The role of citizen in water resource assessment

This week’s blogpost will focus on the role of citizens in water resource assessment. Very often water resource assessments are carried out solely by experts (e.g. scientists and government employed consultants). This may lead to exclusion of local and often indigenous people in the process of decision making, rendering them on the receiving end of unwanted and negative impacts (examples). However, there have been successful cases of incorporating the local communities in the assessment of water resources. Not only did this allowed the contribution of local knowledge, it also empowered the locals in ways that have not been practiced before! Over the next few posts I will introduce examples of citizen science at work in the field of hydrology. This week, let’s focus on how the participatory monitoring programme in Tanzania has succeeded.

In Tanzania a large dam had been repeatedly proposed at Stiegler’s Gorge and it could have significant impacts on the floodplain lakes that support major socio-economic activities and livelihoods of the local communities (Figure1 and 2). This takes places against the backdrop of increasing dominance of developing countries such as China and Brazil in the water and hydropower industry in Africa (McDonald et al 2009). For example, in this BBC news article, it hints at China becoming the ‘Africa’s new colonial master’ as China infiltrates into industries ranging from cotton, shoe-making and construction of hydropower stations. According to Briscoe (2010), these emerging countries do not necessarily abide by the guidelines of World Commission on Dams (WCD) and pay less attention to the socio-economic and environmental needs of the locals.

 

Figure1. Map of the study area.

There are around 100,000 inhabitants likely to be affected by this development. Historically, during the wet season, the peak discharge allows the threshold that parts the lakes from the river (known as ‘Kingo’ Swahili) to be surpassed (Hamerlynck et al. 2011). However, with the proposed dam, the water source of the floodplain lakes will diminish. As the lakes provide income, drinking water and food source (fish) and are also of high cultural values with folklores that embed deeply in the spirituality of the locals (Duvial et al 2007), its socio-economic implications are significant. Furthermore, the adjacent forests which rely on the lakes are important biodiversity hotspot (Myer et al 2000) and provide fuelwood and wooden products for locals. With potential relinquished connectivity, little nutrients and organisms will be exchanged, further exacerbating the already deteriorating biodiversity.

In light of the potential impacts of the proposed dam on the wider communities and ecosystem, two approaches have been adopted to increase hydrological data collection. One is the use of sophisticated monitoring equipment (data loggers) funded 26.3 M$US by the Worldbank through the River Basin Management and Small-scale Irrigation Improvement Project (RBMSIIP) across 43 stations, the other is the implementation of a participatory monitoring system where locals are trained to do daily readings of stageboards across 8 sites. The study (Duvial et al 2013) shows the use of data logger have produced poor results of the while the data yielded from community efforts are much more consistent and of better quality. This is because there was a lack of funding for the maintenance and consistent download of data from the data logger while the latter through consistent workshops and feedbacks allowed efficient sharing of local and scientific knowledge. It informs both the locals and government of the significance of the flood and improved the relationships between the locals, local government and the national water ministry.

In sub-Saharan Africa, despite the increasing popularity of the IWRM concept, there remains a large gap that needs to be bridged between the theory and reality (Garcia 2008). One might wonder why this is the case. Well given that one of the main ethos of IWRM is to allow fair use of water resources, it follows that ‘equitable access to knowledge about the resource use options between different kinds of stakeholders’ is a prerequisite of IWRM. However in reality it is almost always the case that information is generated and shared asymmetrically, with powerful stakeholders such as the government, hydropower and commercial agriculture actors having the most data and information (Miranda et al 2011).  This case study shows by involving the less powerful stakeholders in the process of water resource assessment, a more just and equitable outcome is possible!

One small step towards ‘Integrated Water Resource Management’, one giant leap for the people in Tanzania indeed!