Assessment of Indigenous Water Management System: A Case Study of Borana Community, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Water is the most domineering diet for living things/Bisaan sagalee mootuu/ means of a vital to alive next to air. Then, the management of this most essential resource for living things is very important. Different traditional water technologies and management practices have used in various parts of the world since time immemorial. The practices are actually dependent on the local situations. Some linked with surface water and others with groundwater extraction and management. A typical example, which has used for long and widely known, called Qanat. Qanat is a traditional water extracting and transporting technique that commonly used in Middle East. However, in Borana community this term knows by the expression called “Finna Marraa Bisaanii ‘the rule of water and grass’. The Indigenous water resources management system of the Borana Community based on Gada system indigenous law of sources of water particularly for Tula-wells and ponds. Tula-Sallan is the permanent source of water in Borana. In Borana, Tula-wells owned by a distinct clan (tribe) and managed by the daily operation of the Tula-wells ‘Abba Herrega’. The Borana indigenous water management systems vary based on categorizations of water sources and Borana traditional livestock watering calendar. In Borana community except river and surface water sources, the remaining water sources have some sort of indigenous rules and regulations followed for anyone to get access to them.