Waterconflict

Water and Conflict
Incorporating Peacebuilding into Water Development
Catholic Relief Services

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Published 2009.
ISBN 0-945356-53-6
Written by Jason Gehrig with Mark M. Rogers

Edited by Dennis Warner, Chris Seremet, and Tom Bamat
Graphic design by Judi Jachman
Front cover: Women and girls fetch water in the Hassahissa IDP Camp near Zalingei, Sudan, 2005.
Photo by Paul Jeffrey/ACT-Caritas.
Back cover: Drinking from a new village water system, Siran Valley near Mansehra, Northwest Frontier
Province, Pakistan, 2006. Photo by Jim Stipe/CRS.
For a complete catalog of CRS publications, visit www.crsprogramquality.org.

Water and Conflict
Jason Gehrig with Mark M. Rogers

Edited by Dennis Warner, Chris Seremet, and Tom Bamat
Table of Contents
Boxes, Figures, and Tables.........................................................................................................................................................................................................iii
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................v
PART 1. WATER, CONFLICT, AND COOPERATION: BACKGROUND
CHAPTER I. WATER AND CONFLICT......................................................................................................................................................................................... 3

Lack of Access to Water as “Structural Violence”.................................................................................................................................................... 3
Water Conflict on the Local, National, International, and Global Levels.................................................................................................... 4
Water as Target, Tool, and/or Goal in Conflicts.......................................................................................................................................................... 5
Section 1. Historical Perspective and Future Trends................................................................................................................................................. 6
Water-Related Conflict between Nations.................................................................................................................................................................... 6
Water-Related Conflict within Nations........................................................................................................................................................................11
Section 2. Underlying Causes of Water-Related Conflict.....................................................................................................................................14
Socio-Economic Factors.......................................................................................................................................................................................................15
Institutional/Political Factors................................................................................................................................................................................................20
Environmental Factors............................................................................................................................................................................................................24
CHAPTER II. principles for water and COOPERATION................................................................................................................................37

Section 1. CRS Peacebuilding Principles and Integral Human Development...........................................................................................38
Section 2. Catholic Social Teaching Principles Applied to Water.....................................................................................................................41
Section 3. Indigenous Perspectives on Water..............................................................................................................................................................42
Section 4. Gender and Water.................................................................................................................................................................................................45
Section 5. United Nations Declaration of Water as a Human Right.............................................................................................................48
Section 6. Millennium Development Goals....................................................................................................................................................................52
Section 7. Water and Warfare: Provisions of International Humanitarian Law Protecting Water..............................................53
During Armed Conflict..........................................................................................................................................................................................................53
During Military Occupation................................................................................................................................................................................................54
PART 2. PUTTING PEACEBUILDING PRINCIPLES INTO WATER PRACTICE
CHAPTER III. FRAMING WATER DEVELOPMENT WITHIN A PEACEBUILDING PARADIGM.............................................................57

Section 1. Points for Reflection.............................................................................................................................................................................................57
Ethical Obligations....................................................................................................................................................................................................................57
Being the Peace We Strive to Promote.......................................................................................................................................................................59
i
Section 2. Peacebuilding: A Widening of Perspective, An Embracing of Change....................................................................................61
CHAPTER IV. APPLYING PEACEBUILDING AND CONFLICT TRANSFORMATION TO

WATER AND SANITATION PROGRAMMING..................................................................................................................................................................65
Section 1. Peacebuilding Perspectives for Guiding a Water Development Agenda..............................................................................66
“Root Cause/Justice”...............................................................................................................................................................................................................66
“Building Relationships”.........................................................................................................................................................................................................69
“Institutional Development”...............................................................................................................................................................................................71
“Appropriate Technology / Development Approach”.........................................................................................................................................73
Section 2. Water-Related Conflict Transformation Tools and Techniques...................................................................................................75
Preparation and Groundwork...........................................................................................................................................................................................78
Planning and Negotiation......................................................................................................................................................................................................85
Implementation and Monitoring.......................................................................................................................................................................................88
Section 3. Applications of Peacebuilding Methods to Conflict Scenarios..................................................................................................93
Scenario 1 Upstream-Downstream.............................................................................................................................................................................94
Scenario 2 Outside Interventions.................................................................................................................................................................................99
Scenario 3 Extractive Industries..................................................................................................................................................................................104
Scenario 4 Access to Water Supply..........................................................................................................................................................................109
Scenario 5 Forced Migration Induced by Natural Disaster or Armed Conflict..............................................................................113
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................118
APPENDICES
Appendix A. Summary of Lines of Inquiry for Evaluating the Risk of Water-Related Conflict..............................................................121
Appendix B. Additional Resources Available Online......................................................................................................................................................123
Appendix C. References................................................................................................................................................................................................................125
ii
Boxes, Figures, and Tables
BOXES
I.1 Somalia: Water Well Widows, Warlords, and Warriors......................................................................................................................................11
I.2 “Water Revolt” in Cochabamba, Bolivia......................................................................................................................................................................17
I.3 Indian Farmers vs. Bottling Industry..............................................................................................................................................................................18
I.4 Israeli Separation Wall and Palestinian Water Resources.................................................................................................................................22
I.5 Population Growth, Water-Related Stress, and Conflict...................................................................................................................................25
I.6 Asian Tsunami: Natural and Unnatural Disasters...................................................................................................................................................27
I.7 Darfur: Conflict Driven by Climate Change and Scarcity of Land and Water.....................................................................................30
I.8 Watershed Degradation and Argentina’s “Worst Environmental Disaster”...........................................................................................32
I.9 Peru: Mining Plus Contamination Equals Violence.................................................................................................................................................36
II.1 Water in the Andean Cosmovision..............................................................................................................................................................................43
II.2 The Berbers, the Bedouin, and Conflict Transformation Lessons Learned from Indigenous Peoples
Living in Arid Lands.........................................................................................................................................................................................................44
II.3 Water Decision-Making: Increased Female Participation, Increased Social Equity and Effectiveness......................................46
II.4 Water as a Human Right: Minimum Core Obligations for State Parties According to U.N. General
Comment No. 15..............................................................................................................................................................................................................50
IV.1 “Root Cause/Justice”...............................................................................................................................................................................................................68
IV.2 “Building Relationships”.........................................................................................................................................................................................................70
IV.3 “Institutional Development”...............................................................................................................................................................................................72
IV.4 “Appropriate Technology / Development Approach”.........................................................................................................................................74
IV.5 CRS Peacebuilding School: Restoring Social Cohesion to Protect Water...............................................................................................77
IV.6 Water Projects in Postwar Angola..................................................................................................................................................................................79
IV.7 Results from Dialogue in a Tanzanian Water-Stressed Basin...........................................................................................................................80
IV.8 Somalia and Ethiopia: Unresolved Historical Conflicts Impede Water Cooperation.......................................................................81
IV.9 Southern Africa’s International Shared Water Facility: A Call to Balance the Technical with the Social.................................84
IV.10 The Indus Water Treaty: Incentives for Negotiating Agreements.................................................................................................................88
IV.11 Mining: Bridging the Gap between Those Who Profit and Those Who Suffer.....................................................................................89
IV.12 Strategies for Supporting Grassroots Water Advocacy.....................................................................................................................................91
FIGURES
I.1 Transboundary River Basin Events, 1948-1998......................................................................................................................................................... 6
I.2 International River Basins at Risk of Conflict............................................................................................................................................................. 9
I.3 Water Scarcity—Freshwater per Person by Basin................................................................................................................................................24
I.4 A Century of Trends in Natural Disasters: 1900 to 2000................................................................................................................................28
I.5 Climate Change and Global Insecurity........................................................................................................................................................................31
II.1 The CRS Integral Human Development Conceptual Framework Diagram..........................................................................................40
TABLES
I.1 Water as Target, Tool, and/or Goal in Conflicts......................................................................................................................................................... 5
I.2 Summary of Transboundary Water Disputes and Potential for Disputes...............................................................................................10
II.1 Misconceptions and Clarifications Regarding the Right to Water and Sanitation...............................................................................48
III.1 Peacebuilding-Guided Water Supply Project Planning and Implementation..........................................................................................62
iii
INTRODUCTION
Purpose, Audience, and Overview “Too often, where we need
water, we find guns instead.”
Water is a vital resource. Not only a font of life, it often helps to bring people
together. But access to water is highly unequal between and within countries. Much Ban Ki-Moon 2008
of the world’s population lives in places where demand for water exceeds supply,
or poor quality limits its use. Scarcity of water and inequities in access, use, and
decision-making can threaten life itself, diminish the quality of life, and impede integral
human development. Water scarcity and inequities are also risk factors for violent
conflict. Water-related violence is already common in many parts of the world and is
generally expected to increase in the years ahead.
This document is intended to assist water development practitioners, civil society

