leone and Ghana

Implementing Integrated WaterResource Management (IWRM)can seem overwhelmingor many national and localgovernments given multiple

issues to be addressed and the scale

o coordination required. Even iwater resource management policiesand roadmaps are developed, muchcontinuous eort is required toimplement and sustain eective waterresource management at a nationaland international scale. This sectiondescribes examples rom Sierra Leoneand Ghana, where state run waterutilities continue to implement national

water resource management plans.It is important to clariy what we meanby sound water resource management.Water resource management is aboutmonitoring and managing availablewater resources and land on acontinuous basis. Monitoring shouldinorm management practices andshould enable regulating authoritiesto assess the availability o water

resources. This process can inormdecision-makers, at various levels, howbest water resources can be allocatedso they are shared appropriatelyamong multiple user groups. Oncewater allocation principles are agreedupon, seasonal and daily waterusage needs to be governed by rules,byelaws and at a local level operatingprinciples among water user groups.

Arrangements or the management owater resources then need to be dividedbetween institutions, which mustinclude community level representation.Finally, all development organisations

which continue to strive to extendwater supply coverage must assist inmonitoring and saeguarding waterresources. This is important so thatwater supply services can be sustainedand organisations contribute to a larger

process o water resource management.

s l

Sierra Leone is endowed with largewater resource potential. Irrespective othis signicant potential, the countryswater resources have contributedrelatively little to socio-economicdevelopment. Confict has played a

major part and destroyed many o thesystems and structures established ormanaging water resources. However, inJanuary 2011, Sierra Leone launchedan ambitious National Water andSanitation Policy aimed at extendingsustainable WASH coverage across thenation. Water resource managementis a key component o this policyinitiative. Signicantly the Governmento Sierra Leone has also refected on

why transerring policy into practiceremains such a challenge. The Ministryo Energy and Water Resourcesidentied the ollowing issues duringa series o policy launch workshops:

Policy has been weak and documentshave been over generalised.

Water issues have not been

prioritised in national action plans.

There has been uncertaintyover who is doing what.



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opportunity to avoid the challengesand mistakes o other countries byensuring water resource managementis a process that is owned nationallyand applies local contextual knowledge,rather than adopting generic blueprints.

Lessons learnt and documentedin Sierra Leone will be extremelyvaluable or other countries hopingto embark on a similar process.

g

Ghana is a leading example o goodgovernance and eective waterresource management or many

countries in West Arica.The White Volta river is shared betweenBurkina Faso and Ghana. One o themajor water related challenges acedby Ghana has been the inadvertentcreation o a north-south divide:large volumes o water are needed togenerate hydro-electricity and support agrowing population in the south o thecountry, while in the arid north armers

need water or expanding agriculturalproduction. The management otransboundary water resources withBurkina Faso has, in the past, led toinsucient river fows or armersduring periods o drought, yet duringperiods o high rainall, excessive waterdischarges rom Burkina Faso haveinadvertently displaced armers. Toaddress these challenges, Ghana has

adopted the broad principles o IWRMand has put in place an eective waterpolicy, legislation and developmentprogramme or implementing IWRM.The governments o Ghana and

Burkina Faso have also been active inestablishing a River Basin Authorityin an eort to solve these problems.

However, these complex issues are noteasily resolved. Farming communities

in northern Ghana continue to beaected by fooding on an annual basisand uncertainty over transboundarywater resource management remains.Few are more conscious o the risks ofooding than the armers themselveswho continue to be aected by dischargesrom the Bagre dam. The creation othe Volta Basin Authority has been animportant milestone. The success o the

Volta Basin Authority has been increaseddialogue and collaboration betweenGhana and Burkina Faso. However,having institutions alone will have alimited impact unless action planning isundertaken with water users. There isalways the risk that top down initiativesresult in a lack o engagement romgrassroots stakeholders. Integrationshould begin at village level with theaim o scaling-up to national and

transboundary levels. NGOs can play animportant role in this process assistingcommunities to establish disaster riskreduction plans and collaborating withlocal authorities to try to saeguard accessto water. The Ghana Water ResourcesCommission is the most advancedactor in the Volta Basin managementstructure. However, in response tocurrent challenges an Upper Volta Basin

Management Agency has been called orby parliamentarians in Ghana to developlocal action plans in response to perennialfooding. The need or improved localsolutions remains ever present.



