Land and water are essential for development. Land use has major impacts on the quality and quantity of water resources and the availability of water determines possible land uses. An integrated approach to land and water is essential. Land tenure and water rights are the major mechanisms that determine resource use and management. However, existing systems do not always work together to support development.

Research from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) looks at the current relationship between land and water rights. Historically, the right to use water has depended on the existence of a land tenure right. In many areas, water rights have been seen as less important part of land tenure rights. Often this is still the case. However, there are now important differences between land tenure and water rights in many places. These are determined by the ways in which rights are allocated and administered, the objectives of sector reforms, the role of markets and approaches of international law.

At a policy level, governments and international agencies approach land tenure and water rights as separate issues, despite calling for integrated management of land and water. There are several key themes where a lack of communication between people working on land rights and those working on water rights present particular difficulties. One of the most important areas is irrigated land, which currently produces 40 percent of the world’s food.

• For irrigators, a lack of secure access to water reduces the value of any land tenure rights. The water rights of irrigators depend on the institutional arrangements of the irrigation system. These are extremely variable. Land tenure legislation usually makes no distinction between irrigable and non-irrigable land.
• Groundwater, which supplies much irrigation and drinking water, is an increasingly fragile resource, with withdrawal rates increasing. Existing approaches to water rights apply the same principles to groundwater and surface water. However, laws restricting groundwater withdrawal are often impossible to enforce.
• In many places, traditional rights to land and water exist alongside formal legal rights. Traditional rights may be the only ones actually applied at a local level. This makes the relationship between land tenure rights and water rights even more complex.

For poor people, securing access to land and water is a key element of both survival and livelihood strategies. While many reforms seek to strengthen the land tenure rights of the poor, the relationship between water rights, poverty and livelihoods is less clear. Reducing poverty is rarely a priority of water rights reform. To overcome this, the research recommends:

• More information is needed about how the absence of individual water rights constrains poverty alleviation.
• The question of securing rights for water user associations and individual irrigators must be addressed. Community-based irrigation management is unlikely to succeed unless this issue is addressed.
• The impact of land tenure regimes on community-based irrigation management needs to be more clearly understood.
• Countries attempting land and water reform must be well informed and supported along a development path that avoids marginalising poor people and damaging the environment. The key question is whether the existing trend towards a European model of separate land tenure and water rights systems will provide the solution.

Source(s):
‘Land and Water: the rights interface’, Legal Paper Online No.36, and Livelihood Support Programme Working Paper No. 10, Food and Agriculture Organisation, Access to Natural Resources Sub-Programme Full document.

Funded by: Food and Agriculture Organisation

id21 Research Highlight: 13 January 2005

Further Information:
Stephen Hodgson
7 Wellington Park
Clifton
Bristol
BS8 2UR
UK

Tel: +44 (0)117 974 1036
Contact the contributor: shodgson@gn.apc.org

Sustainable Development Department, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

Other related links:
'Land rights in Africa: protecting the interests of vulnerable groups' >

'Regulating access to land and water in Africa: implications for local governance'

Water Resources - WRI - watersheds

Land policy and administration – World Bank