Clarifying roles of water institutions
What are the roles and responsibilities of various water-related institutions? Who decides who will get what water, when and how? Ownership or the right to use a resource means power and control. The various roles and responsibilities, such as those encapsulated in legislation on water rights and ownership many times have a complex relationship with water governance. How property rights are defined, who benefits from these rights and how they are enforced are all central issues that many times need further clarification in current water policies and legislations.
The establishment of well-defined and coherent roles and responsibilities, such as through legislation of formal and informal water rights, leads to a number of social, economic and environmental benefits:
- It promotes equitable water use between existing user groups. It can also facilitate improved access to water by groups that previously have been denied formal or informal water rights.
- It improves the efficiency of existing water supply allocations. For example, those requiring additional water resources, such as growing cities, can increasingly meet their needs by acquiring the water rights of those who are using water for low value purposes.
- It provides a basis for improving hydrological data and information to manage the resource more effectively.
- It increases willingness to take economic risks for investing in improved water management and practices in both rural and urban contexts and thus impacting positively on productive livelihood opportunities. It can also reduce the pressure on water resources as it is likely that those with water rights have incentives for sustaining water.
Insecurity of water rights, mismatches between formal legislation and informal customary water rights, and an unequal distribution of water rights are frequent sources of conflict. Improving them can lead to better water decision making.
