Community Water Governance on Mount Kenya: An Assessment Based on Ostrom’s Design Principles of Natural Resource Management
Open accessAbstract
Kenyan river basin governance underwent a pioneering reform in the Water Act of 2002, which established new community water-management institutions. This article focuses on community water projects in the Likii Water Resource Users Association in the Upper Ewaso Ng’iro River basin on Mount Kenya, and the extent to which their features are consistent with Ostrom’s design principles of natural resource management. Although the projects have developed solid institutional structures, pressures such as hydroclimatic change, population growth, and water inequality challenge their ability to manage their water resources. Institutional homogeneity across the different water projects and congruence with the design principles is not necessarily a positive factor. Strong differences in household water flows within and among the projects point to the disconnection between apparently successful institutions and their objectives, such as fair and equitable water allocation.
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If upstream users do not adjust their water use during dry periods, there will be insufficient quantities left for downstream CWPs, suggesting that sustainable and equitable water use presents a collective action problem not only within CWPs but between upstream and downstream CWPs.
“If upstream users do not adjust their water use during dry periods, there will be insufficient quantities left for downstream CWPs, suggesting that sustainable and equitable water use presents a collective action problem not only within CWPs but between upstream and downstream CWPs (Dell'Angelo et al., 2016).”
From Collective action in a polycentric water governance system (2018) · cites this paper as Dell'Angelo et al., 2016
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Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe CWPs of the Upper Ewaso Ng'iro basin are self-governing and establish their own water distribution rules.
“The CWPs of the Upper Ewaso Ng'iro basin are self-governing, and establish their own water distribution rules (Dell'Angelo et al., 2016;McCord, Dell'Angelo, Baldwin, & Evans, 2017a;McCord, Dell'Angelo, Gower, Caylor, & Evans, 2017b).”
From Collective action in a polycentric water governance system (2018) · cites this paper as Dell'Angelo et al., 2016
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Cites
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Collective action in a polycentric water governance system
Baldwin, E., McCord, P., Dell'Angelo, J., & Evans, T. (2018) · Environmental Policy and Governance · doi:10.1002/eet.1810 · Cited by 120 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- Dell’Angelo, J., McCord, P. F., Gower, D., Carpenter, S., Caylor, K. K., & Evans, T. P.
- Affiliations
- Indiana University Bloomington (US)
- Princeton University (US)
- Venue
- Mountain Research and Development
- Published
- 2016-02
- Volume
- 36
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 102-115
- ISSN
- 0276-4741 (ISSN-L)
- 1994-7151
- OpenAlex
- W2341145965
- Cited by
- 57
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 3.36
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Mountain Research and Development (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- BioOne Complete (BioOne) (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (1115009, 1052875, 1360463)
- National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (1052875, DBI—1052875)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Water Science and Technology › Water Resource Management and Quality
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Water Governance and Infrastructure
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management
- Keywords
- community water governance, natural resource management, Mount Kenya, equitable water distribution, hydroclimatic change, population growth, water inequality, institutional effectiveness
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