peacebuilders, and human rights advocates as they seek to integrate water and
peacebuilding into their project programming. The purpose is essentially two-fold:
Photo by Anna Husarska/IRC, 2007. Reprinted with permission.

• Informative—to provide a conceptual framework for the major issues
and dynamics.
• Programmatic—to provide practical guidance and tools for action.
The text distills much of the extensive water, conflict, and cooperation material
produced by researchers and development practitioners in the field to date, and
presents it in the following sequence:
• Current global water situation.

• Concepts of conflict, violence, conflict transformation, and cooperation
as applied to water.
• Manifestations of water-related conflict, as well as historical perspectives Clashes between insurgents and
and future trends at the international and intranational levels. government forces forced many
• Underlying causes of water-related conflict, broken down into socio- Somalis to flee their homes. A dry
economic, institutional/political, and environmental factors. tapstand provides no solace to this
• Peacebuilding principles for program design, rooted in CRS values, Catholic thirsty refugee child in Somalia’s
Mudug Province.
social teaching, U.N. Declarations on the Human Right to Water, and
International Humanitarian Law in situations of warfare, including the
Geneva Convention.
• Points for reflection, including a brief review of ethical obligations related
to the challenging field of water and peacebuilding.
• A discussion of peacebuilding perspectives guiding water development
strategies, water-related conflict transformation tools, and recommended
steps for dealing with specific water-related conflict scenarios.
Throughout the document, case studies and reflections are included to keep theory
grounded in the reality in which international water development practitioners,
human rights advocates, and peacebuilders are working.
v
Key Terms
Improved Water Source: Water services provided through household connections, public standpipes, boreholes, protected
wells or springs, and rainwater collection. (World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF))
Access to an Improved Water Source: The ability to obtain at least 20 liters per person per day from an “improved” source
that is within one kilometer of the user’s dwelling. (WHO, UNICEF)
Water Stress: A situation in which the demand for water exceeds the available amount during a certain period or in which
poor quality restricts its use. (European Environmental Agency) Countries or populations having between 1,000 and 1,700 m3
of renewable water resources per person per year for all uses are considered water-stressed. (UN Environment Programme
(UNEP)
Water Scarcity: A condition characterized by insufficient water resources to satisfy the average, long-term total demand
requirements by all sectors, including the environment. (European Environmental Agency) Countries or populations having less
than 1,000 m3 of renewable water resources per person per year for all uses are considered to be water-scarce. (UNEP)
Water Security: The ability of a country or population to access sufficient quantities of improved water to maintain adequate
standards of food and goods production, sanitation, and health. (Hoffman, 2004) “Water insecurity” is the lack of same.
Virtual Water: The amount of water consumed in the production process for a given quantity of food or other products.
(World Water Council)
Tension: A strained relationship between individuals, groups, nations, etc. (Random House Dictionary)
Conflict: A social situation in which a minimum of two actors or parties strive to acquire at the same moment an available
set of scarce resources. (Wallensteen, 2002) Conflicts are an unavoidable part of social change in all societies.
Conflict “Transformation”: A step beyond negotiated conflict “resolution” in which the parties to the conflict, their
relationships to each other, and the structural elements that underlie the conflict are non-violently “transformed.”
(See discussion of Neufeldt, et al, below.)
Water-Related Conflict: Conflicts arising between two or more parties holding competing claims over a water resource,
its allocation, or its use. (OECD DAC, 2005)
Violent Conflict: A dispute between a minimum of two or more parties in which physical force is exerted for the
purpose of inflicting injury or damage upon one’s adversaries. Such a conflict may or may not involve weapons.
(American Heritage Dictionary)
War: A state of open, armed, often prolonged conflict carried on between nations, states, or parties.
(American Heritage Dictionary)
Peacebuilding: CRS defines this term as a process of changing unjust social and political structures through “right relationships.”
The process transforms the way in which people, communities, and societies live, heal, and structure their relationships and
creates a space in which mutual trust, respect, and interdependence can grow.
vi
Water Resources: A Global Perspective
Water is vital for sustaining the life of each person, for sustaining health and socio-economic well-being, and for making possible
the very existence of life on our planet. The total amount of water on Planet Earth is fixed. Of the world’s water, only 2.5% is
freshwater (i.e., not salty), most of which is locked up in glaciers or deep underground. The entire body of freshwater found in
lakes and rivers makes up only 0.01% of the planet’s total 1.4 billion cubic kilometers of water (Gleick, 2006). With the human
population at 6.5 billion and climbing, the per capita quantity of freshwater continues to decline. Yet the principal problem
continues to be man-made: the inequitable access to and distribution of freshwater, which is highly variable between and
within countries.
Nearly one billion people lack access to improved water. Approximately 2.5 billion people have no adequate access to improved
sanitation facilities, i.e., piped sewers, septic tanks, latrines. About 80% of people with poor access to water and sanitation live
in rural areas. Every year, 2.1 million people–mainly children–die due to illnesses related to dirty water, poor sanitation, and
poor hygiene.
Approximately one third of the world’s population lives in water-stressed countries, primarily in Asia and Africa. By 2025, the
proportion of the world’s population living in water-stressed countries is set to increase to two-thirds. Accordingly, water-related
conflicts are expected to intensify in such areas. Absolute water scarcity already affects more than 500 million people in more
than 30 countries. The role of water scarcity in creating preconditions of discontent and desperation—precursors to violent
conflict—is widely acknowledged (S. Postel and A. Wolf, 2001).
Global water use almost tripled in the second half of the 20th century, increasing much faster than the world’s population in
that same time period. Water resources are used for a variety of human activities, broadly divided between agriculture (70%),
industry (22%) and domestic use (8%). These often-competing uses of freshwater frequently cause conflict.
Conflict Transformation and Cooperation
Recognizing that conflicts are an unavoidable part of social change in all societies, the peacebuilder aims not to prevent conflicts
per se, but rather to transform them and avert violence. Before delving deeper into conflicts associated specifically with water,
it might be helpful to consider some characteristics of contemporary conflict in general. Azar’s work (1983) points out these
elements of protracted contemporary conflict:
• Some form of scarcity

• Real or perceived inequity
• Monopolizing of power by dominant individuals or groups, limiting access to other groups
(crisis of legitimacy)
• Regional instability
• Political fragmentation
• Fragile state structures
• Competition for land and/or limited resources, including water
• Ethnic tensions
Conflicts often arise when people are deprived of basic human needs, resulting in demands for improved services or
opportunities, including security, recognition, acceptance, fair access to political institutions, and economic participation.
In such situations of conflict, violence may or may not be present.
vii
Tension among competing parties over access to water, its uses, and allocation often
leads to outright conflict that can become violent if not adequately addressed. While
water is very rarely the single—and seldom the major—cause of conflict between or
within nations, it does have the potential to exacerbate existing tensions as well as to
impede progress toward resolving already existing broader conflicts.
Photo by Karl Grobl/CRS, 2004.

