Lost in Translation: State Policies and Micro-politics of Water Governance in Namibia

Abstract

Water governance in rural Namibia has profoundly changed since the early 1990s. After independence and in accordance with global environmental policies, it became a central theme of Namibia's environmental legislation to transfer the responsibility for managing natural resources to local user associations. In this article, I explore the emergence of new social forms at the intersection of existing cultural models and new rationalities for governance. Doing so combines an analysis of state legislation with the micro-politics of water governance in 60 pastoral communities. The ethnographic analysis reveals that different actors, including state bureaucrats as well as rich and poorer herd owners, have different understandings of how to share water. While the poorer often agree with the state policy that water is an economic good and should be paid for accordingly, only in about half of the communities do corresponding institutional regimes emerge. Using critical institutionalism as a theoretical guide, I offer a contribution to understanding how more than 20 years after Rio local institutions of resource governance emerge at the intersection of different, and often heterogeneous and intertwined, social fields.

The Life of Winds: Knowing the Namibian Weather from Someplace and from Noplace

“…Fransfontein is a community of about 150 households 450 kilometers northwest of the Namibian capital Windhoek (Figure ). The communal pastures surrounding Fransfontein are dotted with small settlements (Pauli ; Schnegg , , ) where inhabitants live a pastoral life. The majority consider themselves to be Damara people ( ǂnūkhoen in Khoekhoegowab, which translates to “black people”) .…”

The Story of Water in Windhoek: A Narrative Approach to Interpreting a Transdisciplinary Process

“…The Ministry of Agriculture, Water, and Forestry (MAWF), the Namibia Water Corporation (NamWater) and the CoW are the main institutions governing the supply of water to Windhoek. Established in 1997, NamWater introduced a full cost recovery approach to water supply services [28]. The apartheid era Water Act 54 of 1956 is still in force because the regulations of the Water Resource Water Management Act of 2004 and 2013 have not yet been promulgated, resulting in a policy vacuum in the water sector.…”

“…The latter policy took over from the Water and Sanitation Policy (WASP) of 2003. In 1993, influenced by Agenda 21, the WASP policy declared "water is an economic good and all consumers shall contribute for water supply services" [28] (p. 248).…”

Travelling models of participation: Global ideas and local translations of water management in Namibia

“…Although Ostrom has repeatedly called for caution in generally applying these principles to specific cases, the proposed explanations have been taken as solutions to craft institutions of resource governance in the global South (Ostrom 2005(Ostrom , 2009Saunders 2010). In Namibia's water management manuals, all eight principles find corresponding regulations (Linke 2015;Schnegg and Linke 2015;Schnegg 2016a;.…”

“…Beginning in the 1990s the implementation of CBNRM led to a drastic reconfiguration of the organizational and institutional landscapes around rural water points (Barnes et al 2002;Davis 2008;Falk et al 2009;Silva and Mosimane 2013;Bollig and Menestrey Schwieger 2014;Menestrey Schwieger 2015;Schnegg 2016a). A shift toward self-governance meant turning ownership and responsibility of the borehole infrastructure over to local user groups.…”