www.water-alternatives.org Volume 9 | Issue 3 van Eeden, A.; Mehta, L. and van Koppen, B. 2016. Whose waters? Large-scale agricultural development and water grabbing in the Wami-Ruvu River Basin, Tanzania. Water Alternatives 9(3): 608-626 Van Eeden et al.: Water grabbing in the Wami-Ruvu River Basin, Tanzania Page | 608 Whose Waters? Large-Scale Agricultural Development and Water Grabbing in the Wami-Ruvu River Basin, Tanzania Aurelia van Eeden Department of Environment and Development Studies (Noragric), Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Aas, Norway; aureliave@me.com Lyla Mehta Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, Brighton, UK; and Department of Environment and Development Studies (Noragric), Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Aas, Norway; l.mehta@ids.ac.uk Barbara van Koppen International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Southern Africa Regional Programme, South Africa; b.vankoppen@cgiar.org ABSTRACT: In Tanzania like in other parts of the global South, in the name of 'development' and 'poverty eradication' vast tracts of land have been earmarked by the government to be developed by investors for different commercial agricultural projects, giving rise to the contested land grab phenomenon. In parallel, Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) has been promoted in the country and globally as the governance framework that seeks to manage water resources in an efficient, equitable and sustainable manner. This article asks how IWRM manages the competing interests as well as the diverse priorities of both large and small water users in the midst of foreign direct investment. By focusing on two commercial sugar companies operating in the Wami-Ruvu River Basin in Tanzania and their impacts on the water and land rights of the surrounding villages, the article asks whether institutional and capacity weaknesses around IWRM implementation can be exploited by powerful actors that seek to meet their own interests, thus allowing water grabbing to take place. The paper thus highlights the power, interests and alliances of the various actors involved in the governance of water resources. By drawing on recent conceptual insights from the water grabbing literature, the empirical findings suggest that the IWRM framework indirectly and directly facilitates the phenomenon of water grabbing to take place in the Wami-Ruvu River Basin in Tanzania. KEYWORDS: Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM), water grabbing, development policies, agricultural development, water governance, Tanzania INTRODUCTION As discussed by van Koppen et al. (this issue), Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) was introduced in Tanzania in the early 1990s and was then incorporated into the national water policy in 2002 and water law in 2009. In recent years, national development policies have been actively promoting commercial agricultural investment (Cotula et al., 2009; Cotula, 2011). From the late 2000s onwards, foreign investors began tapping into Tanzania’s land and water resources, giving rise to the heavily contested 'land grab' phenomenon whereby vast tracts of land have been allocated to investors for commercial agriculture (Cotula et al., 2009; Cotula, 2011; Matondi et al., 2011; Matondi and Matupo, 2011). While suitable land has been the driving force behind these investments, recent