In 2000, violent water conflicts occurred in Shandong, China, where farmers clashed
with police in response to government plans to divert irrigation water to cities and
industries. Water conflict also took place that same year in Cochabamba, Bolivia,
where violent government repression of tens of thousands of protestors occurred
following the privatization of its municipal water services. Indeed, history is full of
Komping Pouy Reservoir, Cambodia,
examples of violent conflicts that have been due, at least in part, to issues of control
between Bavel and Banan districts in of and access to water resources. Such incidents may be a prelude to the kinds of
Battambang Province. The peaceful tensions that can be expected in the future as water demand outstrips available
surroundings belie its origins: it was water resources.
dug by forced labor in the mid-1970s.
Many lives were lost from overwork, Direct violent conflicts over water are most likely to occur on a local level—where
starvation, and execution. international organizations and their local partners dedicated to water development
often have their greatest impact.
In seeking to assist practitioners to establish programs aimed at preventing and

mitigating water-related violent conflicts on the ground, we discuss peacebuilding
concepts and dispute resolution techniques, with specific examples of their utilization.
Wallensteen (2002) notes that the goal is to promote conflict transformation, which
he defines as:
A situation where the conflicting parties enter into an agreement that

solves their central incompatibilities, where they accept each other’s
continued existence as parties, and where they cease all violent action
against each other.
Like conflict transformation, peacebuilding is a “people-centered, relationship-building,

and participatory process,” as defined by Caritas Internationalis in its 2002 training
manual. Caritas goes on to say,
Peacebuilding occurs either before a violent conflict erupts (a preventative

measure), or after a violent conflict ends (an effort to rebuild a more
peaceful society). It may take the form of activities designed to increase
tolerance and promote coexistence, or activities may address structural
sources of injustice or conflict. . . . Transforming conflict seeks to alter
unjust and unequal relationships and social structures in ways that build
a more just society. Thus, conflict transformation goes beyond the concept
of conflict resolution in that it requires a transformation of the parties,
their relationships to each other, and the structural elements that underlie
the conflict. (Neufeldt et al., 2002, pp. 14–15)
viii
Part 1
WATER, CONFLICT, AND COOPERATION
Men and women of Pucara Pajchani, Bolivia, working together
to install their community drinking water system. BACKGROUND
Artist: Eleuterio Chambi Chura of El Alto, Bolivia, 2007.
Reprinted with permission.
1 WATER AND CONFLICT
Lack of Access to Water as “Structural Violence”

The most widespread manifestation of water-related violence is the deprivation of
access to improved water and basic sanitation, a situation of “structural violence” “Before [the water well
affecting hundreds of millions of poor people around the world. installation], the school would
close in the dry season because
Imagine the death of the entire under-five population of New York City and London the children would be collecting
together to get a rough sense of the impact of the approximately1.8 million child water all day."
deaths occurring each year as a result of diarrhea caused by unclean water and
poor sanitation. Death from diarrhea is the second biggest killer of children (15% of Grace Justin, mother from South Sudan,
all infant deaths), after acute respiratory infections (Foro Nacional de Agua, 2008). quoted in P. Martell, 2009
While these young deaths are perhaps the most disturbing manifestation of water-
related “structural violence,” other manifestations include:
• Illness— at any given time close to half of all people in developing

countries suffer from a health problem caused by water and sanitation
deficits.
“About half a million maternal
• Lost educational opportunities—443 million school days each year are deaths occur each year in
lost to water-related illness (UNDP, 2006). developing countries because
of pregnancy complications. For
• Large-scale productivity losses, not to mention lost opportunities for example, carrying heavy water
personal development—In El Salvador, for example, impoverished rural
families without access to water in the home spend an average of 8.5% pots is a primary cause of pelvic
of their productive time just getting water (Foro Nacional de Agua, 2008). distortion that can lead to death
in childbirth.”
With almost two in every three people without access to clean water surviving on
Aureli and Brelet 2004, p. 22
less than $2 a day, this is a crisis and a brutal violence being faced above all by the
world’s poor. Any effort to promote water-related conflict transformation must
recognize this reality (UNDP, 2006b).
As demands for water come up against the limits of finite supply, water-related
conflicts are bound to rise, especially within nations. That means that even greater
efforts must be made to prevent and mitigate conflict. Access to nearby and
adequate supplies of improved water for domestic consumption mitigate the
“structural” violence inflicted upon those enduring grinding poverty, especially women
and children. More time can then be dedicated to productive, income-generating
efforts for adults, and educational opportunities for children. As a result, tensions may
subside and a renewed sense of communal dignity and cooperation may reign.
Water and Conflict Incorporating Peacebuilding into Water Development 3

Water Conflict on the Local, National, International,

and Global Levels
“We ask for water; they give
Water conflict occurs on four interdependent levels.
us [tear] gas!”
Cochabamba, Bolivia. Local: between societal groups competing for water in a specific area, or between
Graffiti during 2000 “Water Revolt” a state and its citizens in a specific area.
Examples range from tribal tension over access to a water point, to entire
communities being displaced by the construction of a dam, to a general
population’s response to the poor governance of their water services. At the local
level, such tension over water use, its availability, and allocation, can contribute
to low-scale violence, which can escalate into instability within states and across
subregions. As for tension between citizens and state authorities, initial forms of
conflict are frequently manifested in acts of civil disobedience, which may escalate
into acts of sabotage and violent protest if adequate participatory decision-making
is not achieved. Violent repression by the state in response to citizen protests has
not been uncommon.
National: between different interest groups in relation to national policies affecting

water management.
Examples include hostilities generated by inadequate or even contradictory

national regulations governing competing sectors and priorities, from farming to
industry, environmental protection to municipal water supplies. Such conflicts stem
GEHRIG01.Photo by Jason Gehrig/CRS, 2006.
from a lack of integrated water resources management at the national level. In

most cases these conflicts are resolved through courts or political processes. But
where governments are weak or corrupt, these conflicts often lead to violence.
International: between states over the use of shared water resources.
Examples include tension and threatened hostilities between upstream and

downstream states over the use of shared rivers, as well as other transboundary
bodies of surface water and underground aquifers. Such tension between
The daily “structural” violence inflicted countries may hinder sustainable development, indirectly driving poverty, migration,
upon the world’s poor because they and social instability. It also has the potential to exacerbate other non-water-
lack access to improved water– related violent conflicts.
especially women and children–is
represented by this small boy sent out Global: between marginalized and affluent populations, in which conflicts result
long distances daily to fetch water in when resources are distributed from marginalized populations on the periphery
Anchallani, Bolivia.
to more privileged sectors comprising the core.
For example, conflict arises as global freshwater and land resources dedicated
to agricultural production are prioritized by the markets and market-friendly
governmental policies. The demands of increasing affluence (e.g. grain-based
4 Water and Conflict Incorporating Peacebuilding into Water Development

biofuels for cars and trucks and water-intensive crops for export) prevail over the
MOHNE. Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.

basic human needs of impoverished local populations.
Water as Target, Tool, and/or Goal in Conflicts

The Pacific Institute’s database on Water and Conflict classifies the roles of water in
conflicts between adversaries (P. Gleick 2008). Table I.1 presents a description and
example of each of these roles.
British Bombing of the Mohne Dam in

the Ruhr Valley of Germany during WWII.
Table I.1: Water as Target, Tool and/or Goal in Conflicts

Excerpts from P. Gleick, “Water Conflict Chronology” (2008).

