With an estimated 70% of the 11.6 million Zimbabweans living in impoverished rural areas, and dependent
on smallholder agriculture for their livelihoods, it follows that improvements in this sub-sector can
contribute to poverty alleviation, particularly food insecurity. This depends on appropriate water
management in such a semi-arid climate, making the case for appropriate legal regimes in the water sector
self-evident. The paper analyses the constraints that are being encountered in this area by drawing some
lessons from the colonial era. The colonial state was more successful because it provided the complementary
resources for its white hydraulic mission. The failure of the post-colonial state to deliver a black hydraulic
mission can be understood in the same terms – the failure to enunciate and pursue an economic ideology
that provided for the development of sustainable smallholder agriculture. One of the main reasons was that
the post-colonial state did not capitalize on indigenous and water management experiences, which was
ironic given that the leaders professed indigenous roots. This is reflected by the absence of these important
experiences in policy discourse. This has rendered the legal reforms in the water sector somewhat cosmetic.