This activity consists in developing surface- and ground-water resources. This is to be done in order to:

1. better the health and productivity of pastoralists;
2. serve ‘industrial and other purposes’.

COMMENTARY

A typical sectoral approach. This activity is a typical sectoral intervention in water development, based on the assumption that ‘the more water the better’, and thus on the understanding of water in isolation from its context of use (ecological, socio-political, economic).

Three oversights stand out for their magnitude:

1. there is no evident consideration of seasonality – i.e. of the seasonal variability of water needs – which is crucial to water management in pastoral areas;
2. there is no evident consideration of the link between water management and land management that is characteristic of pastoral areas, where regulating access to water also regulates access to land;
3. there is no evident consideration of the need to relate water development in pastoral areas with the core production strategy in pastoral systems: mobility. This is clearly crucial if, this time, water development interventions are aimed at supporting pastoralism.

c. Expand small, medium, and large irrigation developments (p.41) »