The introduction of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in the
early 1990s by international donors has led to some important new knowledge
about availability and uses of water resources in Tanzania. However, more needs
to be done to recognise the priorities of the rural majority of small-scale users,
and not just those of donors, the environmental lobby and foreign investors in
land and water. Greater efforts also need to be made by the basin offices to
regulate high-impact users, and to work with existing district and local government
structures that have developed and managed water to serve the rural majority since
independence, rather than create additional top-down parallel institutional layers.Norwegian Research Counci

Tarimo, A

Van Koppen, B

English

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ISSUE 76 • OCTOBER 2014
The introduction of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in the 
early 1990s by international donors has led to some important new knowledge 
about availability and uses of water resources in Tanzania. However, more needs 
to be done to recognise the priorities of the rural majority of small-scale users, 
and not just those of donors, the environmental lobby and foreign investors in 
land and water. Greater efforts also need to be made by the basin offices to 
regulate high-impact users, and to work with existing district and local government 
structures that have developed and managed water to serve the rural majority since 
independence, rather than create additional top-down parallel institutional layers. 
 Ensuring Integrated Water 
 Resource Management in 
Tanzania Benefits All
Introduction of IWRM in Tanzania
On the waves of Tanzania’s structural adjustment 
and economic liberalisation, the World Bank, 
Danish International Development Agency 
(DANIDA) and the Norwegian Agency for 
Development Cooperation (NORAD) introduced 
IWRM in the early 1990s. These and other 
international organisations formulated the 
Dublin Statement on Water and Sustainable 
Development in the same era, setting the 
stage for IWRM as the hegemonic water 
policy across the globe for decades to come. 
A revision of the national water policy and 
water law was a condition of the World Bank’s 
loan. The government swiftly added the ‘D’ of 
‘Development’ to IWRM&D to better reflect 
its main concern of developing water storage 
and infrastructure for growing rural and urban, 
hydropower, mining and industrial needs. The 
subsequent National Water Policy (2002) and 
Water Resources Management Act (2009) set 
out the IWRM approach envisaged for all nine 
basins demarcated in 1981. In the three basins 
where IWRM has been implemented, the pattern 
is the same. A basin office is opened. Basin studies 
and management plans are compiled. The basin 
office starts implementing the new permit-based 
taxation system to generate the revenue for the 
basin office’s functioning. The office reaches 
out to ‘all water users’ through the top-down 
establishment of catchment and sub-catchment 
councils and Water User Associations (WUAs) 
for small-scale users. This approach entails three 
challenges and setbacks for the rural majority of 
small-scale users. 
1. Basin studies
Externally financed basin studies generated unique 
weather, hydrological and water use information 
vital to government for the planning of potential 
infrastructure investments in the full range of 
growing water needs across the population. Yet 
questions were raised around the use of this 
information, even for the comprehensive and 
in-depth study by the Japanese International 
Cooperation Agency (JICA) on the Wami/Ruvu 
basin. There were also concerns about whether 
the basin studies reflected the government’s 
priorities or those of international financers. 
In the Pangani basin, NORAD prioritised the 
downstream hydropower plant they constructed. 
In the same basin the International Union for 
Conservation of Nature (IUCN) prioritised 
environmental concerns. In the Rufiji basin, the 
World Wildlife Fund (WWF) promoted nature 
conservation. Rufiji basin studies informed 
the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor 
of Tanzania initiative and enabled the USA to 
demarcate 22,000 hectares of prime agricultural 
land and related water sources for its estates, for 
which the Irrigation Division of the Department 
of Agriculture now designs the irrigation supplies. 
2. Misuse of permits
The German/British colonial water law imposed 
one legal system, permits (‘water rights’ at the 
time), which cancelled customary water law. 
After independence, the government only obliged 
large-scale investors and public water schemes to 
apply for a permit. Under IWRM, the World Bank 
both transformed permits into taxation tools and 
IDS POLICY BRIEFING ISSUE 76 • OCTOBER 2014 www.ids.ac.uk
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Further reading
Mehta, L.; Alba, R.; Bolding, A.; 
Denby, K.; Derman, B.; Hove, T.; 
Manzungu, E.; Movik,  S.; 
Prabhakaran, P. and van Koppen, 
B.. (2014) ‘The Politics of IWRM in 
Southern Africa’. International Journal 