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In a bid to help put sound waterresource management into operation,the Ghanaian Water ResourcesCommission has undertaken extensivework to decentralise national IWRMplans, moving rom state level to

regional, district and local levelwater resource management. Thishas been supported by substantialpolitical will and good governance.Having established basic managementstructures at various levels, responsibleinstitutions such as the Water ResourcesCommission and River Basin Authoritieshave made impressive progress incontextualising water management

issues, establishing orums oracilitating a participatory process andinvolving consultative committeeswith widespread participation bycommunity-based institutions.

The creation o these local consultativecommittees has not only increasedcommunities access to decision-makers, but also provided a platormor WASH organisations to engage withthem. This has allowed communities

to become active participants innegotiating seasonal water allocationand enabled byelaws and operatingprinciples to be established or dailywater management. The creation oconsultative committees identiesspecic issues to address and makesinteraction possible between upstreamand downstream water users. TheBasin Boards allow or collaboration

between multiple water users at thebasin level and comprise representativesrom research institutions, NGOs andcivil society organisations, traditionalauthorities and Water User Associations.The Water User Associations includea wide range o dierent communitymembers, including Chies andlandowners, armers and herdsmen,womens groups and youth; thisensures that water users rom all social

groups o a community are involvedin decisions around water resourcemanagement. Signicantly, riverbasins have also been broken downinto sub-catchments, allowing theidentication o specic contextualchallenges. For example, major issuesidentied and addressed in somesub-catchments include water quality,water availability and the allocation

o water resources between upstreamand downstream water users. To date,IWRM plans have been preparedor three river basins within Ghana,ecosystems are being restored and

Accra

KoforiduaObuasi

Kumasi

Bolgatanga

Sunyani

Ho

Tamale

Cape CoastTema

Takoradi

Ghana

Figure 4.1Map o Ghana23.



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river banks protected, while water useis now regulated and drilling licensesare issued or drilling contractors.

Interviews conducted by Oxam in2009, with representatives rom the

Water Resources Commission, conrmthat broad IWRM principles needto be adapted to local conditions,ensuring widespread participationrom community-based institutionsand households. Although IWRM isa continuous process, the ollowinglessons can be concluded romGhanas experiences to date:

Political commitment is required sothat national and local governmentsand state institutions own theprocess o implementing IWRM.

Substantial awareness-raising

o the IWRM process is requiredso that multiple stakeholders(individuals, implementingagencies, institutions, state ownedwater utilities and government)understand the role they can play.

There is no blueprint or waterresource management and speciccontextual issues need to be

identied at sub-catchment level.Consultative committees need to beestablished that allow communityand household participation inmanaging water resources.

Pilot projects need to be undertakenand scaled-up; otherwise the reormprocess can appear overwhelming.



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Private sector/NGOs

Consultants/research

institutions

Formal institutional

representation

River basin

office

Beneficiaries/affected parties

Farmers, fishers etc.

Figure 4.2Institutionalramework at theriver basin level inGhana24.



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Overview: Examples rom Peru, Spain andthe Sahelian zone o Arica demonstrate theimportance o recognising and respectingtraditional water management techniques thatcontinue to survive, but highlight that thesenow need to be strengthened to cope withincreasing variability.

Traditional water resource management in practice



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The global and regionalclimate is not static andsignicant changes in rainalland temperature haveoccurred over time25 (Figure

5.1). Communities across the world

have survived by adapting to theseclimatic variations using resilience-based and risk-spreading strategies thatare oten rooted in traditional practices.The degree o success experienceddiers greatly, but the continued useo these community-based climateadaptation strategies highlightsthe need to recognise and supporttraditional approaches that may be

used or water resource management.

cm , u mm

One o the main characteristics oCommunity-Based Adaptation is tobuild on existing practice and combineurther understanding o the potentialconsequences o climate change orcommunities with the most suitable

community responses. The key issueto highlight is that many people arealready coping with climate risk andvariability at the community level.

