Water Strategy Meets Local Reality

This report has three objectives: 1. To synthesise and analyse the current water resources management policy environment as it pertains to engaging community structures in development planning, 2. To describe and comparatively analyse the social, structural and operational characteristics of traditional water management institutions around the country, 3. Drawing upon these findings, to analyse the principal opportunities and challenges of using community institutions within formal water rights management structures. Recent drafts of the Water Sector Strategy (WSS) and the Water Law provide the main policy environment for water management. The drafts of the WSS pay tribute to integrated water resources management (IWRM) by incorporating stakeholder participation at the local level (with a focus on water user associations or WUAs) and at the basin level (with a focus on river basin councils). This is also emphasised in the Draft Water Law, with its section on river basin councils and sub-basin councils. The law on WUAs, however, is less explicit. While the July 2007 Draft WSS focused on water pricing, the February 2008 draft focused on poverty alleviation and did not discuss water pricing (although cost recovery for construction and services is still anticipated). The June 2008 Draft Water Law continues to focus on establishing a modern permit system, with the exception of right-of-way areas (areas that are protected and free from interventions). All versions of the Draft WSS have a strong focus on infrastructure rehabilitation and expansion. The drafts highlight the role of NGOs and donors in achieving this, but not all of them deal with the negative consequences that these efforts might have for downstream riparian states