of Water Resources Development 30:3 
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/079006
27.2014.916200
Tarimo, Andrew K.P.R., van 
Koppen, B. and Sumuni, P.M. 2014. 
Integrated Water Resources 
Management in Tanzania. IDS, 
Sokoine University of Agriculture, 
and International Water 
Management Institute.
van Koppen, B.; Sokile, C.S.; 
Hatibu, N.; Lankford, B.A.; Mahoo, 
H. and Yanda, P. (2007) ‘Water 
Rights and Water Fees in Rural 
Tanzania’, in F.Molle, R.Barker and 
J.Berkoff (eds), Between Prescription 
and Practice: Irrigation Water Pricing 
Policies in Context, Wallingford: 
CABI/Comprehensive Assessment. 
Credits
This IDS Policy Briefing was written 
by Barbara van Koppen and 
Andrew Tarimo. It is based on 
research conducted for the 
Tanzania component of the 
project Flows and Practices: 
The Politics of Integrated Water 
Resources Management (IWRM) in 
Africa funded by the Norwegian 
Research Council.
The authors gratefully acknowledge 
the contributions and comments 
by Hannah Corbett, Philip Sumuni 
and Lyla Mehta.
The opinions expressed are 
those of the author and do not 
necessarily reflect the views of  
IDS. Readers are encouraged to  
quote and reproduce material  
from the IDS Policy Briefing series.  
In return, IDS requests due 
acknowledgment and quotes to 
be referenced as above.
© Institute of Development Studies, 2014 
ISSN 1479-974X
Policy recommendations
The following recommendations outline ways in which the benefits of IWRM could 
be more equally distributed:
At national level 
• Focus consistently on ‘development’ and developing Tanzania’s abundant water 
resources for all its needs, not just those of international organisations or investors, and 
acknowledge that ‘water management’ is part and parcel of ‘water development’.
• Demystify the depoliticised priorities set by international organisations under a 
quasi-scientific ‘IWRM’ banner which seeks to curtail small-scale  irrigation.
• Articulate guiding principles on how high-impact users, especially big investors, 
should avoid disproportionate overuse and pollution; ensure benefits of water are 
shared across the population and assist in operationalising those guiding principles 
into the conditions of water use and waste discharge permits. 
• Recognise the water development and management mandate of local 
government authorities since independence.
At basin level
• Ensure that basin studies address the needs of line agencies, local government 
authorities and user associations, and that there is open access to findings.
• Prioritise regulation of high-impact users through permits. 
• Empower local government authorities to report, monitor and enforce permit 
conditions for these high-impact users.
• Stop organising water users primarily for the sake of revenue collection. 
• Revise permit-based taxation of small-scale users by ensuring that collection costs 
are less than revenue generated; that exemptions in general national taxation 
policies are reflected in water taxation; and that public financial support to small-
scale users is harmonised with imposing financial obligations on the same people.
At district level
• Harness lessons from local government’s water development and management 
and conflict resolution for the range of water needs, including its support to 
widespread traditional irrigation. 
• Facilitate conflict resolution and protection against big investors through one 
or more District Development Councils, aligned with land negotiations and 
upstream-downstream issues at stake. 
imposed nationwide implementation. An 
analysis of the data from the Wami/Ruvu 
basin office shows that the 30 largest 
registered users use 89 per cent of the 
volumes allocated, and the 930 other 
users access just 11 per cent. With such 
inequalities in water use, efforts to tax 
small-scale users are disproportionate, 
often leading to a net loss of revenue. Even 
less human and financial resources are 
left to regulate the 30 large-scale, often 
powerful users. To mitigate collection costs, 
basin offices seek to organise small-scale 
users into WUAs, mistakenly assuming that 
the mere purpose of revenue collection is 
sufficient ground for viable organisation.
3. Additional layers of governance
The intended creation of a new governance 
layer of catchment councils and WUAs 
formally sidelines rural district and local 
government structures which since 
independence have had the formal 
mandate to develop and manage water, 
as well as land, roads, energy and other 
relevant factors for water.
Participating institutions 
Lead Institution: Noragric 
(Norwegian University of Life 
Science)
Institute of Development Studies
International Water 
Management Institute
Norwegian Institute for Water 
Research (NIVA)
Sokoine University of Agriculture
University of Zimbabwe
Wageningen University 


Ensuring Integrated Water Resource Management in Tanzania Benefits All

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Ensuring Integrated Water Resource Management in Tanzania Benefits All

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