Rural Water Management in Africa: The Impact of Customary Institu ...

Since water supplies have not kept pace with demand, water resources have been overutilized and polluted, leading to water shortage. Most people in SSA experience lack of access to safe water, a great concern especially in rural areas where most of the poor live. It is estimated that only about 45 percent of the population in SSA has access to safe water.⁴ Lack of access to safe water has a disastrous impact on society, especially on women and children, who suffer in terms of illnesses and lost opportunities.⁵ It is estimated that rural people in SSA, mainly women and children, spend about 40 billion hours each year fetching water.⁶ Moreover, lack of access to safe water traps rural people in the vicious cycle of poverty: water-related illnesses reduce one’s ability to engage in a full day of productive work, which in turn increases poverty and the risk of subsequent illnesses. For these reasons, efficient management of water resources is a key to fighting poverty and a fundamental building block for sustainable development.⁷

During the past thirty years, the management of water resources in most SSA countries was the responsibility of central governments. Unfortunately, many large water projects that were established and managed by central governments in SSA failed, mainly due to a lack of community participation in planning and implementing such projects.⁸ In the 1990s, many SSA governments decided to embark on decentralization of their administrative and legislative powers. Decentralization refers to the transfer of authority to plan, make decisions, and manage public affairs from central government to local government.⁹ Decentralization has greatly affected local institutions, which are viewed as important actors in the management of natural resources.¹⁰ Decentralization has presented many challenges that most countries are still struggling to address. For example, the cost of managing water resources forces local governments to impose burdensome taxes on the local community. Local government may lack the specialized experts needed to manage water development projects. As a result, a few financial elites or people who are well connected to the government buy favors or obtain access to community natural resources and other privileges.