Executive
summary
About
the
project
The
goal
of
the
project
is
to
develop
policy
relevant
recommendations
for
the
Dutch
Embassy
in
Sana’a,
Yemen,
for
the
prevention
and
the
resolution
of
water-‐related
conflicts,
by
assessing
the
political
economy
of
water
governance
in
Yemen.
Water
governance
is
a
complex
and
inherently
political
process
with
assumed
game-‐changing
potential.
It
may
prevent
an
acute
water
crisis
from
turning
into
a
large-‐scale
violent
conflict,
or
it
may
exacerbate
the
situation
further.
Water
scarcity
in
Yemen
is
a
human
security
threat.
According
to
unofficial
estimates,
2,500
people
die
annually
as
a
result
of
water-‐related
conflicts.
Therefore,
prevention
and
adaptation
strategies
are
needed
for
the
local,
regional,
and
national
level
that
are
based
on
a
robust
understanding
of
the
various
sources
of
insecurity,
their
interdependency
and
cumulative
conflict
potential.
Water
issues
are
complex
because
of
the
intricate
coupling
with
multiple
issues
within
the
natural
and
societal
domains.
Water
gov ernance
must
take
into
account
uncertainties
due
to
incomplete
knowledge,
uncertainty
induced
through
conflicting
views
on
the
problems
and
possible
solutions,
and
unpredictable
behaviour
of
the
physical,
social-‐economic
and
political
systems.
In
this
project,
we
developed
an
analytical
framework
to
analyse
the
political
economy
and
the
conflict
dimensions
of
water
governance
in
Yemen.
Key
components
of
this
framework
are:
1. Context
and
contextual
changes:
How
are
the
conflicts
embedded
in
the
local
physical,
socio-‐
economic,
political
and
legal-‐institutional
contexts?
Do
these
contexts
lessen,
intensify,
shape
and
distribute
the
conflict?
Have
contextual
changes
triggered
or
caused
the
conflict?
2. Stakeholder
analysis:
Who
are
the
relevant
stakeholders
in
the
conflict?
What
are
their
interests?
What
practices
are
stakeholders
using
to
pursue
their
interests?
3. Dispute
regulation
mechanisms:
Which
conflict
resolutions
are
tried
and
why?
Which
resolutions
are
not
tried?
Local
experts
conducted
in-‐depth
individual
interviews
and
group
discussions
on
nine
actual
conflicts
in
three
areas
across
Yemen.
The
areas
were
chosen
to
represent
a
cross-‐section
of
the
different
geo-‐hydrological
and
socio-‐economic
contexts:
•
Competition
over
groundwater
in
the
highlands
(Sana’a
basin);
•
Conflicts
over
surface
water
in
ephemeral
rivers
(Wadi
Siham);
•
Peri-‐urban
competition
(Ta’izz).
Findings
Water
management
in
Yemen
Yemen
has
a
long
history
of
suffering
from
water
scarcity,
which
laid
the
foundation
for
the
agricultural
norms
and
traditions
to
regulate
water
distribution,
maintenance
of
the
irrigation
infrastructure,
and
dispute
resolution
mechanisms.
In
the
areas
under
research,
the
people
mainly
rely
on
traditional
rules
(Urf)
and
other
agreements
to
regulate
the
rights
and
restrictions
with
regard
to
water
access,
use
and
distribution.
These
rules
are
unwritten
and
are
specific
to
the
areas
covered
by
the
assessment
since
there
may
be
other
rules
outside
these
areas.
The
rules
specific
to
this
assessment
concern
three
sources
of
water.
The Political Economy in Yemen of Water Management: Conflict Analysis and Recommendations
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