Planning of Waterpoint Provision

The provision by external agencies of year-round water, usually by borehole, can have negative environmental impacts through localised overgrazing within a short radius of the borehole, sometimes referred to as a "zone of sacrifice". There is some controversy on whether this must necessarily be regarded as a problem; one view is that non-equilibrium environments with long dry-seasons and high variability of rainfall can tolerate a high ratio of "zones of sacrifice" to total rangeland area, enabling more sustainable grazing over a larger area. Water development for livestock in equilibrium grazing systems should use short-term and seasonal water sources, such as dams, open wells and catchment ponds. Where the drilling of boreholes is widespread and unplanned, and in particular where it is highly subsidised, as in parts of Botswana, negative environmental impacts can be great.

Some general policy principles regarding planning of boreholes and other water supply for livestock in arid and semi-arid environments are as follows:

- Recurrent subsidies on borehole operation should be avoided in nearly all cases.
- Capital subsidies should be treated very critically, and only given where both environmental and local-level institutional conditions suggest that negative impacts will not occur.
- Opportunities to create permanent water sources should be reviewed in as participatory a manner as possible to determine what specific needs they address and what grazing patterns they will give rise to
- Following such study, borehokes sitig should be carefully planned in spatial terms to avoid concentration of grazing.
- The institutional mechanisms for controlling water availability and grazing need to be examined. Equitable mechanisms, and mechanisms that reinforce traditional patterns of natural resource management, are likely, other things being equal, to have a less negative environmental impact.
- In mixed farming systems, waterpoints will generally be better placed in existing cultivation areas, rather than outside, where they may create pressures to cultivate marginal and unsuitable areas.

Key References

Sandford, S. 1983. Management of Pastoral Development in the Third World ODI, London

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