Formal Water Rights in Rural Tanzania: Deepening the Dichotomy?

Abstract

"In the past decade, the Tanzanian Government designed and implemented a new administrative water rights system, with the aim of improving basin-level water management and cost-recovery for government water-resource management services. Contrary to expectations, the new system has failed as a registration tool, a taxation tool, and a water management tool, and has also contributed to aggravating rural poverty. However, the taxation of a the few private large-scale water users, according to negotiated rates, appeared to be feasible. The paper attempts to identify the root of these paradoxical results, and suggests adaptations in the water rights system to better service all users, and improve cost-recovery for government services."