As the pressure on the water resources mounts within a river basin, institutional innovation may occur not as a result of a planned sequence of adjustments, but arising out of the interplay of several factors. By focusing ...

Water scarcity caused by increased demands often leads to competition and conflict over water in many river catchments in Sub-Saharan Africa. At the local level, water users have in many places been able to solve water ...

In this paper we explore the emergence and functioning of river committees (RCs) in Tanzania, which are local water management structures that allocate and solve water conflict between different water users (smallholder ...

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 ...

It has been suggested that the collective action needed for integrated water management at larger spatial scales could be more effective and sustainable if it were built, bottom-up, on the nested arrangements by which local ...

Water transfers to growing cities in sub-Sahara Africa, as elsewhere, seem inevitable. But absolute water entitlements in basins with variable supply may seriously affect many water users in times of water scarcity. This ...

Catchment forums have to address the reality that river catchments typically cover several administrative districts and have overlapping arrangements of state-led and locally created institutions. Institutional nesting has ...

This reflection article highlights some of the science that underpins our understanding of cooperation over shared water resources. Power dynamics, hegemony, negotiation theory, social psychology and justice, international ...

Although spate irrigation systems are risk-prone, they can be an important component for livelihood security in semi-arid areas. Spate uses water (flood water), which upstream users often do not require, as rainfall during ...