Community-Based Adaptation startsrom [the] local context and engages

with the capacities, knowledge andpractices o coping that are presentin the community. Community-

Based Adaptation aims to enablecommunities to understand andintegrate the concept o climaterisk into their livelihood activitiesin order to cope with and respond

to immediate climate variabilityand long-term climate change15.

There are a number o importantreasons why Community-BasedAdaptation enables communitiesto successully cope with theeects o climate change:

Climate change impacts will beevident rst in peoples livelihoodsat the local level. This providesa oundation on which to build

community adaptation practices.

Local people are better placedthan outside experts to providean understanding o the actorsthat make them vulnerable to theimpacts o climate change. Externalexperts may inadvertently undermineindigenous knowledge, renderingcommunities recipients o git aid.

Communities oten have a deepunderstanding o the environmentsin which they live and o anyemerging environment-related risks;

Figure 5.1Pillar o lakesediment in the

hyper-arid centralSahara (southwest Libya),indicating verydierent climaticconditions in theseregions in thepast (Credit: NickBrooks).



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they will be able to highlight trendsand patterns that otherwise maynot be identied as climate changebecomes evident at the local level.

Traditional livelihoods, which provide

the oundation or Community-BasedAdaptation, are oten built on risk-spreading practices that have emergedover a long period o time andevolved within the context o variableenvironments in order to deal withclimatic and environmental variationand uncertainty. Furthermore, it is themost successul strategies that havebeen retained and continue to be used.

Although the points outlined aboverelate to Community-Based Adaptationand climate change, the same reasonsalso apply to why Community-Based Water Resource Management(CBWRM) is best placed to enablecommunities to cope with the eectso water stress and scarcity.

dvm m

Although many blame continual andsevere ood insecurity and confict inregions such as the Sahel on drought,desertication and climate change,the continued implementation oinappropriate development policiesthat undermine traditional copingstrategies is equally responsible26. Insome parts o the world, low impact,

resilience-based strategies ounded ontraditional approaches may provide theonly easible approach to coping withwater scarcity and water stress whichmay be intensied by climate change.

The consequence that underminingsuch community resilience can haveon livelihoods and the environmentis demonstrated by the events thathave taken place since the 1950s and60s in the Sahel, where entire regions

are now more vulnerable to climaticvariability and change, increasingthe risk o climate-related disasters(Box 5.1, overlea, and Chapter 3).

Research by Chris Reij at theInternational Institute or theEnvironment and Development indicatesthat many soil and water conservationmethods, introduced in the developing

world over the past ew decades aimedat helping to reduce soil erosion andincrease water availability or crops,have ailed because they have ignoredexisting traditional systems andtechniques, ocusing instead on modernmethods that involve technologytranser and a reliance on machinery.

Reij suggests that indigenous methods,rather than high-tech interventions may

provide the most eective oundationor uture land and water managementstrategies, and that development shouldplace more emphasis on buildingon existing skills and knowledge27.Examples o such indigenous practicesinclude water harvesting systemsin Somalia, water conservationtechniques by the Dogon in Maliand traditional irrigation systems

in Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. Inthe Sahel, the recent introductiono planting pits, traditionally usedin Peru, has yielded immediatebenets to subsistence armers28.

Traditional livelihoods provide theoundation o Community-Based Adaptation.



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Box 5.1

Development pressures continue in the modern Sahel

Pastoralism is an ancient tradition and is crucial to the risk-spreading nature o

livelihoods or many people in the Sahelian zone (the modern transitional zone

between the arid Sahara and humid equatorial Arica)29. Yet, in the 1950s and 60s,

the colonial administrations, who were seeking to prepare the Sahelian nations or

independence, implemented a process o modernisation. This was based primarily on the

commercialisation o agriculture, increasing productivity to generate economic growth. A

process o agricultural intensication occurred, but crop production also expanded into

historically marginal areas in the northern regions traditionally used by pastoralists, which

were viewed by colonial administrators as idle land.

