VILLAGE HYDRAULICS: EXCLUSIVE MANAGEMENT STRUCTURING THE PROTEST OF LOCAL ACTORS IN THE COMMUNES OF ATHIEME AND BOPA IN SOUTHWESTERN BENIN

In Benin,the public policy of recentralizing water management in rural areas has transformed the configuration of managers and limited the control of local actors pushed into the category of protesters. Based on the hypothesis that the social exclusion embedded in the management by leasing of village hydraulics fuels protests among local actors,this research aims to analyze the receptivity of this non inclusive public policy, with insufficiently elucidated issues, from the communes of Athieme and Bopa in the Mono Department of Benin.To do this,qualitative research combined with grounded theory was adopted. Thus, the semi-structured interview,documentary research and observation were favored as data collection techniques respectively associated with the interview guide, the reading sheet and the observation grid.Using a reasoned selection process, 50 people were surveyed. Content analysis and triangulation were used to process the collected data. Comparing the results with the theory of social exclusion reveals that local stakeholders (local elected officials,decentralized structures,former management committees,members of the diaspora,rural populations,etc.)now have no control over the management of village water supply through leasing, a community asset. They are therefore excluded by the National Agency for Rural Drinking Water Supply and the OMILAYE Company,which, according to the central government, exercise exclusive management of water at the local level.