270 Scarcity and Surfeit
Land and natural resource managers have developed sensitive systems and
devised a number of methods to cope with resource scarcity and to mitigate
its impact on livelihoods. For example, pastoralists move livestock between
different key resource environments contingent on the availability of water
and pasture for grazing. Access to resources depends on collective 'rights'
that are consistently re-negotiated subject to social and ecological fluctua-
tions. These negotiations are delicate, and include tried methods for resolv-
ing competing claims.
However, the effectiveness of customary resource sharing systems is rarely
recognised by the current governments, nor by past governments, all of
whom were keen to increase the productivity of the land. In spite of con-
certed government and donor effort, poverty reduction and food security do
not appear achievable in the near future. There are serious structural con-
straints such as diminishing farm size and a lack of tenure security, as well
as an absence of an overall framework to coordinate planning. Short-term
needs of some sections of the population are overriding the longer-term
needs and strategies of others. The outcome is likely to be continued food
insecurity, increased environmental degradation, and perhaps, an increase in
resource conflict.
Although the present government has expressed a strong commitment to
rapid progress in the provision of safe water, particularly to the rural popu-
lation, the problems of doing so are massive. They require large, coordinated
and thoughtful investments that are based on the decision-making input of
local communities. As it stands, the development of water supplies will in the
best-case scenario merely keep up with population increase.
It is unclear what changes in patterns of rainfall distribution will occur in
the Horn of Africa and specifically in Ethiopia in the near and/or distant
future. It is certain, however, that the population will increase and, as agri-
culture intensifies, there will be an increasing demand for water. The
renewed emphasis on investment in irrigation and hydroelectric schemes is
promoted by growing demands. Oromiya state authorities recently declared
that 26 irrigation projects would begin in 2001, opening 2 054 hectares of
arable land for cultivation. At a national level, 13 dams are planned to gen-
erate power and irrigate a 590 000 hectare development project.
However, the development of water resources is constrained by a number
of factors. One is a persistent organisational problem within institutions
responsible for water development. Although the establishment of commis-
sions responsible for water, agriculture and environmental development and
rehabilitation at the regional levels helped to overcome organisational diffi-
culties, many regional governments lack the capacity to develop water
resources or to mediate between the different interests and parties involved.
In addition, the pace of developing appropriate technologies to harness water
resources, that are suited to the ecological nuances of Ethiopia, is slow. Most