Organisational dynamics of rural populations around water sharing and management in the Baobolong Valley

Abstract

The presence of water in a space implies interrelationships between it, its immediate environment and the people who live there. Water resources play an important role in the social, economic and cultural life of populations, particularly in rural areas. The necessity of water services justifies the extent of its covetousness. In another vein, water resources, through phenomena such as flooding, intense runoff, and river overflow, cause enormous difficulties. This leads to profound changes, thus compelling populations to develop strategies for their adaptation, but also their subsistence in their "new" living environment or simply leaving it for a better place elsewhere. Through this interplay of service quality and natural inconvenience, water resources influence land use and spatial organization, shape governance mechanisms, and dictate the spatial distribution and movements of populations. This involves installing complex systems around water points and bodies of water, the study of whose organizational levels would allow us to understand their functioning and dynamics. The spatial entities that are defined constitute a network in which water remains the primary organizing factor, through its spatial distribution and management. Here, water is simultaneously a resource, an environment, a determining factor for the functioning of ecosystems, and also the basis for diverse activities and fundamental human values, both extraterritorial and territorialized. This article aims to analyze the relationship between water and human communities, focusing on the relevant spatial and temporal scales specific to rural areas in order to identify the impacts of the typology and spatial distribution of water resources on socio-cultural environments, the role of actors involved in their management, and the occupation of space.