The battle of hegemony: strategies to secure exclusive

water rights

F S Nkoka

Outline

• Introduction• 3 Case studies• SSIS & SSA Analysis• Understanding water rights• Basis of Claim• Interpretation by SHFs • Discussion points• Conclusion

Introduction

• Food insecurity in SSA

• Irrigation a solution

• Failures of LSISs

→ focus on SSISs

• Clean track record of SSISs

Case Studies

• Smallholder farmers vs MDF – Dowa– Irrigation use versus domestic use

• Smallholder farmers vs Large Scale farmer(s) – Mchinji– Shifting alliance of govt institutions

• The waterscape continuum in Tsangano– Smallholder farmers vs smallholder farmers

Tsangano Irrigation Systems

SSIS & SSA Analysis

• SSA vulnerability• SSISs description• SSISs context –

political, markets, • Farmers – illiterate,

poor, not organized

• Importance of

SSISs → great

contribution

Understanding water rights

• Strange concept to Smallholder farmers

• Not fully rolled out in SSA

• Vary in many respect – exclusive, transferability, scale, duration, recognition, & assurance

• Its importance vary with time

Basis of Claim

• Construction history of the system

• Position in the system • Social and political

network • Settlement history • Considered informal• Overtaken by ‘formal’

request

Interpretation by SHFs

• Water belong to God

• Different users with different reference point

• Eruption of silent wars

• Very critical in water scarce period

Discussion points

• Line of division between water user groups– Legitimate for claims based on scale, use, history

• Processes of exclusion – Location in the system – upstream vs downstream at

system level & catchment level– Settlement history – fortifying ownership thru

construction & land ownership– ‘Formal’ over ‘informal’– Power and power relations – fight them if they accept– Social & political network

Discussion points

• Underlying structure that lead to unequal access to water– Weak institutions (WUAs, ICs) vs administrative

structures– Fixing ICs structure & membership– Legislation unsynchronized to local situation– Lack of awareness of ‘formal’ rights to smallholder

farmers– Un-recognition of local logic – Rigorous exercise of obtaining ‘formal’ rights

Think on these things

• Water rights decision should consider local situation

• More Smallholder farmers are illiterate & poor but not stupid

• Their claims should be recognized – formal vs informal

• More awareness to smallholder farmers required

Think on these things

• The concept of equity to be explained

• Sustainable use natural resource

• Synchronize WUA and local structure (TAs)

• Smallholder farmers to be pushed out of farming

• Food insecurity to persist

• Social conflict / disorder

THANK

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