Roles of Water in Conflict Description Example
Military Target When destruction of a water system/ 1943: British Royal Air Force bombed dams on the
facility is used as an instrument of war. Möhne, Sorpe, and Eder Rivers, Germany. Möhne
Dam breech killed 1,200 people and destroyed all
downstream dams for 50 km.
2001: U.S. forces bombed the hydroelectric facility

at Kajaki Dam in Afghanistan in order to cut off
electricity to the city of Kandahar.
Military Tool When control of a water system/facility is 1992: Bosnian Serbs took control of water valves
used as an instrument of war. regulating flows from wells that provided more than
80% of the water to the besieged city of Sarajevo.
Political Tool When control of a water system/facility 1999: In Puerto Rico, protesters blocked the Blanco
is used for political gain against one’s River water intake to navy base, following chronic
adversaries. water shortages in neighboring towns—a non-violent
conflict.
Source of Development When inequitable distribution and use of 2006: At least 40 people died in Kenya and Ethiopia
Dispute water resources leads to a degradation of in continuing clashes over water, livestock, and grazing
another’s source of water. land.
2007: In India, thousands of farmers breached security

and stormed the area of the Hirakud dam to protest
allocation of water to industry.
Means of Terror When an individual or organized group 2003: In Iraq, a sabotage/bombing of a 6-foot diameter
employs the unlawful use or threatened water supply pipeline in Baghdad took place.
use of force or violence against people or
property with the intention of intimidating
or coercing societies or governments,
often for ideological or political reasons.
Political/Military Goal When one country strives to permanently 1986: South African troops moved into Angola to
possess or control another nation’s water take possession and defend the Ruacana hydropower
resources. complex.

Historical Perspective and Future Trends
Water-Related Conflict between Nations
“Simply put, water is a In 1995, World Bank Vice President Ismail Serageldin warned, “The wars of the next
greater pathway to peace than century will be about water!” Despite oft-quoted predictions of impending “water
wars” between states, one would, however, have to go back 4,500 years to find the
violent conflict in the world’s
last recorded time that two nations went to full-blown war specifically over water.
international river basins.” It occurred between the two Mesopotamian city-states of Lagash and Umma in
Wolf, Kramer, Carius, and Dabelko 2006 modern day Southern Iraq (Gleick, 2008).
Figure I.1. Transboundary River Basin Events, 1948-1998.

Source: Transboundary Freshwater Dispute Database, Department of Geosciences,
Oregon State University, <http://www.transboundarywaters.orst.edu>.
Reproduced with permission.

Two opposite perceptions of the threat of water-related warfare are widespread.

One perception is reflected in the research of Wolf, Yoffe and Glordano (Figure
I.1), showing that instances of cooperation between riparian nations within a
transboundary river basin–i.e., states situated alongside the bank of a common river
or other body of water–have outnumbered conflicts by more than two to one in “While rarely (if ever) starting
the second half of the 20th century. Between the years 805 and 1984, countries a war between states, water
signed more than 3,600 water-related treaties (Postel and Wolf, 2001). It appears allocation is often a key sticking
that because water is so important, nations cannot afford to fight over it. Functioning point in ending conflict and
more as a “connector” than a “divider,” water tends to serve as a catalyst for greater undertaking national and
interdependence between nations. regional reconstruction and
development.”
Others, however, argue that in the case of freshwater—given its increasingly scarce
nature, coupled with the lack of a substitute for most of its uses—the past is not Carius, Dabelko, and Wolf 2004, 1
a reliable guide to the future. Such analysts note that while history suggests that
cooperation over water resources has been the norm, it certainly is not the rule.
On 37 recorded occasions in the second half of the 20th century alone, countries
concerned about water fired shots, blew up a dam, or undertook some form of
military action (with 30% of the disputes occurring between Israel and one of its
neighbors) (Wolf et al., 2006). Britain’s former defense secretary, John Reid, on the
eve of a 2006 summit on climate change, predicted, “Violence and political conflict
would become more likely as watersheds turn to deserts, glaciers melt and water
supplies are poisoned.” Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair also noted, “Such
changes make the emergence of violent conflict more, rather than less, likely”
(Barlow, 2008).
Furthermore, water-related conflicts that begin on the local level as a manifestation

of internal strife, from sub-Saharan Africa to the Balkans, have the potential to spill
over into neighboring countries, causing an internationalization of violent conflict.
Despite serious concerns, the hasty application of “war language” to water conflicts
can actually aggravate strife. Carius et al. (2003) note, “Such rhetoric does not easily
lead to a program of action for conflict prevention and human development.” Wolf
et al. (2006), among others, note the importance of avoiding “media-friendly but
historically inaccurate” language about interstate “water wars”:
• The “water wars” angle discourages the engagement of key

developmental and environmental partners in favor of military and
other security groups.
• Water management offers an avenue for peaceful dialogue

between nations, even when combatants are fighting over other
issues. . . . Water management builds bridges between nations. . . .
Water cooperation forges people-to-people or expert-to-expert
connections. . . . A water peacemaking strategy can create shared
regional identities and institutionalize cooperation on issues larger
than water.

Moving beyond the debate over whether or not there will be future “water wars” between countries, researchers at Oregon
State University undertook a two-year study of conflict and cooperation within international river basins (S. Yoffe, 2001). They
identified international river basins at risk as those meeting criteria of:
• High population density (>100/sq.km).

• Low per capita GDP (< $765/person–1998 World Bank lowest income country definition).
• Overall unfriendly relations.
• Politically active minority groups that may lead to internationalization of the conflict.
• Proposed large dams or other water development projects.
• No or only limited freshwater treaties.
The results of their analysis models led them to conclude that the likelihood of conflict in international river basins increases
significantly whenever two factors come into play:
• When some large or rapid change occurs in the basin’s physical setting—e.g., the construction of a dam, river diversion,
or irrigation scheme—or in its political setting—e.g., the breakup of a nation, resulting in formerly “national” rivers
becoming “international.”
• When existing institutions are unable to absorb and effectively manage change in a transboundary river’s physical or
political setting. (This is the situation when no treaty, implicit agreement, or cooperative arrangement exists to spell out
each nation’s rights and responsibilities with regard to the shared river).
As illustrated in Figure I.2 and listed in Table I.2 (categories 1 and 2), 17 such river basins are ripe for the onset of tensions or
conflict in the coming years. They encompass more than 50 nations on five continents, the majority of them in southeast Asia
and central and southern Africa. These countries could be spiraling toward transboundary water disputes unless they move
quickly to achieve agreements on how to share the rivers that bind them. An additional 15 international river basins (category 3
of Table I.2) have been identified as being potentially at risk in the future, based on the criteria presented above, although they
lacked tension in the public arena and media at the time of the study in 2001.

Figure I.2. International River Basins at Risk of Conflict.

Source: Transboundary Freshwater Dispute Database, Department of Geosciences, Oregon State University,
<http://www.transboundarywaters.orst.edu>. Reproduced with permission.

