885MTAMount DMU University Bachelor's Diploma in Education
Â
Towards voluntary guidelines for GWP
1. Towards voluntary guidelines for
people-centred land-water tenure.
The untapped synergies between
rights-based land and water governance
Barbara van Koppen
International Water
Management Institute
2. Framing the land-water nexus
â˘What justifies the emphasis on coordination?
â˘What is âcoordinated governanceâ?
â˘What are risks or missed opportunities when
coordination is lacking?
â˘What are gains of better coordination?
This presentation:
â˘What can the water constituencies learn from,
and offer to the land constituencies?
3. What is coordinated governance?
People-centred
â˘Peopleâs perspectives are holistic:
â˘integrated natural resources (land, water resources,
water infrastructure, other)
â˘integrated (âindivisibleâ) human wellbeing
â˘Especially for vulnerable women and men in rural and
peri-urban areas with diversified livelihoods who
directly depend on natural resources
â˘People-centred: The âbottom-up pullâ for coordinated
and demand-driven public governance support
4. What is coordinated governance?
Issue-based; framing the issues
Continuing issues, for example
â˘Irrigation infrastructure services for poverty reduction
and gender equality (public/public-private;
with/without land reform; etc.)
New issues, for example:
â˘Growing competition and growing inequalities in
access to water resources (e.g., land-/water âgrabsâ)
â˘Disproportionate claims by the âhavesâ (Gini SA= 0.99)
â˘âCore minimumâ access to water resources for âsmall-
scaleâ users for basic health and wealth (public and
self-supply â informal/local/indigenous)
5. What can water constituencies learn from the
land constituencies?
Why does water remain invisible?
Land constituencies, unlike water constituencies, focus
on:
1. People, including the marginalized
2. Customary rights
3. Global rights-based dialogue
6. 1. People, including the marginalized?
Stuck in monolithic single-use âsectorsâ
â˘Domestic uses: âwater for peopleâ: rights-based priority,
but very narrow; no intra-sectoral differentiation
â˘Productive uses: abstract aggregates; no intra-sectoral
differentiation; stereotyping e.g., gender, commercial
â˘Competition âbetween sectorsâ
â˘mystifies the negotiation between people (multiple
water needs) investing in (multi-purpose) infrastructure
for access to (multiple) water resources
â˘depoliticizes power differences
7. 2. Customary rights ?
Dominant statutory water law: the permit system
â˘vests ownership of water resources in the state
â˘dispossesses customary/informal water rights
â˘accepted in Africa; contested in Latin America;
adjusted in Asia (e.g., Nepal, China)
â˘Africa: continuing colonial dispossession?
8. Continuing colonial dispossession?
â˘Roman law : vesting ownership in emperor,
dispossessing conquered peoples
â˘Colonization Latin America and most of Africa:
vesting ownership in European rulers
â˘Independence: replacing âEuropeanâ by âthe presidentâ
â˘IWRM-era: revitalizing permits, plus in Africa: taxation
9. Contemporary permit systems:
a. as peopleâs entitlements (long-term)
â˘Reinforce formal dispossession of small-scale users
â˘Favour large-scale investors:
â˘De facto administration-proficiency; excludes
women; corruption prone
â˘De jure discrimination of customary land title holders
when formal land titles are a permit condition
â˘Taxation: perverse incentives; rent-seeking; over-
allocation; âthose who can pay are entitled to waterâ;
corruption prone
10. Allow the state to regulate âin the public interestâ, by
prohibiting new water uptake or enforcing conditions:
â˘Putting caps on volumes
â˘Regulating waste discharge
â˘Ensuring water re-allocation from the âhavesâ to the
âhave-notsâ (e.g., South Africa)
â˘Potential: negotiating benefit sharing when new
storage and infrastructure is developed, or
compensation
So allow the state to move towardsâŚ. :
Contemporary permit systems
b. as state regulation (short-term)
11. â˘Core minimum: respect, protect, and fulfill small-scale
usersâ water resources entitlements for the
progressive realization of the right to food, gender
equality, other human rights (e.g. Priority General
Authorizations; vesting permits in rural local
governments)
â˘People-centered prioritization during water scarce
periods
â˘Redistributive water reform once âwater frontiersâ
have been reached; easier to prevent!
â˘Water resources as âthe commonsâ
Towards people-centred and rights-based
a. water entitlements
12. â˘Target regulatory permits and enforcement first to
high-impact users, also in investment treaties, with
locally appropriate conditions (core minimum of
water resource entitlements; waste discharge;
sharing of benefits in infrastructure investments,
etc.)
â˘Quantify volumes and jobs per drop
Towards people-centred and rights-based
b. state regulation
13. ~ 22 ha
Source: DWA WARMS data and B. Schreiner
Registered volumes of water by number of users
in the Inkomati water management area
14. 3. Global rights-based dialogue ?!
Towards voluntary guidelines for people-
centred land-water tenure
â˘Process: joint people-centred processes to ensure
informed, voluntary and prior consent to water-land
investments at local, national and international levels
â˘Substance: joint framing of issues for rights-based land,
water, forestry, and fisheries, for example:
â˘Accelerated land-water infrastructure services: a human
right to 100 lpcd near homesteads?
â˘âCore minimumâ water resource entitlements to realize
indivisible human rights
â˘Negotiations with high-impact users for compensation
and shared benefits, also in investment contracts