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River Basin Game

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Applications (why, when & where)

The River Basin Game promotes mutual understanding of different people’s levels of access to water and allows participants to actively react to scenarios. Experience shows that participants become highly animated and, by the end of the game, have a good understanding of system dynamics, common-property pitfalls and of which issues are most critical and of what solutions might be considered. If the game-playing is part of a workshop that is spread over two days, participants are able to contribute in detail to new solutions and institutional agreements. The second day can follow up on lessons learnt and bring together various institutions to assist improving the equity of supply. The paper includes a literature review of gaming in water resources management, a complete description of the game, details of the practical arrangements required to organize a game-playing session and possible approaches to evaluate the effectiveness of a session (Lankford, et al., 2004).

Brief description

The River Basin Game is a dialogue tool for decision-makers and water users that has been tested in medium to small catchments in Tanzania. It comprises a physical representation of the catchment in the form of a large wooden board. The central river flows between the upper catchment and a downstream wetland, and has on it several intakes into irrigation systems of varying sizes. Glass marbles “flow” down the channel represent river water. Participants place small sticks acting as weirs across the river to capture the marbles and scoop them into irrigation systems where they sit in small holes - thereby meeting the water requirement of that particular plot of rice or irrigation activity. The players learn that being at the top of the river has advantages, whilst tail-end systems experience water shortages. The implications of different management strategies can be evaluated by various stakeholder groups (Lankford, et al., 2004).

Where in the project cycle is this useful?

Spatial scale

Extractive/non-extractive

Complexity

Not complex.

For those applying the tool:

For participants:

Outcomes

Strengths

Drawbacks

Illustrations

Issues

Resources

Time:

Human resources:

Costing:

Origins and history

Conditions for use and dissemination

None.

Contacts

Bruce Lankford
University of Easat Anglis
[B.Lankford@uea.ac.uk]

Learn more about this topic

See “Serious gaming and deliberative tools” by Bruce Lankford at [[1]]

See also the inventory profiles on:

References

Lankford, B. Sokile, C., Yawson, D., Levite, H. and Sally, H. (2004).The River Basin Game: A role-playing board game for initiating discussions on visions and strategies of water allocation. Paper for Water Resource Management For Local Development Workshop: Aventura, Loskopdam. South Africa, 8 – 11, November. Accessed 22 December, 2013 at [[2]]

For further publications on how the game has been played:

Magombeyi, M.S., Rollin, D., Lankford, B.A. 2008. The river basin game as a tool for collective water management at community level. In South Africa, Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts A/B/C ,(33): 873-880.

Rajabu, K. R. M. 2007. Use and impacts of the river basin game in implementing integrated water resources management in Mkoji sub-catchment in Tanzania. Agricultural water management, Vol. 94, 1-3, pp. 63-72.

Consultancy report: NIGERIA, 2005. Facilitation of Water Sharing Arrangements in the Hadejia Jamaare Komadugu Yobe Basin (HJKYB) – with the River Basin Game Dialogue Tool. Final report. For DFID: Joint Wetlands Livelihoods project. UK. 65 pp.