Conflict and Water Group

2004-04-01

The concept of Water Wars does not seem very threatening anymore. Most observers tend rather to underline that water is probably more of a contentious issue in smaller contexts than in the transboundary relations between countries sharing rivers and other water resources. The research on natural resources as one of the issues in conflict has lately also started dealing with water and internal conflict.

The Local Conflict and Water group investigated how a conflict analysis perspective can be useful in the design and execution of water projects. Of the many ideas on conflict and conflict analysis that are entering into general development practice, some could also be of use within the water sector, especially at the local and national levels. The national level is also where most actual investments are made and where better designed and implemented projects can be of great importance to improve the conditions of large groups of the population of poor countries.
The group's work has had different directions and activities such as workshops, seminars and the production reports and papers, etc. The final activity of the group in this phase was the presentation of a report (see link below) at the World Water Week in Stockholm in August 2005. The report investigated how conflicts influence water projects and how such conflicts may be dealt with to improve outcomes and minimise negative impacts. The main idea was to investigate how to integrate conflict analysis and management into often, in our opinion, technically biased water projects. The presentation of the report at the conference resulted in a lively and constructive discussion of the issues.
The group has worked with a network of practitioners and academics connected with water in both national and international contexts. The activities and findings have resulted in activities outside of the context of the group, both in academic and professional areas. Work by group members has been initiated at Sida (The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency); a report was commissioned with the explicit goal of analysing how conflicts impact water projects in urban contexts in Sub-Saharan Africa and how mechanisms can be put into place to alleviate and manage such conflicts.

Resources

Water and Conflict Literature Review

Local conflict and water: addressing conflicts in water projects