Common Property Management of Water in Botswana

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Date

1985

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Abstract

"This is a study of the use and management of small dams built under the Botswana Ministry of Agriculture's 1974 dam policy. The Ministry's previous strategy of building large dams (without prior consultation with local residents) was felt to have encouraged overstocking, overgrazing, and improper dam maintenance. The 1974 policy of constructing smaller dams to be managed by groups who before construction agreed to stock limitations and management requirements was to prevent this. The groups would have the right to use the dam if they abided by the conditions of the initial agreement. By 1980 this policy was considered a failure; the dams, overstocked and overgrazed; and group management, nonexistent. Much of this alleged failure was laid at the doorstep of people meeting their water sources as if they were open-access ones, free for all to abuse. The case study will show otherwise."

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Keywords

water resources, common pool resources, dams, resource management, grazing, institutional analysis, Oakerson framework

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