'The guiding principle of the Nile Basin Initiative is to look beyond national boundaries to ways of optimising and sharing equitably the benefits available to all through better water management, allocation and use.'

Project Briefing looking at the important opportunities offered by the Harmonisation and Alignment (H&A) agenda for the water sector. Key points:

• The Harmonisation and Alignment (H&A) agenda offers important opportunities for the water sector.
• The sector’s progress towards H&A remains piecemeal – with substantial differences between countries and within the water supply, water resources management and sanitation sub-sectors.
• Future efforts in H&A need to reach down to decentralised levels of government, in tandem with strengthening implementation capacity.

Investigates whether a Demand-Responsive Approach (DRA), which brings water users into the process of selecting, implementing and, ultimately, financing the long term delivery of water services, can be made to address broader poverty reduction concerns.

This chapter examines the Nile and Okavango basins in a comparative manner. Central issues raised include the aspect of scale, not only in terms of actual numbers, but also in terms of political complexity. The teleology of water scarcity and conflict is refuted, with the discourse of cooperation providing the main backdrop to the chapter. Because cooperation is about changing paradigms from water-sharing to benefit-sharing, the case is made that transboundary rivers challenge sovereignty and independent national development priorities – the main theme of this book. Two significant common aspects in both the Nile and the Okavango are the attempts to ‘enhance’yield by manipulating wetlands through dredging, and the issues raised by post-conflict reconstruction. Both basins contain wetlands of major proportions, which make them interesting case studies when considering river basins comparatively.

The 4th article by Alan Nicol and Sobona Mtisi 'Politics and Water Policy: A Southern Africa Example' examines the politics surrounding water resources and policy changes in southern Africa.

This paper examines the institutions governing access to borehole water in two wards in Sangwe communal area in Chiredzi District, Zimbabwe. One ward has had a long history of external intervention, while the other ward has relatively few boreholes. The study examined the contrasting institutional dynamics that have evolved, particularly around borehole committees as a result of the community based approach to water management promoted in recent years. In both sites questions can be raised about the sustainability of such decentralised resource management institutions, particularly as many richer members of the 'community' have no investment in the community sources as they increasingly have access to private water supplies. This paper concludes with a discussion of the challenges of 'community' management approaches in the context of high levels of social and economic differentiation and options of private access to resources.

The western lowlands of Eritrea have suffered years of conflict, displacement and resource degradation. What happens when refugees return and what sort of pressures do they place on the environment? How effectively can government respond, and how might planning decisions be made more effective? This research with the South Bank University (London), and Eritrean government and private sector partners undertook fieldwork in the period just after the recent Eritrean-Ethiopian border war had ended. The results are in the process of publication and indicate important lessons for decision makers in similar situations in the Horn of Africa and elsewhere.

Drought is a recurring event in Africa. The ongoing 2002-03 drought, affecting large swathes of eastern and southern Africa, is not exceptional. For many, drought is associated with food insecurity: rains fail; crops wither; food supplies dwindle; entitlement to food declines and people go hungry. The response, on the part of government and donors, is typically food aid ‘to save lives’. Yet food insecurity is not the only concern during drought, and is not an isolated concern. One of the principal aims of this report – a synthesis of over four years research – is to show how livelihoods are affected by declining access to food and water, with access to both linked in a number of important ways. Implications for policy – to protect livelihoods before lives are threatened – are highlighted.

See also: Ethiopia water map

ODI is provided social development input into the project (Alan Nicol). How can communities become managers of the groundwater resources which they use? What are the key challenges and assumptions involved in managing the resource and what are the critical linkages with the policy and institutional environment in India? This project collaborated with a range of government and non-government institutions in India. For further information visit the British Geological Survey project page. Funding: DFID KAR