Water ownership as form of pastoral adaptation: the case of the Garri of Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

In the semiarid lowlands of southern Ethiopia, water development initiatives historically served as a tool for promoting the settlement of nomadic groups, aimed at strengthening the government’s authority over remote territories and local populations otherwise difficult to rule. This included the construction of private underground reservoirs financed by humanitarian organizations from the early 1970s. The proliferation of private hand‑dug water points among the Garri cannot be considered as a simple result of external imposition aiming to discipline and transform local realities. The particular ownership regime that will be discussed here reflects the local history of natural resource usage and mediates current interactions with state authorities, humanitarian and development actors, thereby participating in remodeling Garri ethnic identity.