Irrigation water rights: options for pro‐poor reform

Bruns, Bryan

doi:10.1002/ird.314

Cited by 11 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…Because of its vital, rivalry and non-excludability characteristics, water is a unique resource, the management of which requires a suitable set of institutional arrangements. A water right is therefore often composed of a set or 'bundle' of graduated privileges that are assigned to different social entities (Bruns, 2007;Schlager and Ostrom, 1992;Shi, 2006). This defines who is entitled to a certain amount of water, at a particular time and location, during scarcity.…”

Section: Framework: Water Rights Struggles and Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Water allocation is not necessarily a matter of formal licences to abstract water or contractual commitments for water delivery, but also local understandings such as taking turns to use water, and when and where irrigation water may be used (Bruns, 2007). According to Bruns (2007), real access to water depends on how water is allocated at multiple levels, among larger jurisdictions such as nations, states, provinces, and districts and among organisations and individuals extracting water from rivers and aquifers, as well as on the crucial details of water distribution within irrigation systems. Water rights may be implicit in the design of structures, and asserted in decisions about guarding, maintaining, or modifying irrigation infrastructure (Bruns, 2007;Lankford and Beale, 2007).…”

Section: Framework: Water Rights Struggles and Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to Bruns (2007), real access to water depends on how water is allocated at multiple levels, among larger jurisdictions such as nations, states, provinces, and districts and among organisations and individuals extracting water from rivers and aquifers, as well as on the crucial details of water distribution within irrigation systems. Water rights may be implicit in the design of structures, and asserted in decisions about guarding, maintaining, or modifying irrigation infrastructure (Bruns, 2007;Lankford and Beale, 2007). Even when water rights are formally stipulated, such entitlements must still be translated into seasonal and daily decisions about withdrawing water.…”

Section: Framework: Water Rights Struggles and Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To solve water allocation conflicts, many governments attempt to formalise the water rights system -users are granted rights to use a certain amount of water, at a particular location and duration. However, the formalisation of water rights may also provide opportunities for wealthier, more powerful, and better-connected users to manipulate registration to serve their own interests (Bruns, 2007). In addition, since sources of water rights are multiple and often conflicting, formalisation may lead to struggles over whose water right is legitimate.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The role of statutory and local rules in allocating water between large- and small-scale irrigators in an African river catchment

Komakech

Condon

Zaag

2012

WSA

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This paper presents a case study of large-and small-scale irrigators negotiating for access to water from Nduruma River in the Pangani River Basin, Tanzania. The paper shows that despite the existence of a formal statutory water permit system, all users need to conform to the existing local rules in order to secure access to water. The spatial geography of Nduruma is such that smallholder farmers are located upstream and downstream, while large-scale irrigators are in the midstream part of the sub-catchment. There is not enough water in the river to satisfy all demands. The majority of the smallholder farmers currently access water under local arrangements, but large-scale irrigators have obtained state-issued water use permits. To access water the estates adopt a variety of strategies: they try to claim water access by adhering to state water law; they engage with the downstream smallholder farmers and negotiate rotational allocation; and/or they band with downstream farmers to secure more water from upstream farmers. Estates that were successful in securing their water access were those that engaged with the local system and negotiated a fair rotational water-sharing arrangement. By adopting this strategy, the estates not only avoid conflict with the poor downstream farmers but also gain social reputation, increasing chances of cooperative behaviours from the farmers towards their hydraulic infrastructure investments. Cooperative behaviours by the estates may also be due to their dependence on local labour. We further find diverging perspectives on the implementation of the state water use permits -not only between the local and state forms of water governance, but also between the differing administrative levels of government. The local governments are more likely to spend their limited resources on 'keeping the peace' rather than on enforcing the water law. At the larger catchment scale, however, the anonymity between users makes it more difficult to initiate and maintain cooperative arrangements.

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Section: Framework: Water Rights Struggles and Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Framework: Water Rights Struggles and Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Framework: Water Rights Struggles and Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The role of statutory and local rules in allocating water between large- and small-scale irrigators in an African river catchment

Komakech

Condon

Zaag

2012

WSA

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“…The focus on smallholder irrigators is appropriate in South Africa, because their water use efficiency is low [11] and cost-recovery of government investments in these schemes is a well-known problem [8,12]. Improved water rights will not only stimulate smallholders to use water more productively [2,13], it will also allow governments to increase water prices and thus improve cost recovery.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Willingness to pay for water and water rights definition: study among smallholder irrigators in Limpopo province, South Africa

Speelman

D’Haese

Frija

et al. 2009

WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment

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Internationally there is growing understanding that water rights are important and that a lack of effective water rights systems creates major problems for the management of increasingly scarce water supplies. In South Africa the smallholder irrigation sector faces two major challenges. Firstly water use is inefficient and secondly government, which in the past invested huge amounts of money in the sector, targets improved cost recovery. Improving the definition of the water rights system can have a positive effect with regard to these challenges. At one hand improvements in the definition of water rights can stimulate smallholders to use water more productively, encouraging cooperation and investment; at the other hand an improved water rights system increases willingness to pay for water, allowing government to charge higher water prices and thus improve cost recovery. This study proposes contingent ranking to analyse the willingness to pay of smallholder irrigators for changes in the water rights system. Results indicate that smallholders are prepared to pay considerably higher water prices if these prices are connected with advancements in the water rights system. In a second step the sample population was stratified to evaluate the impact of smallholder characteristics on their willingness to pay. The groups. For example farmers suffering water shortages attach more importance to secure water supply. Policy makers can use such results to guide reforms in the design of water rights and to increase public support for interventions.

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The impact of the water rights system on smallholder irrigators' willingness to pay for water in Limpopo province, South Africa

Speelman¹,

Farolfi²,

Frija³

et al. 2010

Envir. Dev. Econ.

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ABSTRACT. Water rights are currently receiving increased attention from scholars and policymakers due to the growing understanding that ill-defined water rights impair efficient use. In South Africa, smallholder irrigation faces problems of low water use efficiency and cost recovery of government investments. This study uses contingent ranking to analyse the willingness to pay (WTP) of smallholder irrigators for changes in the water rights system. The results indicate that smallholders are prepared to pay considerably higher water prices if these are connected to improvements in the water rights system. By segmenting the population it was also shown that the importance attached to water rights dimensions varies in each segment. While lower institutional trust and lower income levels lead to a lower WTP for transferability, experiencing water * Stijn Speelman thanks the FWO (Research Foundation -Flanders) for a postdoctoral fellowship at Ghent University. S. Speelman et al.shortage increases this WTP. Such information is valuable in guiding policy makers in the future design of water rights.

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Irrigation water rights: options for pro‐poor reform

Cited by 11 publications

References 11 publications

The role of statutory and local rules in allocating water between large- and small-scale irrigators in an African river catchment

The role of statutory and local rules in allocating water between large- and small-scale irrigators in an African river catchment

Willingness to pay for water and water rights definition: study among smallholder irrigators in Limpopo province, South Africa

The impact of the water rights system on smallholder irrigators' willingness to pay for water in Limpopo province, South Africa

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