Is river management too important to leave to governments?

Non-governmental organisations (NGOS) are beginning to demand more participatory forms of river basin management. They emphasise that no technical or institutional fix will be effective unless the underlying causes of water mismanagement and unequal distribution – which perpetuate poverty and environmental damage – are addressed simultaneously. How can approaches that prioritise the needs, visions and demands of local communities be communicated to policy-makers?

A paper from Both ENDS – a Netherlands-based environmental NGO – was presented at the Alternative Water Forum in the United Kingdom in May 2003. Reporting on the work of a Peruvian and an Indian NGO in challenging non-sustainable, top-down, big water infrastructure projects, the report sets out some of the challenges in scaling up participatory approaches to river basin management. A preliminary vision of an integrated river basin methodology (IRBM) is set out.

The Bhima River rises in India’s Western Ghats and flows through the highly industrialised state of Maharashtra into Karnataka and then Andhra Pradesh. A focus on large irrigation and hydropower projects has failed to meet rural and urban water demand. Inequitable access and droughts have resulted in unbalanced development and shortages of drinking water. Sixty per cent of all water is used to irrigate the sugarcane fields. These make up only three per cent of cultivable land but they are highly profitable – half of the elected politicians in the Bhima basin have interests in the sugar industry.

Gomukh is a trust operating in 16 villages to plug gaps ignored by the government – building small water harvesting structures and maintaining existing water storage infrastructure. Seeking to integrate IRBM with economic development, the NGO has improved agricultural practices, progressively eliminated chemical fertilisers and pesticides and promoted organic farming.

The Peruvian NGO, AEDES, has been working in a chronically poor region disrupted by the violence generated by the Shining Path (a Maoist movement that waged an armed struggle against the Peruvian government). Large landowners producing cash crops receive more water than small landholders growing crops for home consumption. AEDES focuses on food security, aiming to use the area’s biodiversity to sustainably provide income by means of organic agriculture.

Similarities in both situations include:

• AEDES and Gomukh Trust are working to fill the gaps left by centralist water management policies.
• liaising with authorities and grassroots institutions to resolve local water management problems and take concrete action on existing sustainable development opportunities
• the use of appropriate technologies, including internet-based information systems, computerised databases and geographic information systems.

Emergent participatory networks require the collaboration of groups from different political and administrative zones. Partners to this process need to ask themselves:

• Is it enough to scale up or should they scale out and join forces with organisations elsewhere in the river basin they share?
• How should knowledge generated through wider alliances be fed back to local communities?
• How can local communities ensure that their needs are being communicated to policy-makers?
• What monitoring systems are in place to reveal problems in project design and to provide opportunities to modify the agenda or methodology?
• How can agencies that are not directly involved in implementation, such as Both ENDS, promote participatory IRBM without actually being involved in it?
• Is it possible to show project ‘results’ to donors while waiting to let the organic process of participation evolve?

 

Source(s):
‘Up-scaling of participatory river basin management approaches: NGO examples from the South’, Alternative Water Forum, University of Bradford, by Gina E. Castillo, June 2003 Full document.

Funded by: Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Directorate-General of International Cooperation

id21 Research Highlight: 28 November 2003

Further Information:
Gina E. Castillo or Danielle Hirsch
Both ENDS – Environment and Development Service for NGOs
Nieuwe Keizersgracht 45
1018 VC Amsterdam
The Netherlands

Tel: +31 20 623 0823
Fax: +31 20 620 8049
Contact the contributor: water@bothends.org

Both ENDS

Other related links:
River Basin Initiative

Report on Integrated shared Lake and River Basin Management

Integrated River Basin Management

Competing for water: is integrated management an elusive goal?