Water Rights and the Processes of Negotiations among Irrigators in West Shewa Zone: The Case of Indris Scheme in Toke Kutaye District Tesfaye Zeleke Axum University [email protected] Abstract Conflicts in connection to irrigation water use and rights that have escalated over Though water rights are at the core of exploiting water resources for irrigation Years have been attributed to the decline in purposes, trivial concerns were offered to the the volume of water resources, institutional case of Indris irrigation scheme in Toke failures to address the causes adequately, Kutaye district in West Shewa. The historical week observance on governing water right background and development of the scheme rules and increasing demand of users. As a has been presented in a contentious manner. result, negotiation processes aiming to settle The augmenting number of competitors too disputes were repeatedly initiated either by paved the way for conflicts that recurrently users, committee members (elders) or courts. erupt out and inevitably lead to a succession The procedures pursed to narrow competing of negotiation processes. With the inception interests around the scheme confirmed the of such missing gaps, this research aimed to pragmatic applicability of the central scrutinize water rights and the processes of arguments of both cyclical and negotiations among irrigators along Indris developmental models of negotiation modern scheme, in Toke Kutaye district. To processes discussed comprehensively by maintain this objective, qualitative research Gulliver. methods were predominantly utilized as the main data generating tools in the field. Thus, in the face of increasing demands on a declining water resource, the findings of this The findings of the research depicted that research revealed out that concerned Indris scheme marked three significant individuals or relevant institutions need to phases in its historical development. In these exert further endeavor on the formulation of phases, explorations pertaining to water water policies that clearly stipulate specific rights and processes of negotiations were irrigation water entitlements of users. found to be at their immature ground. While Enforcements on the frame of references set the elements of the riparian doctrine of water on the water manual need to be rigorously rights preponderated during its initial phase, checked on practical implementations. the components of appropriative doctrine Awareness buildings on irrigation water right pronounced more at its middle age. A mix of claims, promotion of negotiated approaches ingredients from both doctrines interwoven in disputes and accentuation on customary with certain extra requirements determined rules of resource use constituted the the water right access of users since the dimensions seeking meticulous conversion of the scheme into a modern considerations in prospect. style. Multiple water right rules emanating both from the customary and formal water Introduction. acts have co-existed to direct the actions of users. In this regard, the theoretical Ethiopia being predominantly an agricultural orientations of legal pluralism in water right country, half of the GDP, close to 90% of paradigms proved to coincide with the export earnings and about 85% of people's pragmatic contexts of water users from the livelihood sources has come from agriculture scheme. (CRDA, 1994:20). Irrigated agriculture, complementary to the conventional rain-fed agriculture, has a history of more than one century in some parts of the country 323 (Dessalegn, 1999: 10; Woldeab, 2003:25). permanently use or transfer to the other Some indigenous schemes are said to have party. The third dimension hold a concern existed since the reign of Menelik II with the competing nature of users over (National Irrigation Policy Discussion Paper, irrigation water, associated conflicts and the 1990:2). successive chains of negotiation processes held to evade disputes. All the The impulse to promote irrigation schemes aforementioned dimensions have not been has been triggered by the recurrently investigated around Indris modern irrigation occurring droughts and worsened food scheme located in Toke Kutaye district of insecurity situations (FAO, 2005). Tsegaye West Shewa Zone. (1991:2) elicited though irrigation developments were taken to be among Therefore, the main objective of the paper is optional mechanisms to cope up with the to examine water rights and the processes of prevailing poverty conditions, productivity negotiations among irrigators diverting water through such systems has failed to meet the from Indris scheme located in Toke Kutaye anticipated targets being constrained by district of West Shewa Zone. It also multiple factors. Studies by Mokonnen specifically looks at: (1992; FAO,1978; Lemma,1994) for ¾ The stages in the historical instance indicated, mismanagement of background and development of irrigation practices could result in the Indris modern scheme. problem of disputes, soil salinity, water ¾ The nature of water rights and logging, canal seepage and expose people to processes of negotiations prior to various diseases. and post of 1986 E.C. ¾ The rules and by-laws that govern In West Shewa Zone of Oromiya regional water use rights, distribution and state where this research endeavored to management aspects. scrutinize water rights and the processes of ¾ How decisions and negotiations negotiations, several irrigation schemes have been made for water access and operate both in indigenous manner and rights in light with interactive factors application of modern irrigation like gender, economic status and technologies. Indris modern irrigation power. scheme is among the scaled up ones and ¾ The significances of water right located at a distance of 2 Km south of Guder negotiations for users (in relation to town. Initially, the scheme had been livelihood improvement). operating in an indigenous manner. It was ¾ Highlight conflict settlement promoted into modern system completely in mechanisms adopted by water users. 1986 E.C by the financial assistance of European Economic Commission. To address the above stated objectives and keep narrow the missing gaps in the three Despite access to water rights and processes thematic dimensions noticed around the of negotiations over irrigation water scheme, a qualitative research method was constrain the development of the practice in employed to gather first hand data. Hence, several regards; these concepts have been interviews, observations, and focus group overlooked greatly by scholars or any other discussions constituted principal methods in relevant institutions. In the case of this the field work. The application of all these particular paper, problems stemming from methods makes it easier to triangulate and three dimensions are apparent and do cross verify the generated data. To visualize override in connection to Indris modern certain themes with deeper insights at their irrigation scheme. On the first place, naturalistic settings in the field, photography insignificant searches have been made on the has also been used. As a whole, 53 (fifty historical development of the scheme. Even three) persons were contacted fro interviews the prevailing data regarding its historical and 21(twenty-one) individuals took part in background were not only scanty but also the focus group discussions. presented in a contentious way among the water users themselves. Secondly, what rests Secondary sources including books, journals, at the core of each resource exploitation research papers and official records were constitutes issues of the right to hold it reviewed to substantiate the data obtained 324 through primary means. preponderate instead of it. As a result, the water flowing through the ditches blocked Thus, the primary data interpreted in this back to the main river. research was generated through a field work that covered a period of time ranging As computed against its years of foundations between March 06-07-1999 E.C and April (legendary sources trace back as far as to the 03-08-1999 E.C over 30 days. Preceding the last decade of 19th century), the over all main field work, preliminary field visits were social and physical infrastructures of the made twice during the months of December district in general and Guder in particular and January 1999 E.C. At that state, legality require an enthusiastic need of integrated to field entry and creation of rapports with efforts. It was reported that sectors like district agricultural workers and few education, health, water supply and committee members were assured. On the sanitation, and communication are first preliminary field visit, the surroundings components that demonstrated encouraging of Indris modern scheme was observed. In progresses. the second round, the potential research settings were marked out and visited. Figures pertaining to the population number of the district should be looked suspiciously. Description of the Study Settings. This is because no consistent census has been conducted since the separation of this Toke Kutaye district constituted one of the district from Ambo. Any how, following the 21 Weredas in west Shewa Zone. It is a separation, the Economic Planning and newly established district for administrative Development bureau of Toke Kutaye district purposes being as a sub division of Ambo has initiated a sort of pilot assessment to district. Guder, some 12 kilometers west of estimate the total population. Based on the Ambo town, serves as the