r - part - usaid

adapted to conditions in the Central Rangelands and other
regions of Somalia, The Range and Livestack Associations
(RLA4s) presently being fozcrtled by the Extension Department of
the NRA may be able to participate in the awganization of water
management carnmittess. The RI;A4s however, are new and
inexperienced associations, and water development is a more
ecologically complex, and politicaXXy sensitive issue, in this
region.
In general, the need for reliable water supplies is found
throughout rural. Somalia, and the careful application of
soc9oeconumic and technical criteria will facilitate the
equitable and most productive allocation of scarce resocrces
available for water develapment .
3.2. Socioecofiemic Conditions, Central Rangelands
The Central Rangelands is a sparsely settled dry region
with little agriculture. It is an area almost exclusively of
livestock production, w ith a principally nomadic population.
Its three regions comprise an area of roughly 117,000 square
kilometers.
The population af the region is estimated from the 1975
census figures to be about 900,005, growing at about 3% each
year. At least 75% of the population is nomadic, and another
15% consists of sedentary pastoxaiists, the remainder is
urban-oriented. Population varies seasonally as cha~ging
climatic conditions compel nozads to move herds in ze;=sh of
water and pasture.
3 2
Social Organization and Livestock Production
The basic social unit of the area is the peeclan, the area
inhabited by a giv~n nomadic group, and the area of year-round
residence for at feast some members of the group. A deesan may
be 1,000 to 1,500 square kilometers in size, and each will have
at least one year-round water source, shared between 400 and
2000 hausehoids. There is an identifiable leadership structure
which typically manages grazing areas, decides on migrations of
people between and within deegans, and adjudicates disputes. It
is not, however, a tightly organized collective that engages in
day to day administrative affairs: rather, it is a more fluid
set of relationships defined in terns of social networks and
geography. The social cohesion foxnd within a deesan may or may
not extend beyand its limits. Some neighboring deeaans
cooperate over such issues as water and grazing rights, while
others do not, Siting of wells on the boundary between two ox
more deeaans may result in conflicts over coritrol and access.
A deeqan may have less than 100 to over 3,006 livestock