Sub-theme 10. Local institution building and radical futures for the commons
Panel 10.11.
The Water Commons We Want: Local Action for a Better Future
This panel convenes researchers from across the globe to ask how local water governance institutions can contribute to equitable and sustainable futures for the water commons we want. We create space for water governance researchers to complicate commonly-held assumptions in research on the commons, such as the understanding of water as a common pool resource, the binary conceptualisations of market vs. state and formal vs. informal, and the merits of community-led water resource management. Together, the researchers problematise the “we” in looking towards the future we want. We look at the different actors who have shaped local institutions by asking questions about the gendered dynamics of participation, uncovering the power dynamics that affect resource access, and investigating how historical legacies have shaped water governance institutions’ development at the local level. Panelists present evidence from case studies around the world (including Kenya, Spain, Italy, and beyond) to demonstrate how we can learn from local experiments to create a better future for our shared water commons.
Panel 10.11. A
1. Farmer’s valuation of joint communal benefits in the adoption of water conservation methods: Experiences from dryland central India
Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, India
In this paper, we evaluate the attributes of conservation most favorable to small-holder farmers in the adoption of water saving practices. When faced with a decision to choose between storage tanks or percolation tanks, farmers are concerned about visibility of the water levels, costs of construction and maintenance and their private irrigation needs. However, given the common-pool nature of groundwater, we test whether farmers value joint communal benefits from conservation or are primarily driven by private use maximization. We do so by conducting choice experiments with over 300 farmers in the dryland wheat belt in central India. Our results reveal that despite sensitivity towards cost and visibility, the average farmer selects those conservation options which makes water available for everyone through improved groundwater recharge. Larger farmers with higher alternative sources of income tend to value common use more than farmers who are smaller and with lower non-farm income sources. The valuation for joint benefits falls with higher levels of education, age and family size. Our insights contrast with the literature which mostly agrees that small-holder farmers have a high discount rate towards long term conservation practices. The paper concludes with a discussion about conditions under which institutional arrangements promoting common-pool groundwater conservation could witness high rates of adoption.
2. Irrigation Development in Kenya: From Input Delivery to Innovation Systems
University of Nairobi, Kenya
Access to irrigation is essential for increasing agricultural productivity in sub-Saharan Africa. In Kenya, interventions by development actors to improve access to irrigation have been carried out for the last five decades. However, these interventions are characterised by an “input delivery approach” that is largely ineffective and often quite harmful. By tracing the uptake of rainwater harvesting for irrigation (RWHI) systems in Kenya, this study shows that an input delivery approach by development actors has failed to increase levels of adoption, while initiatives driven by farmers themselves in response to market opportunities has been more successful. To increase RWHI uptake, a technological innovation systems approach that incorporates market systems development should be adopted.
3. Connecting gender transformative approaches in the household with common property management in the community: Insights from small-scale irrigation development in Ethiopia.
1CIFOR-ICRAF, France, 2IFAD, Ethiopia, 3Ministry of Agriculture, Ethiopia, 4CIFOR-ICRAF, Ethiopia
Equitable management of irrigation infrastructure as a common property resource often entails transformational changes at various levels. Gender transformative approaches (GTAs) could be a means to achieving those changes. We examine a household-based GTA called the Gender Model Family (GMF) implemented as part of the Participatory Small-scale Irrigation Development Programme (PASIDP) II program in Ethiopia for (i) understanding how and to what extent household-based approaches influence community-level processes in managing common property; and (ii) deepen our understanding of the link between changes in gender relations at the household level and improved gender equity in the management of common property. GMF aims to address the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) domains – such as decision-making over production and income, access to resources, and participation and leadership.
Our field research in Amhara, Oromia, and Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples regional states are located in villages with small-scale irrigation schemes managed through Irrigation Water User Association (IWUAs) and developed by the PASIDP II. The results of this study could improve the implementation and monitoring and evaluation of household-based GTAs and contribute to the thin literature linking GTAs and irrigation infrastructure development in Africa.
4. Water Governance, Institutions and Conflicts in the Maasai Rangelands
1United States International University-Africa, Kenya, 2University of Warwick, England, 3University of Bonn, Germany
Water scarcity in Narok county, Kenya may be attributed to demographic pressures, land-use
changes, environmental degradation and the effects of climate change. This article combines
methodologies from history and political science to investigate how local communities cope with
water scarcity. In so doing, we consider how institutions, both indigenous and modern, mitigate
conflict over access to and control of water sources. Cases are presented from sites of irrigation
and development projects or plans. We find that climate change has little to do with water
conflicts in Narok, but that more important factors are privatisation and commoditisation of
formerly common-pool resources, and challenges and failures in modern water governance in
mediating between Maasai (pastoralist) and non-Maasai (agriculturalist) groups. Indigenous
governance institutions still have a place in conflict resolution and environmental protection.
