Vulnerability of People’s Livelihoods to Water Resources Availability in Semi Arid Areas of Tanzania

Shadrack Mwakalila

doi:10.4236/jwarp.2011.39078

Abstract

In semi-arid areas of Tanzania vulnerability context is depicted as the starting component for policy process analysis through the sustainable livelihood approach. Giving vulnerability a high prominence in this analysis allowed the research to consider all kinds of vulnerabilities as central issues to the ways in which livelihoods are shaped. Hence the Sustainable Livelihood framework was used in this research as the comprehensive framework for assessing the contributing factors to limited water resources availability to sustain people’s livelihoods. The study revealed that, changes in the quantity, timing, intensity and duration of rainfall as a result of climate change contributes to greater water stress and making people more vulnerable. Due to over-abstraction upstream of the Great Ruaha River, it implies that, people depending on the water resources downstream of the Great Ruaha River catchment are vulnerable. Their livelihoods are at risks as they don’t have water for irrigation and other economic activities. The study also revealed that, both vulnerability and livelihood strategies are derived through natural water availability which features droughts, climate change and the link between water availability, agricultural production, and outcomes.

Highlights

In the Great Ruaha River catchment, cross-cutting issues such as poverty and water related issues call for a joined-up sense and exploration of the ways in which what happens across several different sectors contributes to or hampers the realization of particular policy objectives towards poverty reduction [1]
The study revealed that, changes in the quantity, timing, intensity and duration of rainfall as a result of climate change contributes to greater water stress and making people more vulnerable
Due to over-abstraction upstream of the Great Ruaha River, it implies that, people depending on the water resources downstream of the Great Ruaha River catchment are vulnerable

Summary

Introduction

In the Great Ruaha River catchment, cross-cutting issues such as poverty and water related issues call for a joined-up sense and exploration of the ways in which what happens across several different sectors contributes to or hampers the realization of particular policy objectives towards poverty reduction [1]. Management of the Great Ruaha River catchment in Tanzania calls for poverty considerations as well as for environmental, development and conservation objectives [2,3]. This is a positive way of thinking as it takes considerations of social and economic impacts of the technology promoted in developing the basin. Livelihoods of the village are seen to depend on the environmental conditions. Acknowledging this livelihoods-environment linkage, the concept of social-ecological system becomes prominent in the Great Ruaha River natural resources governance. The term refers to systems of people and nature at the village where social and ecological processes are inextricably interrelated

Methods

Results

Conclusion