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Sustainability of Water User Associations
Recent experience in west Africa has highlighted the difficulties to which Water user Associations (WUAs) are susceptible and which can result in them becoming unsustainable. These difficulties suggest that a blueprint approach to establishing WUAs is not feasible, and that it is specific local circumstances that provide the over-riding considerations in determining implementation arrangements and sustainability.
In The Gambia, in both the Jahaly and Pacharr Smallholder Development project and the Small-Scale water control project (077-GA and SRS-021-GA), WUAs have been difficult to establish and remain of limited effectiveness. The reasons for this are various, but include the reduced income produced by the rice crop (in comparisons with expectations at appraisal), the over-emphasis of the role of rice as one crop amongst many which can contribute to HFS and household incomes, and the difficulties experienced by farmers in adapting their traditional practices to advanced technology. In addition, membership of WUAs can conflict with traditional community organisations (Kafos). All these factors have conspired to give the operation of the WUAs a low priority for participants. By comparison, the WUAs formed in Ghana, in LACOSREP (the Upper Region Land Conservation and Smallholder Rehabilitation Project -SRS-026-GH) have been particularly successful. These WUAs have responsibility for the maintenance of the catchment areas, have a legal status and adequate project support. The main reasons for their success appear to be that these groups, which rely very heavily on the rehabilitated dam sites for their livelihoods in the dry season, now have reliable sources of income. The Ghana CPE attributed the success of the WUAs in LACOSREP to the development of easily recognised and valuable economic assets, which provided the participants with sustainable incomes in a situation where the only alternative was to migrate to seek employment. In addition these WUAs have been accepted and recognised by local traditional leaders.
It seems highly likely that the WUAs established in Ghana will prove sustainable, whilst for those in The Gambia, sustainability is not at all certain.
- Whilst WUAs can be an effective method of transferring operational control and maintenance responsibilities to participants, there is no single guaranteed formula for this process to work. The best approach is to involve participants early in the planning stages and to ensure that socio-economic assessments take full account of the probable criteria for the formation of WUAs which need to be applied under local circumstances.
- The incentives produced for participants from membership of the WUA need to be assessed in comparison to other available options; if the incentives are low, then obtaining the necessary commitment to ensure the sustainability of the association will be difficult.
- WUAs generally need considerable and sustained long term support (a) technically from the project and (b) from local institutions, both to become viable and to be recognised as responsible CBOs in their own right: this also needs to include an appropriate legal status.
References:
1. (The) Gambia - Jahaly and Pacharr Smallholder Development Project, 077-GA R077GACE, Completion Evaluation, 1994.
2. (The) Gambia - Small-Scale Water Control Project, SRS-021-GA% S021GAAE, Mid-Term Evaluation, 1995.
3. Ghana - Country Portfolio Evaluation, CPE96%CESGH96E, IFAD, 1996.
4. Ghana - Upper-East Region Land Conservation and Smallholder Rehabilitation Project, SRS-026-GH