Panel 10.11. B
1. How can informal water vendors contribute to equitable water access?
University of Oxford, UK
Informal water markets play a vital and growing role in addressing water supply gaps amidst climate change and urbanization, particularly in the context of developing state capacity. They are of growing importance in Sub-Saharan Africa, where over 400 million people lack access to improved drinking water, and 4 of 5 workers are informally employed. Despite their proliferation, evidence is spread across disciplines and remains largely anecdotal, with observations of markets ranging from charitable community associations to extortionary cartels. We know surprisingly little about the types of informal water markets that exist, the social infrastructure that supports and sustains them, and the different pathways leading to equitable access or exploitation. We propose archetypes of informal water markets, illustrating the utility of the archetype concept through a case study in Kisumu, Kenya. We share preliminary results regarding the relationship between different types of water markets, affordability, and trust.
2. Historically successful approaches to increase piped water connections amongst the urban poor across diverse institutional arrangements and socioeconomic contexts in Africa, Asia, and South America
The Aquaya Institute, Kenya
Low-income urban residents continue to face challenges accessing safe water. This work sought to understand the factors that make inclusive, citywide water service delivery possible, particularly with regard to piped household water connections. Using a modified form of the social-ecological systems framework, we conducted a detailed, comparative case study analysis to learn from six historically high-performing cities: Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire; Ahmedabad, India; Bangkok, Thailand; Cairo, Egypt; Phnom Penh, Cambodia; and Porto Alegre, Brazil. Our cases went beyond binary conceptualizations of water governance and provision to illustrate how diverse models can underlie citywide service improvements. In almost every case, historical legacies shaped modern-day institutional arrangements for water provision. For example, Côte d’Ivoire’s post-independence alignment with former colonial power France led to the world’s first public-private partnership for water provision. Regardless of cases’ governance models, shifting perceptions of unplanned low-income areas paved the way for explicit pro-poor water policies. In Cairo and Bangkok, local governments stopped classifying low-income areas as “illegal” before creating dedicated programs to improve services. However, no cases successfully incorporated informal service providers into the broader institutional framework, though these actors often filled gaps left by piped networks. In summary, our analysis suggested that multiple models of progress were effective, but highlighted remaining challenges including insecure land tenure and informal service provision. Future research could reveal appropriate strategies for providing services on contested land and incentives that encourage small-scale providers to deliver safe services.
3. On institutional persistence and change: The paradox of and progress towards rural water sustainability in Africa
VU Amsterdam, Netherlands
The rural water sector has been exposed to processes of homogenization that have led to the spread of technologies and voluntary institutional arrangements across sub-Saharan Africa. This paper proposes a reconceptualization of rural water sector planning and investment with the goal of devising sustainable pluralist arrangements. I unpack theoretical and practical tensions between homogenization towards a community, market or state solution, and pluralism, which dynamically realigns the three. First, I advance a framework combining institutional isomorphism and cultural theory of risk to offer insights into the theoretical tension between homogenization and pluralism, and the practical tension between the professionalization of services and local diversity. I argue that isomorphic processes driven by social norms, imitation of existing solutions, and pressure through political processes and international agencies have led to the establishment of clearly defined sets of widely applicable rules and practices, so-called cultural regimes. Second, the framework is tested in Kenya, where two types of institutional change – legal and institutional reform through devolution, and professionalization of rural water services – are aligned to potentially enable sector transformation. A survey involving all 47 county water ministries of the first devolved county governments and three case studies of professional service models across the country provide insights into the potential of pluralist arrangements to increase the sustainability of rural water services. The paper concludes with a reflection on how this new thinking might contribute to redefining approaches in policy and practice to advancing the sustainable development goal of universal water services in rural Africa.
4. Recommoning Water: crossing thresholds under citizen-driven water remunicipalisation
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands
In response to an austerity regime that further incentivised water service privatisation in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, cities across Southern Europe witnessed the rise of a counter-movement strongly demanding for public control. ‘Remunicipalisation’ became a key strategy for water movements to dissent on further dispossession of water as a common good. This paper brings into dialogue two bodies of literature, the one on remunicipalisation and the one on commoning, to examine the conditions which can enable crossing a paradigm threshold, beyond public towards collective and situated urban water governance models. We propose the concept of recommoning water to capture the process of reclaiming water commoning practices, and offer an analytical definition grounded in a case study of water remunicipalisation in Terrassa, Spain. In 2019, Terrassa moved beyond municipalization to create a Citizen Water Observatory. Our empirical findings demonstrate that water activists in Terassa’s Observatory are reclaiming and reproducing the commons on a daily basis through a process of experimentation with institutional bricolage and (re)negotiation of power and autonomy. This citizen-led observatory is ensuring that resources are shared in common, used for the common good, and are (re)producing the commons; a process very close to Fournier’s (2013) definition of commoning. We conclude that water remunicipalisation can act as an important step for crossing a paradigm threshold from public towards the commons. Despite this, such an institutionalisation of recommoning water under a public management regime subjects it to multifaceted threats that merit attention from both activists and policymakers.