Table I.2. Summary of Transboundary Water Disputes and Potential for Disputes
Adapted from Shira B. Yoffe, “Basins at Risk,” 2001.
CATEGORY 1 – Basins Currently in Dispute/Negotiations
“The well known ‘hot spots,’ where the potential for continued disputes, at least into the immediate future, is considered likely. While each basin has a
treaty associated with it, none of those treaties include all of the basin riparians.”
Aral Sea Afghanistan, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan
Jordan Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria
Nile Burundi, Congo (Kinshasa), Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda
Tigris-Euphrates Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey
CATEGORY 2 – Basins at Risk
“Basins in which factors point to the potential for future conflict and in which up-coming development projects or other stresses upon the water
system have raised protests among the riparians.”
Asi/Orontes Lebanon, Syria, Turkey
Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, China, India, Nepal
Han North and South Korea
Indus Afghanistan, China, India, Pakistan
Kunene Angola, Namibia
Lake Chad Algeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Libya, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan
Mekong Burma, Cambodia, China, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam
Okavango Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe
Salween Myanmar, China, Thailand
Senegal Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal
CATEGORY 3 – Basins Identified as Potentially Being at Risk in the Future
“Similar to category 2, in that there is a confluence of factors which indicate the potential for future conflict; however, unlike category 2 basins, there
is no evidence of existing tensions in public policy or news fora.” (as of 2001)
Ca Laos, Vietnam
Chiloango Angola, Congo (Kinshasa, Brazzaville)
Cross Cameroon, Nigeria
Drin Albania, Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro
Irrawaddy Burma, China, India
Kura-Araks Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Turkey
La Plata Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay
Limpopo Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe
Lempa El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras
Ob China, Kazakhstan, Russia
Red China, Laos, Vietnam
Saigon Cambodia, Vietnam
Song Vam Co Dong Cambodia, Vietnam
Yalu China, North Korea
Zambezi Angola, Botswana, Congo (Kinshasa), Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Water-Related Conflict within Nations

According to Eriksson et al., in 2003, between 1988 and 2004, 80%-90% of armed conflicts have been internal, i.e., within
nations. Water scarcity is widely recognized as one of the causes of significant violence and conflict within nations. Many
disputes erupt in water-stressed countries, especially in the downstream regions of over-tapped river basins. Water stress
and scarcity continue to spread as populations increase and withdrawal rates of freshwater resources exceed recharge.
Thus, the regions within countries that are vulnerable to water stress are particularly ripe for water-related conflict.
Millions of the world’s poor, particularly those in rural areas surviving on subsistence farming, depend on water for
their livelihoods. Increasing water scarcity, in combination with low economic development and weak governance, are
indicators that conflict and instability are likely to increase in frequency. Box I.1 presents a particularly extreme case of
this kind of water-scarcity-driven violence.
Box I.1 Somalia: Water Well Widows, Warlords, and Warriors

Excerpts from E. Wax and R. Thomason, “Dying for Water in Somalia’s Drought” (2006).
Villagers of Rabdore, Somalia call it the “War of the Well,” a battle that erupted between two clans over control of a
watering hole in this dusty, drought-stricken trading town. By the time it ended two years later, 250 men were dead. “‘We
call them the warlords of water”’ Fatuma Ali Mahmood, 35, said about the armed men who control access to water sources.
One day last year, Mahmood's husband went out in search of water. Two days later, he was found dead. He was shot when
an angry crowd began fighting over the well, she said. “His body was bloodied, swollen and just lying there with the other
dead by the well, left in disgrace. The shame. We'd never seen conflict at this level of violence,” she explained, shielding her
eyes from a dust storm that was swirling in the heat under a blue sky. “Thirst forces men to this horror of war.”
In Somalia, a well is as precious as a town bank, controlled by warlords and guarded with weapons. During the region's
relentless three-year drought, water has become a resource worth fighting and dying over.
Long-term solutions to fighting drought include collecting what little rainwater that does fall, building modern irrigation
systems and using new water exploration techniques, water experts said. But that kind of effort typically requires the
coordination and enforcement of a central government, said Zlatan Milisic, the World Food Program's country director for
Somalia. “Somalia at heart is a water crisis that has turned into a food crisis. The effects here are worse than anywhere
else because there's no government, there's no stability. To me, this is the most unstable place in the world that is currently
suffering a drought.”
Another widow from the ”War of the Well” laments, “I pray to God and wait for my paradise to come. In paradise, I'll be
shading under a thick mango tree. I will be fat. My children will be dressed in smart uniforms for school. They will be reading
me very nice stories,” she said. “The most important is that they won't have thirst. Our mouths will always be wet. We'll drink
in peace.”

A sampling of typical water-related conflicts encountered on the local and national levels by
development practitioners and human rights advocates includes:
1. Poor water system governance and administration: Issues of corruption, lack of required
administrative/technical skills, failure to value water / insufficient pricing and lack of cross-
subsidizing to promote social equity.
2. Contamination of water sources: Diminished quality and/or quantity due to unsustainable

agriculture, mining–both artisan and capital-intensive, solid wastes, untreated wastewaters, etc.
3. Increasing water scarcity: Result of increasing population, life expectancy, affluence,

economic growth, and agricultural production, coupled with poor water resources
stewardship.
4. Disputes over ownership of water sources and water usage rights: Competition among
industry, agriculture, domestic use, ecological use, etc.
5. Prohibitions imposed by landowners impeding access to water facilities: Through the lack
of easements and documentation of past agreements, project implementation, operations,
and maintenance can be delayed and even denied as a result of prohibitions imposed by
landowners to accessing water sources, pipelines, and other water system infrastructure.
6. Disputed access to water supply systems: Conflict between those who are “in” (who
worked to install the systems) and those who are “out” (who didn’t help install the systems),
but who now want to be connected and cannot afford the high connection fees.
7. External parties’ inappropriate interventions/failure to follow through: Actions by

international cooperation groups and governmental bodies, etc., resulting in divided and
distrustful communities.
8. Lack of national water laws: Failure to reach consensus among impacted stakeholders and
particular sectors competing for the same water resources.
9. Deforestation due to large concessions and illegal cutting: Devastated ecosystems and
ruined local livelihoods, leading to violence and scarcity of water.

10. Decentralization without safeguards: Failure to safeguard local

stakeholder participation in decentralized decision-making, often giving
rise to fears among the general population of a “back-door” attempt to
privatize water services.
11. Ruling government political party maneuvering: Drought relief ordered

only for affiliates of governing
party, use of anti-terrorist laws to suppress public protest over possible
water privatization, government “aid” used to create division in
community co-ops.

12. Natural disasters and consequences of global climate change: More
extreme weather events, changing animal and plant patterns, increased
tropical illnesses, rising sea levels, etc.
13. Dams: Impacts of new construction on upstream/downstream

Protests against the San Roque Dam in
communities and ecosystems, impact by existing dams on lower
the Philippines. Large dams often force
communities, including outflow discharges during extreme water events. indigenous peoples to relocate from
lands that for centuries sustained their
14. Clashes of perspectives/world views: Water as just another commodity way of life. Source: International Rivers,
to be bought and sold vs. perception of water as a global/community www.internationalrivers.org.
commons.
15. Open-pit metal mining: Heavy extraction of water resources for start-up
and operations, lasting contamination of adjacent water resources, few
local jobs, and little public revenue.

