Chapter
9:
Case
studies
in
Ta’izz
9.3
Case
7
-‐
Bani
Yusof:
villagers
of
Qihaf
vs.
Person
93
Conflict
sides:
People
in
village
of
Qihaf
represented
by
Abjuljabbar
Mokred
versus
Person
93
from
Uqf
nearby
village;
Bani
Yusof,
Almawasit
district.
Place
of
meeting:
Qihaf
village
where
researcher
had
two
focus
group
meetings,
one
with
men
and
one
with
women
from
Qihaf.
Due
to
time
limitations,
the
second
party
in
the
conflict
was
not
interviewed.
9.3.1
Overview
of
the
conflict
At
the
end
of
2012,
Person
93
from
the
Uqf
village,
located
opposite
to
Qihaf
with
the
wadi
in
the
middle,
started
drilling
a
well
higher
in
the
valley
only
220
meters
away
from
the
Qihaf
well.
He
dug
three
wells
and
could
not
find
any
water.
He
subsequently
attempted
to
dig
another
well
only
170
meters
away
from
the
Qihaf
well.
The
citizens
of
Qihaf
buried
the
new
well.
Abjuljabbar
Mokred,
a
teacher,
and
representing
the
Qihaf
villagers,
filed
a
complained
at
the
security
authority
and
paid
for
soldiers
to
come
and
deal
with
the
situation.
The
security
did
nothing
and
Uqf
continued
to
dig
the
well.
Eventually,
the
villagers
of
Qihaf
ran
down
the
valley
and
buried
the
new
well.
Person
93
and
his
men
shot
them.
Mokred
reported
the
situation
to
the
prosecution,
but
he
said
there
was
no
response
and
no
action
was
taken
to
the
digging
of
the
new
well.
9.3.2
A:
Case
study
description
The
two
villages
of
Qihaf
and
Uqf
are
separated
by
a
wadi/valley.
Both
villages
are
situated
up
in
the
mountains
where
people
rely
mostly
on
skills,
such
as
carpentry
and
agriculture
for
income.
The
people
of
Qihaf
grow
qat,
but
they
rely
only
on
rain
and
they
do
not
irrigate
qat
using
ground
or
truck
water.
The
village
of
Qihaf,
where
approximately
130
houses
reside
atop
of
a
mountain,
relies
solely
on
one
well
further
down
the
valley.
The
well
is
33-‐years
old
and
has
been
used
only
for
drinking
and
home
use,
rather
than
irrigation.
With
funding
from
the
Social
Fund
for
Development,
new
water
reservoirs
were
built
to
cultivate
rainwater.
Until
a
year
ago,
women
were
still
mainly
responsible
for
fetching
water
from
the
well.
They
would
spend
at
least
an
hour
and
a
half
to
bring
a
20-‐liter
plastic
container
home.
During
the
dry
season,
women
would
spend
hours
to
fill
one
container
and
would
spend
most
of
the
night
doing
that,
sometimes
exposing
themselves
to
risks.
The
women
mentioned
running
into
some
large,
wild
animals
when
they
were
travelling
to
bring
water
down
the
mountain
around
2:00
a.m.
approximately
12
years
ago.
To
end
the
suffering,
the
villagers
of
Qihaf
decided
to
build
a
system
to
pump
water
from
down
the
wadi/well
to
a
reservoir
in
the
village.
The
project
was
built
between
2001-‐2011.
Locals
all
shared
the
costs
and
raised
funds
from
private
donations
with
a
total
of
10
million
YR,
of
which
the
locals
contributed
at
least
5
million
YR.
Women
contributed
with
gold,
but
most
importantly,
every
house
contributed
with
labor
to
build
the
project.
Women
would
carry
stones
down
the
mountains.
Each
house
was
responsible
for
feeding
those
who
worked
on
the
construction
of
the
well.
“It
took
the
men
a
whole
day
to
bring
the
big
water
pump
down
to
the
well”,
said
a
local
female.
Finally
and
in
2012,
they
managed
to
extend
the
water
distribution
network
from
the
we