This paper examines water management policies and institutions in the Ghanaian and Burkinabe portions of the Volta basin of West Africa. The paper begins with a brief historical overview of political, cultural and environmental developments in the basin since the late 19th century. Customary approaches to water management in the Volta are described next, followed by colonial and post-colonial water management developments in Ghana and Burkina Faso. The interplay between customary and national water management institutions in the watershed is then analysed so as to understand how conditions changed as a result of national-level developments. The paper also examines transboundary developments in the Volta basin, and concludes with a discussion of some of the strengths and weaknesses of the different management approaches.
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Research Article|
December 01 2008
Changing paradigms in volta basin water management: customary, national and transboundary Available to Purchase
Jonathan Lautze;
aDepartment of Civil/Environmental Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155, USA
Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
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Boubacar Barry;
Boubacar Barry
bInternational Water Management Institute Ghana Office, PMB CT 112, Cantonments Accra, Ghana
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Eva Youkhana
Eva Youkhana
cCenter for Development Research, University of Bonn, Walter-Flex-Str. 1-3, Bonn, Germany
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Water Policy (2008) 10 (6): 577–594.
Article history
Received:
December 17 2004
Accepted:
January 17 2007
Citation
Jonathan Lautze, Boubacar Barry, Eva Youkhana; Changing paradigms in volta basin water management: customary, national and transboundary. Water Policy 1 December 2008; 10 (6): 577–594. doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/wp.2008.002
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