Valuing "indigenous knowledge" related to water usage among Garri pastoralists of southern Ethiopia: Which/whose knowledge?

Abstract

Valorization of local knowledge related to natural resource management constitutes a backbone of development interventions carried out in pastoral areas of southern Ethiopia. Still, the possibility of clearly identifying "indigenous knowledge" and putting it at the disposal of development planners may be at odds with local realities. This paper focuses on a major feature of water use among Garri pastoralists inhabiting the region around Moyale and Hudet, Ethiopia, namely the spread of private water access points. These are considered among the most important water sources in the region, but they are being constructed to the detriment of communal access points. This practice brings into question the effectiveness of "participatory development" and invites acknowledgement of the social embeddedness of natural resource management and indigenous environmental knowledge. This type of private ownership of water access points, which has been adopted by the Garri, may have affected the social organization of pastoralists in the southern Ethiopian lowlands over the past decade.