Enough is enough: how West African farmers judge water sufficiency

This article engages the concept of water literacy, coupledwith photo-elicitation methods and long-term ethnographicresearch, to explore how West African farmers judge water sufficiency. The study focuses on the Upper Comoé river basinin southwest Burkina Faso, an area known for conflict among multiple water users. Pictures of familiar river sites wereshown to farmers to explore how they determine whether water suffice to meet their irrigation and livelihood needs. Thelikelihood of finding water to be sufficient was influenced by who the respondents were (gender) and by where (down-stream/upstream) and when (early/late dryseason) the picture was taken. Farmers’sufficiency judgments were framed as acognitive and linguistic dichotomy that posits water as being either enough or not enough. They drew upon a diversity ofindicators in the natural and built environment and hinged on salient attributes, such as theBface^and theBflow^of thewater. These two attributes enabled farmers to determine the water’sBforce,^a foundational cultural notion that blendsmaterial and spiritual considerations. Farmers’assessments engage multiple time horizons, from memories of the past, tocurrent observations and anticipated future scenarios.By relying upon shared memories and meanings, farmers cancompare judgments, analyze options, and collectively mobilize to counteract the dominance of techno-scientific knowl-edge in official water allocation decisions.     «

This article engages the concept of water literacy, coupledwith photo-elicitation methods and long-term ethnographicresearch, to explore how West African farmers judge water sufficiency. The study focuses on the Upper Comoé river basinin southwest Burkina Faso, an area known for conflict among multiple water users. Pictures of familiar river sites wereshown to farmers to explore how they determine whether water suffice to meet their irrigation and livelihood needs. Thelikelihood of finding water...     »