Rainall was particularly high during the period 1950-70, in comparison with the rest o

the 20th century (Figure 5.2), and these areas initially produced high crop yields. However,rainall in the region declined dramatically in the early 1970s and cultivation became

unsustainable. During this period the whole system collapsed as pastoralists, who had been

pushed into more marginal areas by agricultural expansion, also lost their livelihoods30.

Despite the negative impacts o the development policies implemented in the 1950s and

60s in the Sahel, little progress has been made in making development more resilient

to projected large-

scale climatic and

environmentalvariability and change.

Current development

policies continue

to pay inadequate

attention to the

validity o traditional

livelihoods, values and

practices, which oten

are still regarded assomehow primitive or

backward and in need

o modernisation.

June to October - mean Sahel precipitation anomalies 1900 - 2007

1900

cm/month

Year

10

-5

-5

-5

-5

-5

-5

-5

-5

-5

-5

-5

20 30 40 1950 60 70 80 90 2000 2010

Figure 5.2Time-series osummer rainallanomalies(standarddeviations romthe long-termmean) or theSahel region,1900-201031.



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a v : u m m

The main challenge to managingcommunal water resources is a

social and moral one, rather thantechnological: designing institutionsor rules or sharing water when thereis ar less than enough to go around.Community-managed systems continueto be identied in various parts o theworld and it is clear that many systemssuccessully cope with water stressand scarcity. However, despite theirobvious dierences, many systems

share the same characteristics. Thesuccess o these systems is down totheir robustness, which means theyhave the capacity to maintain keysystem characteristics despite majorfuctuations in the environment,caused by actors such as drought.

Research on both simple communalirrigation schemes involving onecommunity, such as in Huaynacostas,

Peru (Box 5.2, p51) and more complexmulti-community irrigation schemes,such as in Valencia, Spain (Box 5.3,p52) has led to the identication oa list o principles that characterisea kind o system that can be reerredto as the moral economy o water32.In such systems, these principles areollowed throughout the long dryseason and even droughts, although

certain changes are made to allow thesystems to cope; they create a strongincentive among people to cooperate,obey the rules, and use water wisely.

It is clear that the two systemspresented in this chapter evolvedseparately: the Valencian system is morethan 1,000 years old and o Islamicorigin, while the Peruvian systemreportedly dates back to the Incas. In

act, the same solution to the problemo adapting collectively to water scarcityhas emerged, perhaps independently,in various locations across the twocountries and systems o vastly dierentscales and levels o complexity havebeen identied33. Many other exampleso the moral economy o water existin other parts o the world, althoughtheir degree o success varies.

t mm

Although the principles characterisingthe moral economy o water outlinedbelow relate to successul communityirrigation systems, they can be equallytranserred to many other orms ocommunity water resource managementsystems. The seven key principles are:

Autonomy. This leaves local waterusers ree to continue doing thingsin their own way, regardless ogovernmental laws and policies.

Contiguity(irrigated areas arelocated immediately next to eachother). In a successul system,the landscape consists o named

sectors o land that are irrigated ina xed sequence that never varies.

Uniormity. First, uniormityamong water rights: every plot o

The main challenge is a social andmoral one, rather than technological.



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Box 5.2

Community irrigation in Huaynacostas, Peru comedy o the commons

Huaynacostas (a community located in the arid western Andes) has the simplestirrigation system imaginable. The system is small-scale (about 320 hectares) and land

and water resources are controlled by a single user group o approximately 1,100 people.

It is a smallholder subsistence system and armers grow the typical Andean array o

maize, beans, potatoes and other native crops. The community has a class system, but

the dierences between each group are relatively small; approximately 40% o the

households have less than one hectare o land, 40% have between one and two hectares,

and the wealthy 20% o amilies have as much as two or three hectares.

The community has two sources o water: two alpine springs located at about 4,300

metres elevation, which have small fows that fuctuate, and annual water scarcity is

severe. Even though the national Government theoretically owns and has jurisdiction

over all o Perus water, the state is weak and poor, and the village is so remote that the

community has control over its water sources.

In Huaynacostas, water is used according to a series o customary rules and procedures

that ollow the principles outlined in the main text. The armers irrigate in rotation,

starting at one end o the armland and moving systematically upward: eld by eld and

canal by canal (see Figure 5.4, p53). Water is distributed to elds, or household parcels,

in the same order each time an irrigation cycle takes place.

