Managing the water of Kilimanjaro: Water, peasants, and hydropower development

Abstract

The furrow irrigation systems of Kilimanjaro were first described by European explorers coming to the area by the end of the 19th century. Although being impressed, the German and later the British colonial powers soon came to see the system as wasteful and in need of improvement. Despite several attempts to control water use among the ‘natives’ in the highlands, the furrow system has remained fairly intact and still plays a key role in the local farming systems. However, the utilisation of available water resources is still a highly controversial political issue and in this paper three major challenges to traditional water use are discussed: (i) hydropower development, (ii) construction of large-scale irrigation projects, and (iii) implementation of economic and institutional reforms. All this has led to renewed and intensified conflicts over the use of water on Kilimanjaro as well as in the Pangani river. At one level, the situation can be described as a conflict over access to a scarce resource. However, beyond this perception, the controversies over water are also based on more fundamental ideological conflicts and competing ways of thinking about both development and water management.