Underlying Causes of Water-Related Conflict
Although water is seldom the sole source of conflict, it contributes decisively to

conflicts among parties with opposing interests. There are a myriad of underlying
causes of water conflict. Though integrally linked and mutually reinforcing, the
“It is one of the crueler ways in which water contributes to conflict can be divided along socio-economic,
ironies of today’s world water institutional, and environmental lines.
situation that those with the
lowest income generally pay 1. Socio-Economic Factors:
the most for their water.”
• Increasing Affluence and Demand
Kofi Annan 2003 • Poverty and Impoverishment
• Commodification Initiatives
• Social Inequity / Marginalization / Economic Disparities
• Competing Interests at the Community Level
2. Institutional/Political Factors:
• Governance Failures / Lack of Transparency
• Transboundary Tensions
• Aggressive Foreign Policies Cloaked in “National Security” Claims
• Culture of Militarism with Impunity / History of Violence
• Dam Projects
3. Environmental Factors:
• Water Scarcity
• Population Growth and Basic Human Needs
• Natural Disasters
• Climate Change
• Watershed Degradation
• Water Pollution
• Extractive Industries and Water
Further explanation along with specific examples follow to illustrate these

underlying causes of water-related conflict.

Socio-Economic Factors
Increasing Affluence and Demand for Water

While the world’s population tripled in the 20th century, the demand for renewable water resources grew sixfold. In both
absolute and proportional terms, more of humanity is achieving the economic ability to embrace a Western, middle-class
lifestyle, from owning a personal vehicle to eating a diet richer in meat and seafood.
The amount of water used per capita for drinking (2 to 5 liters per day) or for washing, sanitation, and other household needs
(50 to 200 liters per day) is minute in comparison to the amount of water used in food production and preparation. The per
capita utilization of water in producing and preparing food varies from 1,000 liters per day for a survival diet, to 2,600 liters per
day for a vegetarian diet to more than 5,000 liters per day of water for a U.S.-style meat-based diet. While approximately 1,000
liters of water is required to produce one kilogram of wheat bread, the same weight in beef requires approximately 13 times
more water to produce (World Water Council, 2004).
The water demands of the affluent negatively impact impoverished communities and the vulnerable ecological balance between
humanity and the natural world. Here are a few examples of such conflict:
• Increased seafood demand in the developed world has led to ecologically unsustainable activities as large-scale
aquaculture and commercial fishing threaten the livelihoods of traditional coastal peoples who depend upon the natural
environment.
• Millions of peasants have been forcibly relocated as massive, newly-constructed dams caused their lands and homes
to be submerged in order to provide power for industrial complexes churning out products to meet global consumer
demand.
• To obtain one ounce of gold (equivalent to a single wedding band), the mining industry must remove on average five
to twenty tons of earth (K. Patterson, 2006), employing chemical processes which often result in nearby waters being
poisoned for decades to come.
This misallocation of land and water resources is a global social inequity in which the markets serve the interests of the rich at
the expense of the basic human needs of the world’s poor.
Generations-old cultural values of environmentally sustainable, harmonious lifestyles are often devastated by poverty, especially
if it is coupled with migration and urbanization. From use of slash-and-burn farming techniques by impoverished farmers who
have few choices to the poisoning of rivers by informal, urban commercial sectors, such degradation of the environment
leads to rapidly deteriorating sources of water, in terms of both quantity and quality. The result of this poverty-driven water
degradation is often conflict.

Commodification Initiatives
Water is a battleground issue in which proponents of maintaining the “global water
“Water promises to be to commons” run up against those who espouse the “free market” commodification
the 21st century what oil of water. Examples of opposing ideologies abound where certain westernized local
was to the 20th century: the values–individualism, consumerism, capitalism–become global and contradict other
precious commodity that older local cultural values. Frequently such conflict results from the conditions under
determines the wealth which loans are given by multilateral lending institutions, conditions that require the
privatization of urban water services administration. This occurs despite a global
of nations.”
context in which some 90% of urban water supply systems are still publicly owned
Shawn Tully 2000 and operated, thus setting in motion enormous conflict within cultures.
Postel and Wolf (2001) note that “Transfers of water system ownership and/or
management from public authorities to private multinational corporations are a new
source of many water-related conflicts since the 1990s.” Box I.2 provides a concrete
example of the profit-driven economic and social damage that often results.

Box I.2 “Water Revolt” in Cochabamba, Bolivia

In 1996, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, through a series
of structural adjustment policies, made the privatization of the municipal water services for two of Bolivia’s major urban
centers, El Alto/La Paz and Cochabamba, a precondition for further water infrastructure development assistance. The
multilateral lending institutions also recommended that there be “no public subsidies” to hold down increases in the
price of water services. By September 1999, Cochabamba’s water services were turned over to Aguas del Tunari,
controlled by the California engineering giant Bechtel. It was the sole bidder in a 40-year concession contract signed
behind closed doors.
To understand what provoked tens of thousands of protestors to converge upon Cochabamba in early 2000, despite
severe government repression and the declaration of martial law, a quick review of the terms of the water privatization
contract is helpful:
• Aguas del Tunari was authorized to take over the municipal water network and all the smaller systems—industrial,
agricultural, and residential—in the metropolitan area, and would have exclusive rights to all the water in the district,
even in the aquifer.
• Within a few weeks, Bechtel’s company raised water rates by an average of more than 50%.
• The new water company could install meters and begin charging for water on the many cooperative wells throughout
the concession area—despite the fact that the government had not helped build the wells. These expropriations were
legal under a new water law that had been rushed through the Bolivian Congress.
• The contract guaranteed the company an average 16% annual return on its investment, which would be adjusted
annually to the consumer price index in the United States.
• Peasants were prohibited from constructing collection tanks to gather water from the rain in the area of concession
granted to the transnational water corporation. In order to do so, permission would be required of the government
regulating agency. W. Finnegan reported, “Bechtel came to Cochabamba and, as the local peasants put it, tried to
‘lease the rain.’ ” (2002).
Only after 17-year-old Victor Hugo Daza was assassinated by an army sniper—a graduate of the U.S. School of the
Americas—did Bechtel finally leave Bolivia (Olivera 2004). Yet the aggression against Bolivia’s people continued. In
November 2002, Aguas del Tunari sued the Bolivian government for $50 million, through the International Centre for
Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), a mechanism of the same World Bank that had imposed the privatization in
the first place. The $50 million claim was not only for the recovery of investments, which were estimated at less than a
million dollars (for the half year of Bechtel’s management of Cochabamba’s water services), but primarily for estimated
unrealized future profits due to the annulment of the 40-year concession contract. J. Schultz (2006) noted that only
under substantial international civil society pressure did Bechtel finally agree to drop their case before ICSID in January
2006 for a token payment of 2 bolivianos (30 U.S. cents). The impoverished country of Bolivia by then had already
spent an additional one million dollars in legal fees over three years defending itself.

The World Bank Group’s Private Participation in Infrastructure Database points out
that, “53 water privatization projects representing 31% of total investment in the
water sector [were] cancelled or under distress,” for the period 1990-2006–23
of them in East Asia and 25 in Latin America. A total of 93 countries participated
in water privatization projects in 2000, but by 2007 the number of countries was
down to 63. Total annual investment in the sector peaked in 1997 at $10.2 billion,
Photo by Amit Srivastava/IndiaResource.org. Reprinted with permission.

falling to $3.2 billion in 2007. In 2006, the UNDP’s Human Development Report
acknowledged, “The conviction that the private sector offers a ‘magic bullet’ for
unleashing the equity and efficiency needed to accelerate progress towards water
for all has proven to be misplaced” (p. 21).
Similarly, unsustainable groundwater mining practices by water and beverage

bottlers, as depicted in Box I.3, are causing untold numbers of conflicts throughout
the developing and the developed world.
Box I.3 Indian Farmers vs. Bottling Industry

