How can we design water resources interventions

Abstract
Households in arid and semi-arid areas realise that increased availability and accessibility of water is critical to improving their livelihoods because insufficient soil moisture is a major constraint on crop productivity, and accessing water for domestic and other uses is physically demanding and time consuming. Interventions to improve the management of water resources need to recognise that poor households have few resources beyond their labour, and the design of interventions requires additional efforts to include poor households and ensure equitable distribution of benefits. The design of interventions need to address several key issues constraining poor households’ ability to access and use water including the ownership of water and other natural resources, and the capacity of communities to contribute towards the cost of interventions.
In this paper, we discuss how poorer households can be included in the planning and design process to ensure that they benefit from water resources interventions by addressing issues related to ownership of water and land, and the distribution of benefits from interventions. The key ownership question is 'who owns what water and land resources and where?' This question is answered by communities mapping land and water resource ownership by socio-economic grouping, and then using the map as a basis for discussions about the distribution of benefits resulting from water resources interventions. Households not benefiting from the improvements are identified and alternative interventions are targeted to improve their livelihoods.

Attachment	Date	Size
PDF Alternative Water Forum Tod, Parey and Yadav.pdf	02/08/07 3:43 am	469.03 KB