Angola Freshwater Resource Rights Report

Summary

This report analyzes Angola’s legal approach to freshwater resource rights and community-based management of freshwater resources. For purposes of this study, freshwater resources, or FWR, are defined as “any body of water that is fresh (not salty), together with its associated species and ecosystem resources, including aquatic plants and animals such as fish.” FWR rights can be framed as either “use rights” or “control rights.” The primary FWR use rights analyzed in this study are access rights (i.e., “the right to enter freshwater bodies or pieces of land from which FWR can be accessed”) and withdrawal rights (i.e., “the right to remove water, fish, or other FWR”). The primary FWR control rights analyzed in this study are exclusion rights (i.e., “the right to prevent other from using the FWR” in question), alienation or transfer rights (i.e., “the right to redistribute, sell, rent, gift, or bequeath rights over FWR”), and management rights (i.e., “the right to make decisions about FWR, such as flow regulation, aquaculture, or fishery management”).

When measured against best practices and global indicators, the report concludes that Angola maintains the scaffolding of a legal framework broadly supportive of community-based management of freshwater resources and associated rights.

Angola’s water law regime is premised on the fundamental role that serving the domestic and subsistence needs of local communities plays in realization of national water policy goals. This is given effect by providing for free water use rights for non-commercial local community water uses. These use rights are coupled with access rights, and common uses have primacy and are to be given effect before and in lieu of other use rights.

Less clear is the extent to which it would be fair to say that local members hold management rights to FWR. Certainly, the law provides opportunities for public participation in planning processes and certain decision-making processes, but ultimately, the Hydrographic Basin Management Bodies are primarily responsible for the management of FWRs to the extent that these rights are derivative of water flows and  availability. The role of traditional authorities also appears crucial, as does that of user associations.

Citation

Lyman, E. & Fromherz, N. (2021). Angola Freshwater Resource Rights Report. Global Law Alliance.

Keywords: freshwater; local communities; Indigenous Peoples; rights.