Water and beverages bottlers are coming under increasingly intense scrutiny
March to beverage bottling plant in from neighboring communities in both developing and developed countries
Mehdiganj, India. as local water supplies dwindle. One of the most widely-covered conflicts
involves Coca-Cola's bottling plants in India.
Under pressure from student-led campaigns in the United States, Canada,

and the United Kingdom, supporting the demands of local residents for more
responsible corporate behavior, the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)
performed an assessment covering six of the company’s fifty plants in India.
The study concluded in January 2008 that the company sited its bottling
plants in already water-stressed areas, without much thought given to the
impacts on communities. An alarming incidence of pollution in the immediate
vicinity of the bottling plants was also highlighted, with not one plant having
met the company’s own wastewater treatment standards (India Post News
Service, 2008).
The communities’ claims of declining water tables have also been confirmed
by data from the Ground Water Board. This Indian governmental agency
observed that ground water levels dropped up to 8 meters (26 feet) in
the first seven years of the company’s operations, from 1999 to 2006. The
result has been the drying up of wells and hand pumps in the vicinity of the
bottling plants, posing a significant crisis for farmers who rely on the ground
water resource to meet their needs. More than 80% of the community of
Mehdiganj engages in agriculture, where one of the company’s bottling plants
is located, and groundwater remains the primary source of water for the
community to meet all its water needs. Organized community protests and
marches are frequent, with tensions steadily rising (A. Srivastava, 2008).

The failure to consider the full social and economic costs of unsustainable water
practices practically guarantees resentment and future conflict.
Social Inequity / Marginalization / Economic Disparities “Water flows toward power

and money.”
In the early 1900s, William Mulholland, superintendent of the Los Angeles Water
Marc Reisner 1986
Department, resolved the city’s water shortage problem through a brutally effective
innovation: a “water grab”–events dramatized in Roman Polanski’s movie Chinatown
(1974). By disenfranchising farmers in the Owens Valley (200 miles away) of the
water they were using, Mulholland made it possible for Los Angeles to become a
booming city (M. Reisner, 1986). While such kinds of water disputes have long since
been resolved by Californians in courts of law, across much of the developing world
competition over water is intensifying at an alarming rate, giving rise to intense and,
frequently, violent conflict. The danger exists that a new form of “Mulhollandism”
may arise and the interests of the poor–especially small-scale, subsistence farmers–
may be pushed aside as large agricultural, mining and/or industrial interests
(constituencies with a strong political voice) assert their demands for water. As
noted by UNDP, “Inequalities in power can induce deep inequalities in access to
water” (2006b, p. 27).
While affluence and poverty have already been discussed, the role of power
imbalances in water conflict cannot be overstated. “Water flows toward power and
money,” Marc Reisner concluded in his book, Cadillac Desert, which detailed the
history of water development in the American West. Whether in a transboundary
international river basin, where one country has military and economic dominance
over its riparian neighbors, or in the case of a conflict between upstream
transnational mining interests and downstream peasant farmers, socio-economic
disparities fuel the abuse of power that can lead to conflict.
Competing Interests at the Community Level

While many communities have extremely effective mechanisms for dealing with
conflict, it is important for water development practitioners, who operate mainly
at the local level, to know that instability is often the norm in poverty-stricken
and socially excluded areas. Thulani Ndelu of the South African NGO Valley Trust
identified the following community-level conflicts commonly encountered in their
grassroots efforts (1998):
• Political factions struggling for power, resulting in unstable communities

subject to violence and virtual civil war
• Lack of basic resources and unemployment
• Corruption involving access to opportunities and funds
• Discrimination regarding gender, age groups, ethnicity, tribal status, etc.
• Shortage of organization and planning
• Few examples of effective and democratic local institutions

• Lack of common vision

• Limited experience with the skills and processes of conflict management
• Histories of unresolved and simmering disputes
• Little meaningful communication between parents and teenagers, men and
women, neighbors, etc.
Institutional/Political Factors

Photo by Jason Gehrig/CRS, 2008.
Beyond just water scarcity itself, water-related conflicts are also caused by the
way in which water and its uses are governed. Fragmented institutional structures,
and the resulting lack of coordination both between and within states, are major
contributors to water-related conflict. This adds a political dimension that needs
to be addressed in any analysis of water and conflict, alongside the ecological,
hydrological, social, and economic dimensions (H. Ravnborg, 2004).
Political party affiliation cards of
Salvadoran peasants forced to become Governance Failures / Lack of Transparency
members of the governing party in power
as a condition for receiving drought relief.
Public policies are often inadequate for addressing the competing interests around
water resources. The “norms” that are in place benefit the sector for which a given
regulation is passed, whether it be mining, hydroelectric, irrigation, or municipal
water supply. With so much on the line, underpaid public officials charged with
enforcement (regulating agencies, police) or interpretation (judicial) of laws and
regulations are routinely swayed by corruption. Transparency International’s 2008
Global Corruption Report, focusing on corruption in the water sector, includes
reference to a survey in South Asia which concluded, “The impact of corruption
in the construction of water networks may raise the price of access by 25 to 45
“Systemic and repeated percent” (p. 16).
protests should be viewed as
On the one hand, militants of political parties are often placed in administrative
evidence that past policies have positions of public enterprises more because of their connections to the governing
failed, and as an early warning parties in power than their technical skills. On the other hand, privatization schemes
that must not be ignored in the are frequently marred by corruption from the onset, through the relinquishing of
rush to implement particular state control by elected officials and the structuring of such concessions to thwart
notions of development.” public oversight through vast confidentiality clauses. In either case, whether publicly
or privately administered, municipal water services often lack accountability. In the
Ken Conca 2006, p. 2 absence of transparency, accountability, and dialogue, conflict can fester.

Transboundary Tensions
National, regional, and local borders are often drawn along watercourses, making water one of the most common
transboundary issues. More than 45% of the earth’s land surface, encompassing 40% of the world’s population and 60%
of global river flows, is found within the world’s 263 international river basins, which cover 145 nations (Wolf et al., 2006).
Differing perspectives on water-related governance issues by neighboring political entities can lead to conflict over such
issues as water diversion, poor water quality, infringed water rights, and the like. Tensions between countries may hinder
sustainable development, indirectly contributing to further poverty, social instability, and migration.
Aggressive Foreign Policies Cloaked in “National Security” Claims

Political scientists of the “political realism” school describe the behavior of nations as a constant vying for greater relative
power and wealth. “Might makes right” and power maximization is often the rule of the day in an international system that
has minimal global governance. Nations often fend off challenges to such behavior by depicting them as threats to “national
security.” Thus when a natural resources grab takes place, whether in the form of hydrocarbons or water, the employment
of national security and national interest arguments may be used to squelch domestic dissent. Many a government, including
that of the U.S., has invoked “national security” to justify policies ranging from preemptive military invasions/occupations to
frontier wall-building to the repression of internal dissent. Control of transboundary water resources—whether of surface
waters or aquifers below—is likewise at times justified by countries utilizing “national security” and “national interests”
discourse. Box I.4 presents just such a scenario.

