water governance actors in southern africa
Accessing the Water of the Sabie River in the Heart of a Protected Area A Fragile Balance Between Guaranteeing Residents’ Rights and Limiting their Movements
Nicolas Verhaeghe Nicolas Verhaeghe is a doctoral student in geography at the Paris Nanterre University in the MosaĂŻques laboratory - UMR LAVUE 7218 CNRS. He has conducted his research around user strategies for accessing the resources of the Sabie River (South Africa) since 2017. His work is supervised by David Blanchon (professor in geography at the University of Tucson) and Magalie Bourblanc (political scientist at CIRAD).
Abstract Based on extracts from field visits and interviews stemming from two periods of doctoral research, this article looks at the macro and micro dynamics of access to water at the Sabie River, in an area where the river constitutes the border between a protected area, i.e. the Kruger National Park, and the inhabited and cultivated areas of a former Bantustan. From the two South African riverbanks, the article examines the point of view of the different users (administrators of the protected area, Ministries in charge of agriculture, farmers and residents) so as to understand the interests of all parties, and examines the methods used by residents and farmers to physically access the river. We will show that a determining element of water access, is the installation of a veterinary fence on the north banks of the Sabie River which, as a result, shuts the watercourse in within the protected area. While their primary objective is to limit the propagation of epizootic diseases, these enclosures also make it possible to filter and monitor the access of riparian populations to the park territory, by limiting access to around fifty gates.These gates, which are installed within the enclosure, allow residents to access the river for their specific needs (often irrigation needs) and to guarantee the use of their water rights.While the gate creation and maintenance system allows some flexibility, as well as the frequent assistance of the government to farmers, paradoxically it seems to reinforce the fragility of access to water.With the explosion of poaching, issues around monitoring the health risk by limiting the movement of populations and domestic herds, combine with issues related to monitoring the territory of the protected area by security services. From this follows a risk of limiting access to water, which is in contradiction with the objective of opening up to neighbouring communities, as recently promoted by the administrators of the protected area. Keywords: access to water; water rights; conservation; irrigation; protected area; watercourse
Lesedi #22 | Carnets de terrain | IFAS-Recherche | Octobre 2020
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