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Negotiating Water Rights
Edited by Bryan Randolph Bruns and Ruth S. Meinzen-Dick
Published by Intermediate Technology Publications, 103/105 Southampton Row,
London WC1B 4HH, UK in asociation with the International Food Policy Research
Institute (IFPRI)
Email: orders@itpubs.org.uk Website
http://www.itpubs.org.uk
2000, 394pp., ISBN 1 85339 484 X (Pb) £14.95
'Every day the whole configuration of water division was different even though the current official rule was continuous flow with proportional allocation to fields.' So is this an elaborate system for sharing water, or downright anarchy? Each of the case studies in Negotiating Water Rights reveals the enormous complexity surrounding individual or community rights to water and the fluid interpretation of statutory and customary law to support a claim or defend a right.
The book is written not as a study of legislation, nor is it concerned with the technical aspects of water delivery beyond simple sketch plans to illustrate the situation under discussion. Nor is it an activist's campaign to assert people's rights. It is a very practical explanation of how disputes have been resolved by water users and, as the title suggests, specifically the role that negotiation has, or has not, played. Because irrigation accounts for more than 70% of water withdrawals worldwide - more in developing countries - the users in question are farmers and it is refreshing that their needs, so often ignored, are recognized. Indeed, if farmers were consulted earlier, it is suggested, there would be less risk of conflict being built into design of water supply projects. The case studies (Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Indonesia, Burkina Faso, Spain and New Mexico) are written by different authors and although they vary in readability, all provide an insight into the lives of real people struggling to get a balance between 'justice and enterprise'. The underlying theme is legal pluralism, possibly a daunting word which describes how people use different legal frameworks (government regulations, customary law etc.) or upon different interpretations of the same law, to make their case. The editors suggest these 'overlapping legal repertoires' (one might proffer 'reservoirs') lead to a 'canvas of complications' but also provide opportunities for negotiation.
Large scale water supply structures are not covered. This is a book more concerned with how farming communities work out the sharing of a common source of water from small or medium size irrigation schemes, often constructed by themselves. Given that an early lesson from the book is that uniform prescriptions for sharing water access will not fit well anywhere, where is the value in the book? Perhaps it is simply to learn that lesson; to understand that politicians' involvement may be destructive rather than constructive; that negotiations require the negotiating parties to be on good terms; that those who feel unfairly treated will steal water by stealth or brute force for they cannot live without it. Land rights are a difficult and complex issue. Water rights are worse being 'almost as fluid as the resource itself'. Most disputes about water are not resolved by courts nor by technocrats. They are worked out by the parties involved, sometimes with the help of outsiders. There is much for outsiders to learn. This book would be a good starting point.
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