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Abstract
Abstract In the Uluguru Mountains of Tanzania, an expansion in informal hosepipe irrigation by small-scale farmers has enabled the development of horticulture, and resulted in improvements in farmers' livelihoods. This has largely taken place independently of external support, and can be seen as an example of the 'private' irrigation that is increasingly viewed as important for sub-Saharan Africa. However, these activities are seen by representatives of government and some donors as the cause of environmental degradation and water shortages downstream, especially in the nearby city of Morogoro. As a result, there have been attempts to evict the farmers from the mountain. Negative narratives persist and the farmers on the mountainside are portrayed as a problem to be 'solved.' This article explores these tensions, contributing to debates about the formalization of water management arrangements and the place of the state in regulating and adjudicating rights to access water. We argue that a focus on legality and formalization serves to obscure the political nature of competing claims on resources that the case illustrates. Keywords: irrigation; Tanzania; ethnography; political ecology; water
Highlights
The Uluguru Mountains are part of the Eastern Arc Mountains in Tanzania and Kenya, and are often described as one of the most important mountainous regions in Tanzania
The farmers are supported in their endeavors by a range of institutions; a number of local NGOs have worked alongside donors such as DFID, CARE and the WWF in support of the promotion of agroecological farming methods and in piloting 'payments for ecosystem services' (PES) and 'payments for watershed services' (PWS)
Irrigation practice, whilst adopting new technology, is embedded in long-standing social relationships, which people do not articulate as formal rules, but as their way of being 'together.' At the same time, water access is constrained by land ownership and technological limitations
Summary
The Uluguru Mountains are part of the Eastern Arc Mountains in Tanzania and Kenya, and are often described as one of the most important mountainous regions in Tanzania. Detailed and repeated semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 25 farmers (15 men and 10 women), and with the representatives of the organizations that have come to play a role in their lives These included the NGO that has been promoting organic agriculture in the area (Sustainable Agriculture Tanzania), an NGO implementing the payment for ecosystem services project mentioned above (Wildlife Conservation Society of Tanzania), the government extension service, academics from nearby Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro Municipal Council, and the formal water management organizations, the Wami-Ruvu River Basin Office (WRRBO) and Morogoro Urban Water and Sewage Authority (MORUWASA). Participation in institutional evolution can be differentially shaped by structural (age, wealth and gender) and agency (social capital, personal inclination) factors (Cleaver and Toner 2006) This means that it is not possible to uncover the rules by which people manage resources because they may be institutionally creative, including by turning to formalized and bureaucratic mechanisms for negotiating access and resolving conflicts. An understanding of competing claims needs to consider how such claims are articulated beyond the local
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