Water Management and the Poor: Issues and Scales of Action

Abstract

Rural areas constitute the arena for increased competition for water, not only among rural dwellers, but also among rural and urban or industrial water users. In hillside areas water is important not only for household consumption, but also for productive purposes. Even where formal irrigation systems do not exist, the ability to water crops improves people's livelihoods significantly. Nevertheless, evidence from many parts of the world suggests the poor are gradually losing their access to water. Based on research conducted in the Nicaraguan hillsides, this paper illustrates the processes through which access to water is lost by some and gained by others. The paper shows how water management takes place in the context of complex, often conflictive, social relations at multiple, often overlapping, levels. Taken together, these two features make it difficult to imagine an effective organizational design to represent and negotiate different interests relating to water management of a single river basin or watershed.. Nevertheless, the examples from the Nicaraguan hillsides reveal a possible alternative; in their attempts to gain secure access to water, new local-organization practices are emerging that increasingly seek to involve and engage district and national authorities in supporting their claims and adopting a stronger, negotiated, role in regulation and arbitration. Therefore, instead of focusing on the crafting of neatly nested water-management organizations (e.g. from the micro-watershed to river basin), this paper argues in favour of supporting the development of an enabling institutional environment. Key components of such an enabling environment include: (1) making relevant hydrological assessments widely available, (2) fostering broad-based and inclusive public-hearing processes, (3) enhancing the legal capacity, particularly among the poor, and (4) providing dispute-resolution mechanisms such as a water ombudsman, widely available and accessible, especially to the poor.