PANGANI BASIN WATER BOARD

C The socio-economy of the
Pangani River Basin
C.1 Overview
There are an estimated 3.7 million people in the PRB, 80% of whom rely, either directly or indirectly,
on agriculture for their livelihoods. 90% of the Basin’s population live in its upper parts. This settlement
concentration yields population densities of up to 300 people per km 2 . In the highland areas of Kilimanjaro
there are some 900 people per km 2 with average farm holdings of just 0.2 ha per household. In lowland
areas at the same time, there were only 65 people per km 2 , and each household farmed an average area
of 10.4 ha. (Lein, 2002).
The Basin’s urban and industrial economies are not sufficiently large to absorb this labour force. As a
result, its burgeoning population seeks livelihoods in agriculture, a large part of which is irrigated. As the
number of claims on water increase, so too do the number of conflicts. Demands for access to water are
symptomatic of wider demands for access to a whole variety of resources, including land, forest products,
pasture, mineral deposits and, ultimately, livelihoods. A livelihood may be described as follows:
“...a means of securing a living...Encompassed in a livelihood is the totality of resources, activities
and products which go to securing a living. It relies on ownership of, or access to products or
income-generating activities. A livelihood is measurable in terms of both stocks – that is the
reserves and assets – and the flows of food and cash” (Conway and Barbier, 1990: 117).
The notion of access to resources is the most important factor in determining whether or not the pursuit
of a livelihood is successful (cf. Ellis, 2000). It follows, then, that where a resource on which a community
relies becomes scarce, then access to it is curtailed. As resources become ever more scarce, then the
measures that people will adopt to try and procure resources may become increasingly more desperate,
and more difficult for the resource concerned to sustain. This trend may then reach a point where the
pursuit of livelihoods actually starts to undermine the ability of a resource to regenerate itself.
A factor that serves to amplify the problems associated with livelihood claims is if the resources
involved are Common Property Resources (CPRs). These are resources that share two fundamental
characteristics: (a) they are ‘subtractable’. The subtraction of a unit of water upstream yields a unit less
of water downstream. Equally, a fisherman landing 100 kg of fish ensures that there is 100 kg less fish for
others to catch. (b) It is difficult or impossible to ‘fence off’ CPRs. ‘Fencing off’ metaphorically refers to the
serious problems of policing CPRs. Due to their nature, CPRs (such as oceans, the atmosphere or river
courses) cannot be fenced off. They are also remarkably difficult to monitor and police. CPRs, therefore,
are best managed in common, with inputs by all users. If such a communal style of management is
absent, CPRs are very vulnerable to becoming ‘open-access’, in which patterns of exploitation are
characterised as ‘free-for-all’, with resources users taking more than is necessary today for fear that
they may gain nothing tomorrow. Such patterns of exploitation are characterised with very high levels
of competition between users, and any intrinsic worth associated with resource conservation is typically
disregarded. When resources are exploited in such a fashion, the ‘tragedy of the commons’ is often said
to have occurred, and the demise of the resource is fairly certain.
To varying degrees, and depending on resource type, many of the PRB’s resources display open-access
traits and serious livelihood difficulties. The relationships that characterise the exploitation of the Basin’s
resources are often characterised as conflicting. To simplify and clarify these difficulties, this chapter
considers the interests of the Basin’s various economic interests, starting with its industrial interests that
include electricity generation, and then going on to consider the largest part of the Basin’s economy, its
agriculture. Other interests are also considered in turn, and the Chapter culminates with an assessment
of the conflicts that characterise exploitation in this Basin.
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