Water Resources Management For Rural Development

The most acute water crises occur in everyday contexts in impoverished rural and urban areas across the Global South. While they rarely make headlines, these crises, characterized by inequitable access to sufficient and clean water, affect over one billion people globally. What is less known, though, is that millions of these same global citizens are at the forefront of responding to the challenges of water privatization, climate change, deforestation, mega-hydraulic projects, and other threats to accessing water as a critical resource. In Transforming Rural Water Governance Sarah T. Romano explains the bottom-up development and political impact of community-based water and sanitation committees (CAPS) in Nicaragua. Romano traces the evolution of CAPS from rural resource management associations into a national political force through grassroots organizing and strategic alliances. Resource management and service provision is inherently political: charging residents fees for service, determining rules for household water shutoffs and reconnections, and negotiating access to water sources with local property owners constitute just a few of the highly political endeavors resource management associations like CAPS undertake as part of their day-to-day work in their communities. Yet, for decades in Nicaragua, this local work did not reflect political activism. In the mid-2000s CAPS’ collective push for social change propelled them onto a national stage and into new roles as they demanded recognition from the government. Romano argues that the transformation of Nicaragua’s CAPS into political actors is a promising example of the pursuit of sustainable and equitable water governance, particularly in Latin America. Transforming Rural Water Governance demonstrates that when activism informs public policy processes, the outcome is more inclusive governance and the potential for greater social and environmental justice.

This book, by one of the leading authorities on the subject, presents a deep analysis of the very difficult current situation in Afghanistan. Covering a wide range of important subjects including state-building, democracy, war, the rule of law and international relations, the book draws out two overarching key factors: the way in which the prevailing neopatrimonial political order, established in an earlier "state-free" period, has become entrenched, making it very difficult for any other political order to take root; and the hostile region in which Afghanistan is located, especially the way in which an ongoing "creeping invasion" from Pakistani territory has compromised the aspirations of both the Afghan government and its international backers to move the country to a more stable position.

This paper on Water for Rural Development is divided into two parts. The first part outlines the most important issues from IWMI's point of view on water for rural development, with a focus on developing countries. This part identifies, discusses and provides recommendations for key areas for interventions in water resources development and management in the context of rural development. The second part of the document provides analyses of present and future water resources in the World Bank's defined regions.

At head of title: IEG World Bank, IFC, MIGA.

The impacts of outside interventions on community-based natural resource management are inherently complex, particularly in dynamic political and environmental contexts. As development projects are increasingly participatory, the relationships between stakeholders have become as critical as the innovations themselves. Demands on safe water supplies among the most resourcestressed populations in West Africa are challenging development practitioners to reevaluate their partnerships to retain focus on community need, rather than on operational imperatives. Fieldwork was conducted between 2006 and 2009 using complementary mixed methods to evaluate a range of structural and behavioral mechanisms shaping water management among farming households in south-central Mali. Examining institutional support, in terms of policy and programming, along with the experiences and perceptions of water users, traditional village leadership, nongovernmental organization (NGO) staff, and government representatives, highlighted many challenges that limit sustainable collaborative development. A gendered-approach to data collection was used to delineate barriers and opportunities for decision-making by marginalized water users. The key challenges that limit the success of development efforts in improving water resource management are 1) the legitimacy of community-based organizations that lack traditional authority as perceived by members of households, 2) poor perceptions of resource-strapped decentralized government agencies by rural communities, and 3) superficial participation of marginalized populations in local decision-making. In the majority of the study villages, these challenges have led to the decline of institutional and physical infrastructure intended to improve local water resource management. Opportunities do exist, however, to engage men and women differently in development interventions to increase participation, promote inclusion, and generate lasting partnerships among rural communities, NGOs, and government agencies. These opportunities require compromises to balance the legitimacy of traditional authority with outside development agendas. It is especially important for NGOs, whose roles in local resource management and civil society often fill a necessary void left by government, to capture these opportunities. Keywords: Community-based resource management, water, collaboration, gender, participation, community-based organization, decentralization, government, NGOs.

This report calls on policy makers to recognise the issues at stake in water resource management in agriculture and gives them the tools to do so, offering a wealth of information on recent trends and the outlook for water resource use in agriculture.

Fundamental changes must take place in how water is allocated, planned, and managed if India's goals for continued economic growth and improved social and environmental conditions are to be met. India's needs are especially severe due to its rapidly developing water constraints, environmental problems, huge population, regional inequalities in water availability along with the federal administrative structure and rapid demographic and economic growth. The findings of 'Inter-Sectoral Water Allocation, Planning and Management' are that a comprehensive approach is needed in order to implement change. The book provides detailed recommendations in the areas of policy making, legislation and regulations, institutions, economic incentives, technology, and public information.