Demographic and socio economic factors influencing water governance in the Okavango Delta, Botswana

Abstract

Demographic and socio-economic factors influence water resources governance at the household level particularly in rural areas of developing countries where culturally assigned gender roles in water governance hold sway. Rooted in the institutional bricolage and the Mass-elite theories, this paper analyses demographic and socio-economic factors influencing the dissonance of customary and statutory institutions in the governance of water resources in the study area. Employing a homogenous purposive sampling technique, three villages (that is, Shakawe, Tubu, and Shorobe) were selected for this study. Four hundred and fifty-five household heads were randomly selected to elicit pertinent demographic and socio-economic data through an interview schedule and expert purposive sampling technique was adopted to select 9 key informants from whom in-depth information was obtained. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25 was used to analyse descriptive and inferential statistics. Content analysis was used to analyse qualitative data. The results also reveal that there was a gender imbalance in water collection and water consumption was relatively higher in small households than in large ones. However, there was no evidence that age affected water consumption. Findings also revealed that affordability, distance to water sources and the intended use of water are a factor of access to water. Results further show that income is a key determinant of the amount of water consumed by the respondents. The paper concludes that there is need for an integrated water governance model that serves to enhance the demand and consumption of water resources in local communities.