Source: Martin (2005: 10)
The GLOWA-Volta research project tackles the interrelations between changing natural conditions in the Volta River basin, human interest and activity as well as international and national water policies, especially in Ghana and Burkina Faso. The participating researchers show a diverse disciplinary background. The model-based integration of their results is expected to provide a sound basis for water related decision making in the form of a decision support tool (DST), which will be made available to official stakeholders and civil society agencies in both countries. An interdisciplinary approach is needed to understand the complex dynamics going on in the basin. Household water issues only play a marginal role within the GLOWA-Volta project because the water quantities, which are used for households do not compete with other uses on basin level, such as irrigation or hydropower.
A complex interdisciplinary approach to household water has to involve at least research on hydrology, on parasite ecology, on property regimes, on policies, on power relations and politics, on history, on livelihood strategies and productivity, on local socio-political organization as well as on emic perceptions of the water situation. It is but wishful thinking that one researcher alone can build up expertise in all the areas. Therefore, the co-operation within an interdisciplinary research project aims at complementary and supplementing effects of several sub-sets of research according to the qualification and capacities of the individual
researchers.8 My capacity, gained through university training in Social Anthropology, was clearly exceeded in relation to economic evaluations, as well as to technical and medical knowledge. That leads immediately to the question how household water management was approached in this study.
2.5.2. Objectives and research questions
The main purpose of the study consisted in the empirical documentation of processes of changes in rural and peri-urban potable water management in the context of the NCWSP. The research interest focused on institutions and actors regulating and performing water management. The following objectives guided the field study:
Collecting empirical data on the constitution and concepts of user groups and communities of unimproved and improved water sources.
Learning about the institutions of water management within a community and the changes concerning those institutions in the context of the NCWSP.
Documenting empirically the events, processes and consequences of NCWSP project implementation on a water user group on local small-scale level.
Identifying local interest and agendas coming into play in the context of the establishment of new water facilities.
Elaborating the relationship between local arena and state administration on district level in respect to water management and provision of improved water facilities. In comparison with the original proposal, the research questions were reformulated during the research period and subsequent analysis and interpretation of the data.9 This shift in focus was necessary because the quality and character of the data gathered was not completely foreseeable at the time of proposal writing. Interesting questions emerged out of the empirical material and the reformulated research questions and sub-questions pay tribute to them:
• What socio-economic changes and processes go on in the field site? What role does water as a resource play for the local livelihood?
8 For a personal account of the state of interdisciplinary work in the GLOWA-Volta project phase II, see
Eguavoen (2007).
9 The two original research questions were: (1) what impact have NCWSP interventions in the potable water
sector on local water management institutions, social structures and power relations? (2) What is the relationship between local arena and state administration on local level in respect to water management and provision of improved water facilities?
What are local water uses and water needs? Have gender roles changed? Has economic stratification taken place? What are male and female interests in household water?
• What local water right regime exists and how has it changed in the context of the NCWSP? What impact do water rights have for water allocation practice?
How does a water user community constitute itself? Who holds decision-making rights concerning water facility management and water allocation? How does one gain access to water facilities? Do NCWSP institutions replace existing local ones? Are local institutions integrated into the new normative system? How is household water practically allocated among the users?
The original research design was mainly based on a number of case studies to collect data on three particular topics: (1) Rural water management schemes; (2) Small town water system management; and (3) The shift from rural to small town water management. For the first and third topic, an in-depth case study was conducted, which took most of the research time. The second topic was elaborated in the form of several case studies conducted in selected small towns, which were visited. The research design was built on the application of ethnographic methods in combination with the conduction of two surveys and document review. The overall research time of nine months was distributed over three periods in dry seasons from 2004 to 2006. My son, then four years old, joined me during the second field trip, which took about six months.
2.7. Methodology and field research practice
The decision where exactly to conduct the research was not taken before going to the field research area. Among which socio-linguistic groups the research would be conducted was left open. Other criteria for the selection of the field site proved more crucial for I was not only interested in existing rural water supply but also in the planning and implementation of small town water projects. Given this, I took a hint from my colleague Nicola Martin and went to a site where such a project was going on. The location is primarily a rural settlement with a market centre showing some urban characteristics. During the first visit itself, the people we met seemed very willing to welcome me in their community. An assemblyman, who we traced later in the day in another town, encouraged me to come to his village. A young man promised to look for and to negotiate on my behalf for a room to live. When returning the next day, the promise was kept and an accommodation was made available. Apart from these factors the decision for this research site was based on sympathy for the place and the people, which is difficult to explain. Later on, the selection of the field site turned out to be a very good choice due to reasons, which were not predictable beforehand, e.g. the chairman of the local WSDB was also the president of the Association of Water and Sanitation Development
Boards, which allowed me to extend my contacts and research on regional level in a very easy and fast way. I also wanted to gain some insight on other small town water projects, therefore, additional research sites were selected, which I visited repeatedly while being based in Sirigu or the GLOWA project house in Navrongo. The second field trip ended with two weeks of intensive touring between the small towns.