T8: Water Tenure Health, , Land and Water Days in Near East & North Africa, 15-18 December 2013, Amman, Jordan

1. Water tenure
Water tenure is the relationship, whether formally or customarily defined between
people, as individuals or groups, with respect to water resources.
Put another way water tenure is similar to land tenure. Just as people and
communities have all kinds of overlapping and inter-linked relationships relating to
the use of land (such as ownership rights, lease rights, use rights, customary rights,
rights of way, mortgages and on) they also have a wide range of different
relationships with water resources (both surface and ground water).
These include:
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formal water use rights recognised in a water law. Traditionally linked to land
tenure rights such rights are now more commonly created on the basis of
licences or permits that confer legal security on users;
small scale or de mininis uses of water which are usually exempted from a water
rights regime. No need to obtain a permit but no legal protection/security either;
irrigation water is often supplied to farmers by a third party such as an irrigation
agency or water user association. The right of a farmer is not only to a share of
available water but also the service of delivering that water;
customary or local law rights to use water resources, which may or may not be
long-established, regulate the uses of water in a given place;
informal or illegal uses of water resources, the water equivalent of ‘squatters’,
are as much a socio-economic issue as a legal problem;
livelihood rights that are entirely dependant on the availability of water
resources including inland fishing, navigation and the harvesting of wetland
resources but which are typically not regulated by water laws and policies
meaning that such uses of water have no legal protection;
spiritual, aesthetic and recreational claims on water resources are a nonconsumptive use of water but no less important for that; and
environment/rights of future generations the environment, with all of the
ecological services that it provides, is another key use of water.
Although we do not typically talk about ‘water tenure’ it is clear that water tenure, in
the form of these different types of relationship, exists. Moreover in practice it is
water tenure that is the fundamental concern of individual water users: ‘will I get my
water’?
Exercise: Mapping tenure and a ‘health check’ of water tenure
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2. Step 1: Mapping water tenure arrangements in your country
COUNTRY_______________
MAPPING OF WATER TENURE
Yes/No
Is there a system of formal water use
rights
Example: formal permits issued under the water
law
Does the water law exempt small scale or
de mininis uses
Example: exemption for watering household plots,
livestock, etc.?
What individual and/or collective legal
rights to farmers have on irrigation
schemes to irrigation water?
Example: long terms legally binding water supply
contracts
Does customary or local law regulate
access and use of water locally or
nationally?
Example: Islamic law, locally evolved rules for
water sharing and allocation (e.g. qanats)
Are there informal or unregulated uses of water?
Are these uses considered to be illegal uses?
Example: unregulated groundwater abstractions,
attempts to regulate using criminal administrative
law, …
Do people depend on water for their livelihood
rights
Example: fishing on rivers and canals, navigation
and the harvesting of reeds, wetland resources
Are rivers, lakes and streams considered to have
spiritual, aesthetic and recreational values?
Example: e.g. tourism, religious practices,…
Is
provision
made
for
environmental
services/rights of future generations?
Example:
minimum
environmental
flows,
ecological or water quality standards
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Comments/Questions

3. Step 2: Health check on water tenure
“The hypothesis is that secure, sustainable and equitable water tenure
arrangements are fundamental both to effective water governance and good water
management”. Examples: to encourage investments, to prevent conflict, to secure
livelihoods, to protect the resource base and give people a real stake in the
resource.
The purpose of this ‘health check’ is a quick and dirty first attempt to try and
evaluate the relative “health” of different types of tenure arrangements
NOTE: THIS “HEALTH CHECK” EXERCISE IS CONCERNED WITH HOW THINGS ARE IN
PRACTICE, THAT IS DOCUMENTING HOW THINGS ARE RATHER THAN HOW THINGS
SHOULD BE E.G. IN FORMAL LAWS AND POLICIES.
Security: factors to be taken into account for each type of tenure arrangement on
security of tenure include the following: a) formal legal security, but also security in
practice (how secure people feel that their tenure in each type e.g. fisheries,
irrigation, etc.. is. For example local or customary law might give more security in
practice than formal law if it is implemented; b) quantity of water available as a
share or volume of the flow; c) quality of the water; d) how decisions are made to
temporarily re-allocate water in times of drought or water shortage and e) do people
feel they have security. NOTE: Feel free to add from your perspective and/or
experience other relevant factors that might impact security of tenure. Also feel free
to document examples of security or insecurity of tenure.
Equity: equity means fairness. Factors to be taken into account for each type of
tenure arrangement that impact on equity of tenure. For example a) are the systems
fair; b) are there mechanisms in place for allocation and re-allocation; c) there are
priorities established between uses; d) decisions made in a participatory way. NOTE:
Feel free to add from your perspective and/or experience other relevant factors that
might impact security of tenure. Also feel free to document examples of fairness or
unfairness.
Sustainability: are the current arrangements sustainable in economic, social and
environmental. If we do nothing, are we going to have more security, equity and
more sustainability? Do we have a safe relationship with water? Factors to be taken
into account for each type of tenure arrangement that impact on sustainability
include the following. Factors to be taken into account here refer to: a) in stream
flows, b) the long term viability of the whole system, etc. Please feel free to come up
with examples of sustainability. Feel free to add from your perspective and/or
experience other relevant factors that might impact security of tenure. Also feel free
to document examples of sustainability or unsustainability.
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4. WATER TENURE HEALTH CHECK:
Please assess each type of tenure arrangement in terms of security, equity and
sustainability
Formal water rights
Factors to be taken into account. Use Examples if needed
Security
SCORE
Score 0 1 2 3 4 5
(0 unsecure and 5 highly secure)
Equity
Score 0 1 2 3 4 5
(0 unequitable and 5 highly equitable)
Sustainability
Score 0 1 2 3 4 5
(0 unsustainable and 5 highly sustainable)
De minimis small-scale uses
Factors to be taken into account. Use Examples if needed
Security
SCORE
Score 0 1 2 3 4 5
(0 unsecure to 5 highly secure)
Equity
Score 0 1 2 3 4 5
(0 unequitable and 5 highly equitable)
Sustainability
Score 0 1 2 3 4 5
(0 unsustainable and 5 highly sustainable)
Irrigation water
Factors to be taken into account. Use Examples if needed
Security
SCORE
Score 0 1 2 3 4 5
(0 unsecure to 5 highly secure)
Equity
Score 0 1 2 3 4 5
(0 unequitable and 5 highly equitable)
Sustainability
Score 0 1 2 3 4 5
(0 unsustainable and 5 highly sustainable)
Informal/illegal uses
Factors to be taken into account. Use Examples if needed
Security
SCORE
Score 0 1 2 3 4 5
(0 unsecure to 5 highly secure)
Equity
Score 0 1 2 3 4 5
(0 unequitable and 5 highly equitable)
Sustainability
Score 0 1 2 3 4 5
(0 unsustainable and 5 highly sustainable)
Non-consumptive livelihood rights
Factors to be taken into account. Use Examples if needed
Security
SCORE
Score 0 1 2 3 4 5
(0 unsecure to 5 highly secure)
Equity
Score 0 1 2 3 4 5
(0 unequitable and 5 highly equitable)
Sustainability
Score 0 1 2 3 4 5
(0 unsustainble and 5 highly sustainable)
Environment
Factors to be taken into account. Use Examples if needed
Security
SCORE
Score 0 1 2 3 4 5
(0 unsecure to 5 highly secure)
Equity
Score 0 1 2 3 4 5
(0 unequitable and 5 highly equitable)
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5. Sustainability
Score 0 1 2 3 4 5
(0 unsustainable and 5 highly sustainable)
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