IWRM in Uganda – Progress after Decades of Implementation

Abstract

Uganda lies almost wholly within the Nile Basin and is a country characterised as well-endowed with water resources. Receiving considerable inflows of aid since the early 1990s, some of this aid emerging after the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro enabled the country to begin a process of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), taking the lead from Chapter 18 of Agenda 21. With a focus on more comprehensively managing the country's critical water endowment amidst growing pressure on the resource, bilateral technical assistance and financial support played a large part in backstopping these national efforts. Nevertheless, in spite of this support and government backing, some two decades later implementation on the ground remains thin and the exercise of IWRM in practice is limited. This paper examines the Ugandan IWRM experience and identifies complex political-economy issues lying at the heart of current challenges. It argues that rarely is there likely to be an easy fix to sustainable financing and suggests the need for stronger citizen engagement and buy-in to the wider logic of IWRM to support longer-term effectiveness and sustainability.

Not quite what’s on paper? Comparison between theoretical and actual information-sharing networks in the Ugandan rural water service sector

“…Ideally, the two are interconnected, with higher-level actors providing feedback on local-level information as well as sharing information about analyses done at a higher level (for example regarding water quality). In particular, in the CBM model, where water users are an integral part of the model, upward and downward information streams which include both citizens and water user committees are considered a necessary (although not sufficient) condition for addressing poor service delivery (see eg Nicol and Odinga 2016;Björkman and Svensson 2009;Honkalaskar et al 2014).…”

“…So far, the authors' analysis has focused only on the information-sharing network among official duty bearers (technical/administrative and political). However, in order to ensure the most efficient and effective information exchange network, information flows from the users of point water sources up to the level of district duty bearers also need to be studied (eg Nicol and Odinga 2016). This paper now moves on to assess the entire information chain, including citizens (water users) and water user committees (WUCs), as well as all duty bearers included in the previous analyses.…”

Transdisciplinary Learning Communities to Involve Vulnerable Social Groups in Solving Complex Water-Related Problems in Bolivia

“…Third, women should be considered as having an essential role in water management. Fourth, water holds an economic value and should be considered an economic good based on all the competing uses of this natural resource [12].…”

“…However, although IWRM is widely accepted as the best water management approach worldwide, the implementation is still a challenge in diverse contexts [8,12,17,[20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. Moss highlighted that the 'successful' examples of IWRM worldwide reflect diverse water problems and the objectives behind their solutions [18].…”

Water Resource Management: IWRM strategies for Improved Water Management. A Systematic Review of Case Studies of East, West and Southern Africa

“…Uganda latently adopted the IWRM strategy in 1992 [5]. Government of Uganda's efforts of liberalising the markets, opening democratic space and decentralising the country attracted donor funds that drove the IWRM strategy agenda.…”