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Improving Rural Livelihoods in Semi-Arid Regions Through Management of Micro-Catchments
By P.G.H. Frost and A.Mandondo
Price: [Z$80]
This paper reviews some of the issues that need to be considered in external
initiatives aimed at improving rural livelihoods and alleviating poverty in semi-arid
areas of Zimbabwe through promoting enhanced community-based management
of common-pool resources. Particular emphasis is given to the requirements for
communal management of micro-catchments in the context of securing both the
yield and quality of water delivered by surface and sub-surface flow to productive
water points (PWPs). These PWPs can be collector wells, conventional wells and
boreholes, or dams and weirs. Their key feature is that he water is used primarily
for irrigating market gardens, or folder crops for dairy cattle, or for some other
incom
e-generating activity. The hypothesis is advanced that the presence of a
PWP is an entry point to initiating a broader range of community-based
management initiatives intended to optimize the use of common-pool resources
in the catchments of these productive water points.
The review first examines some key biophysical and socio-economic features of rural communities in the semi-arid regions of southern Zimbabwe, to identify the main
constraints and opportunities that shape the current livelihood strategies of the
people living in this area. This is followed by an analysis of the tenurial and
institutional contexts within which any attempts at collective management and
use of common-pool resources must function. Options for the management of
water and other resources in the micro-catchments of PWPs are then considered.
The review ends with some thoughts on how an integrated approach to
micro-catchment management must be achieved
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