Against the Flow: Activism and Advocacy in the Reform of Zimbabwe's Water Sector Bill Derman and Anne Ferguson Bill Dennan and Anne Ferguson are members of the Department of Anthropology, Michigan State University. Introduction Since November 1997, Zimbabwe has been rocked by general strikes, war veterans' demonstrations, commercial farm-workers' strikes, land reform, military intervention in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and profound fissures in the ruling party as the government, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund (IMF) negotiate and feud over how to address the declining economy. Zimbabwe has en- tered a period of political confrontation and mobilization. The country's eighteen-year phase of relative stability has ended, and the terrain of reform in the water and other sec- tors has been inextricably altered. As we will argue, while the context for social mobilization has expanded dramatically, it has also shifted away from sectoral concerns with water or land toward a more encompassing debate and mobilization around Zimbabwe's future development paths. The intent of this paper is to explore how reforms in the water sector are being shaped by this wider political and eco- nomic crises. What is the potential for activism and change set in motion by reform of Zimbabwe's water laws, policies, and management structures? Our paper is divided into three parts. In the first, we summarize the water-reform process in Zimbabwe to date, with particular emphasis upon the newly created Catchment Councils. 1 In the second part, we discuss the current politicized context in greater detail. In the final part of the paper, we appraise how the realignment of forces has altered the potentials for social mobilization and activism in the arena of water reform. We conclude by speculating on the formation of new social movements and their relationship to water reform in Zimbabwe. The Water-reform Process In order to understand how the water-reform process is unfolding in Zimbabwe, brief mention must be made about the current organization of its government. Zimbabwe since independence in 1980 has been a de facto one-party state. While the two liberation movements formed a united front at the negotiations leading to independence in 1980, they contested the election as two parties. The Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) was one contes- tant against the Zimbabwe African People's Union which called itself the Patriotic Front (PF). Joshua Nkomo headed the latter group and Robert Mugabe the former. Following a violent series of clashes in the homeland of Nkomo known as Matabeleland, the two parties were united and Nkomo and other members of the Zimbabwe People's Union (ZAPU) joined the government. 2 The new combined party was known as ZANU-PF. The executive is led by a powerful president who is also the leader of ZANU-PF which dominates the government. While opposition candidates have run against President Mugabe in the elections of 1990 and 1995, they have been soundly defeated in what many observers believe were not completely free elections. Power is highly concen- trated, but there is a strong state bureaucracy which both forms and carries out major policies. These cannot be done, however, without the accord of the executive. It is in this con- text that water reform has commenced. Reform of the water sector in Zimbabwe is motivated by a number of complex internal and external factors. The exter- nal ones are part of a more general global process associated with neo-liberal economic and political reform promoted by the World Bank and the IMF. Politically, this involves the re- duction of the size of government, decentralizing some of its activities, and engaging "stakeholders" in decision-making processes. In the economic sphere, donors are assisting Zimbabwe and many other sub-Saharan nations to remove subsidies, decrease the size of the civil service, privatize para- statals, and increase exports (World Bank 1993). Internally, the government has taken quite seriously pre- dictions concerning future water needs and growing scarcity and aims to formulate a new national water development plan. It is attempting to apply experiences and lessons learned concerning community and/or stakeholderxparticipation from other natural resource sectors such as wildlife and fores- try to water reform (Child 1995; Nhira et al. 1998). These internal and external factors are reflected in Zimbabwe's proposed water reforms. The government has embarked on an ambitious plan, involving removal of sub- sidies and decentralization of authority. To be understood, these changes must be situated within the changing political, economic, and social context. Culture & Agriculture Vol. 21, No. 3 Fall 1999