Twenty years of water grabbing dynamics: water sharing between agribusinesses and local communities in Tanzania

Is it beneficial to development if foreign agribusinesses start cultivating in an African country? Or is it an example of resource grabbing and unfair competition over scarce land and water? Although difficult to answer, these are the questions underlying the new paper "The fluid nature of water grabbing: the on-going contestation of water distribution between peasants and agribusinesses in Nduruma, Tanzania" (now available online). 

Three distinct zones in Nduruma: upland bananas, midland greenhouses, lowland fallow

The paper describes the water struggles between local irrigation communities and horticultural companies in northern Tanzania, exploring how the larger debates on land grabbing and development play a role in this. Ultimately, it emphasises that water grabbing is not a one-time event, but rather an on-going struggle over different water resources. In addition, it shows how a perceived beneficial development of agribusinesses switching to groundwater allows them to avoid peasant-controlled institutions, avoiding further negotiation between the different actors and improving their image among neighbouring communities. This development illustrates how complex and obscured processes of water re-allocation can be without becoming illegal per se. 

Reference: de Bont, C., Veldwisch, G., Komakech, H.C. and Vos, J. 2015. The fluid nature of water grabbing: the on-going contestation of water distribution between peasants and agribusinesses in Nduruma, Tanzania. Agriculture and Human Values, DOI: 10.1007/s10460-015-9644-5.