The availability of water is of prime importance in the arid and semi-arid rangelands, not only for herd productivity but also for the survival of the pastoralists themselves. Ownership of and user rights to wells and water points are at least as important to herders as rights to grazing lands. Water is thus a crucial basic requirement for all users of rangelands. For example, in the Kidal Food and Income Security Programme in Mali, water conservation measures were only a minor aspect of planned programme activities. However, in the aftermath of the Touareg rebellion, when the programme was forced to resettle ten times more refugees than originally foreseen, the borehole construction initiative became one of its major achievements. Local water resources for drinking water supply, vegetable gardening and watering points for cattle were developed.

In short, the improvement of water resources may have a significant impact on nomadic pastoralists. Methods of increasing water availability include:

• construction of wells, pumps, canals, boreholes, tanks, cisterns, reservoirs, water yards, dams and water-harvesting systems;
• rehabilitation and provision for the upkeep of the above; and
• promotion of more equitable arrangements for sharing the available water and water transport facilities.

As the development of water points may encourage increased use of the surrounding lands, conventional wisdom dictates that environmental destruction could ensue. However, IFAD has collaborated with researchers who have demonstrated that assumptions regarding environmental degradation may not be accurate. Thus, IFAD’s goal of incorporating the findings of cutting-edge research into both new and existing projects and programmes has, in this case, led to better protection of rangeland landscapes and of the livelihoods of range-users.

The provision of new sources of water will tend to change pastoralists’ patterns of migration between dry and wet season grazing. This may initiate conflicts as pastoralists move into new districts and unbalance the local ecosystem, and as traditional dry season grazing areas begin to be used all year round. For example, in IFAD’s Western Savannah Development Project — Phase II in The Sudan, 60 water yards were rehabilitated or constructed and 30 water tanks erected or replaced. However, the completion evaluation report points out that more careful planning of water development might have improved land use at the regional level.

With the development of new infrastructure, project implementers have voiced two primary concerns. First, the siting of inputs is often contentious. Given community-level power relations, there is often scope for inequity. For example, the mid-term evaluation of the Livestock and Pasture Development Project in the Eastern Region in Morocco reported that large herders had a tendency to monopolize public water points. Large herd owners often had access to vehicles and were able to transport their animals from place to place so as to make best use of new water points, even though many had their own wells. Lessons learned from grazing management may be also applied to water points. For example, new projects should support the legal framework necessary to apply incremental taxes to water users. In addition, the potential for conflict over the new resource is high, but with the institution of community-controlled cooperatives or herders’ associations (as in the aforementioned Livestock and Pasture Development Project in the Eastern Region in Morocco), conflict may be attenuated.

Relevant IFAD Projects