Every plot o land receives water with the same requency, so water scarcity is shared

equally among all landowners. Water is pooled in earthen structures, called atus, and

uniormity o technique means that everyone irrigates in the same way or all crops.

The pooling technique imposes an upper limit on irrigation time and amount o water

consumed by armers during their turns. This creates a uniorm land to water ratio

or everyone. Farmers contributions to the annual cleaning o the canals must also be

proportional to the amount o irrigated land that they own. By obeying the rules and

showing sel-restraint, armers in Huaynacostas maximise the requency o irrigation orthemselves and everyone else; there is a close correspondence between individual sel-

interest and the common good, and ollowing the rules is seen by most people as the only

rational way to behave.

Community-managed systems ensurethe eect o a scarce water supply isequitably shared among households.



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Box 5.3

The Water Tribunal in Valencia, Spain

Early published descriptions o Valencias community irrigation system all agree that the

traditional system rules impose a basic proportionality, among both rights and duties34. This

is one o the most amous armer-managed irrigation systems in the world and is governed

by the Water Tribunal o Valencia,

a public water court that has met

every week or the past 700 years

and is one o the oldest democratic

legal institutions in the world

(Figure 5.3).

Valencias irrigation system is a

multi-community system that hasdeveloped over the past 100 years.

It is operated by ten separate user

groups that irrigate approximately

9,100 hectares o land, coordinating

the activity o more than 20,000

armers. The vast majority o armers have one hectare or less o land, and very ew have

more than three hectares. Farming here is heavily commercialised, orientated towards

supplying the local market with ood and even towards exports.

The system draws on two sources o water: the Turia river (the main and traditional source)

and groundwater (used as a supplement to the main water supply).

The requency o irrigation and irrigation techniques are the same or all water users. This

creates an upper limit on the amount o water that armers can use in their individual turns.

Farmer duties are also directly proportional to the amount o land owned and armers pay a

ee or water use that is then used to nance the annual cleaning o the canals.

The system works extremely well and the requency o water thet, according to the records

o the Water Tribunal, has remained virtually zero, even during periods o the most acute

shortages o water. These principles are the key to coping successully with the shortage

created annually by the dry season in Valencia; they are ollowed even when an emergency

situation is declared and allow armers to successully adapt to drought.

Figure 5.3A meeting o theWater Tribunalin the huerta

o Valencia,Spain (Credit:Paul Trawick,Craneld).



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emergencies. As a result, in manycases community-based strategies willorm only part o a wider eort to

adapt to increasing water scarcity andstress, which will involve a mixtureo Community-Based Adaptation-type approaches, large inrastructuralprojects and perhaps the deliberaterestructuring o national economies.The Middle East is an area where such acombined approach may be necessary.

In some regions, development

strategies should ocus on supportingand building on current livelihoodapproaches that can eectively copewith uncertainty, rather than theadoption o policies that undermine

them. Such an approach is appropriatein areas like the Sahel in Arica, dueto the high degree o both short and

long-term climatic variability, regardlesso climate change. In such regions,community-based approaches canprovide the main ocus o adaptation,with low input, low impact measurescomplementing traditional approachesto risk-spreading. In the climatic anddevelopment context o these regions,large inrastructural interventionsare likely to be impractical due to

a lack o nancial capacity, as wellas inappropriate due to the highlevel o uncertainty regarding howthe climate and other infuentialactors will evolve in the uture.

Figure 5.4The irrigationsystems inHuaynacostas

in the PeruvianAndes, whichcomprise a systemo inter-linkedterraces andcanals (Credit:Paul Trawick,Craneld).



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Box 5.4

Communal management o groundwater in theValencia system

Groundwater has been increasingly used or irrigation in recent decades as improvementsin drilling technology have enabled deeper wells to be constructed. Traditional rules have

emerged or management and sharing o groundwater in the Valencia system. These are

implemented by local well societies cooperatives in which armers have pooled their

money in order to drill and share the costs o additional water. The use o t

managing water locally: an essential dimension of community water development

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