Box I.4 Israeli Separation Wall and Palestinian Water Resources

In the case of the seemingly intractable Israel-Palestine conflict, the confiscation and control of Palestinian water
resources is a “defining feature of the Israeli occupation and a major impediment to a just resolution of the conflict”
(CESR, 2003b, p. 1). That the Palestinians’ relative daily water consumption is just a fifth of that of the Israelis’ (CESR,
2004) and a ninth of that of the Jewish settlers in the West Bank (UNDP, 2006b, p. 34) underscores the injustices the
Palestinians face.
Israel monopolizes 85% of the water from the mountain aquifer lying beneath the West Bank, providing the supply
to meet 25% of Israel’s water consumption (CESR, 2003b, p.1). National security serves as the justification for such
measures. In 1990, Israel’s Ministry of Agriculture stated, “Relinquishing the western slopes of the Judean and Samarian
hills (the Western West Bank) will create a situation in which the fate of the Israeli national water supply could be
determined by the actions of whatever Arab authority [controls] the evacuated areas after withdrawal. It is difficult
to conceive of any political solution consistent with Israel’s survival that does not involve complete, continued Israeli
control of the water and sewage systems...” (CESR, 2003a, p. 38).
This control over the “national water supply” is being further arranged through the installation of a separation wall.
In the wake of the Palestinian uprising in 2002, the Israeli government authorized construction of a security wall,
averaging 8 meters (25 feet) high—complete with electric fences, trenches, and security patrols along the entire 220
mile length of the West Bank (Pengon, 2002, p.3). Israel maintains that the wall is serving its citizens’ security concerns.
Yet the separation wall is not being built on, or in most cases even near, the Green Line, the de facto pre-1967
border between Israel and the West Bank. In fact, at some points the wall is being built 7 km inside the Green Line.
The confiscated land, some of Palestine’s most fertile, lies directly over the Western Aquifer, which
is the largest source of groundwater in the West Bank (CESR, 2003a, p. 37).
Because of the wall, several Palestinian villages are losing their only source of water. The village of Jayous had 72%
of its lands isolated from it by the wall, along with all of its seven groundwater wells. The City of Qalquiliya–an
area once known as the West Bank’s “bread basket”–is almost entirely encircled by the wall, resulting in 50% of its
agricultural lands being confiscated, along with 19 of its water wells. This represents 30% of the city’s water supply
(CESR, 2003a, p. 38).
The route of the wall, 80% of which is being built on occupied Palestinian land, and its associated regime,
were declared illegal in an advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2004 (Oxfam, 2007, p. 5).
Yet construction continues, with two thirds of the wall already constructed as of early 2008 (L. Copans, 2008).

Culture of Militarism with Impunity / History of Violence

In a statistical analysis conducted on global data from violent civil conflicts
between 1965 and 1999, Collier et al. (2000) found that the risk of civil war
was systematically linked most strongly to dependence on exports of primary
commodities (i.e. raw materials such as oil and minerals), low average incomes,
Photo by Chris Seremet/CRS

slow growth, and a large diaspora. The study also found that countries that have
recently experienced violent conflict run a very high risk—approximately 40%—of
reversion to violent conflict in the first decade of post-conflict peace. The process
of reconstructing states which have been through civil war marked by armed
violence unrestrained by punishment is slow and uncertain (Zartman, 1995).
As a scarce resource under increasing demand, water can often serve as a flash Nyamba ya Mungu Dam in the
Pangani River Basin, where conflict
point that drives historically opposed parties back into violence. This is especially
over access to water has long been
relevant for the international development community, given that many of its widespread. Northeastern Tanzania,
projects are being undertaken in war-torn and strife-ridden regions of the world. February 2008.
The role of the local civil society is essential to reconstruction. Water-oriented
community projects allow for such civil society leadership structures—from tribal
leaders to local NGOs–to participate directly in the rebuilding of their country.
Dam Projects
Conflicts involving dams and flow diversions frequently generate international
tensions along major transboundary river basins, from the Nile bounded by ten
African countries; to the Tigris and Euphrates, involving Turkey, Syria and Iraq; to
the Indus River, shared by India and Pakistan.
The World Commission on Dams Report (2000) noted that over 45,000 large
dams have been built around the world to meet energy and water needs, including
irrigation, flood control, and domestic supply. More than one-third of the world’s
countries rely on hydropower for more than half of their electrical supply, with
large dams generating 19% of electrical needs overall. Some 30% to 40% of the
271 million hectares irrigated worldwide rely on dams.
Yet such development-enabling dams have come at a tremendous social and

environmental cost. Rivers have been fragmented, and between 40 and 80
million people have been displaced. Millions of people living downstream from
dams—particularly those reliant on natural floodplain function and fisheries—
have suffered serious harm to their livelihoods. Moreover, the report highlighted
sustainability concerns including investment costs required to ensure the integrity
of the dam over time, sedimentation and the resulting long-term loss of storage,
and waterlogging and salinity of one-fifth of irrigated lands, including those supplied
by dams.

Environmental Factors
Water Scarcity
Many places in the world are characterized by arid climates, as identified in Figure I.3. Given such intense water scarcity,
competing interests over the available water resources will naturally lead to increasing tensions, even as other inter-related
factors, such as global warming, population growth, and socio-economic marginalization, weigh into the mix.
Figure I.3. Water Scarcity–Freshwater Per Person by Basin

Source: Transboundary Freshwater Dispute Database, Department of Geosciences, Oregon State University, <http://www.transboundarywaters.orst.edu>.
Reproduced with permission.

Population Growth and Basic Human Needs

In the second half of the 20th century alone, the renewable supply of freshwater per person fell 58% as world
population swelled from 2.5 billion to 6 billion people. Global population is projected to expand to 8.7 billion around
the year 2050, before it plateaus (UNDP, 2006b). Much of this population growth will continue to take place in already
water-stressed countries of the developing world. Increasing demand, along with an increase in the number of parties
competing for a finite resource, such as freshwater, increases the likelihood of tension and conflict. Box I.5 provides
insights into where high population growth and increasing water scarcity are likely to spell conflict in the years ahead.
Box I.5 Population Growth, Water-Related Stress, and Conflict

Excerpts from S. Postel and A. Wolf, “Dehydrating Conflict”(2001).
Water stress is spreading as populations increase. By 2015, nearly 3 billion people— 40 percent of the projected
world population— are expected to live in countries that find it difficult or impossible to mobilize enough water to
satisfy the food, industrial, and domestic needs of their citizens. This scarcity will translate into heightened competition
for water between cities and farms, between neighboring states and provinces, and at times between nations.
The largest and most combustible imbalance between population and available water supplies will be in Asia, where
crop production depends heavily on irrigation. Asia today has roughly 60 percent of the world's people but only
36 percent of the world's renewable fresh water. China, India, Iran, and Pakistan are among the countries where a
significant share of the irrigated land is now jeopardized by groundwater depletion, scarce river water, a fertility-sapping
buildup of salts in the soil, or some combination of these factors. Groundwater depletion alone places 10 to 20 percent
of grain production in both China and India at risk. Water tables are falling steadily in the North China Plain, which
yields more than half of China's wheat and nearly one third of its corn, as well as in northwest India's Punjab, another
major breadbasket.
As farmers lose access to irrigation water and see their livelihoods deteriorate, they may not only resort to violent
protest but also migrate across borders and to restive, already overcrowded cities. Such has been the case in Pakistan,
where falling agricultural output has prompted a massive rural migration to large urban centers, leading to renewed
outbreaks of ethnic violence.
Countries commonly adapt to water stress by importing more of their food, provided they have the foreign exchange
to do so. It takes about 1,000 cubic meters of water to grow one ton of grain. By importing wheat and other staples,
water-stressed countries can allocate more of their scarce fresh water to cities and industries, which generate far more
economic value per liter of water than agriculture does. As an additional billion people are added to water-stressed
countries over the next 15 years and as more countries join the ranks of food importers, demand for international grain
will increase. For those nations without sufficient foreign exchange to turn to imports, notably those in sub-Saharan
Africa (itself a region of significant population growth), higher world grain prices will likely mean greater hunger, more
calls for humanitarian aid and increased likelihood of conflict.

Conflicts are especially likely in countries burdened by physical water scarcity

(e.g., North Africa and Middle East) and/or economic water scarcity (i.e., countries
with adequate primary water resources but inadequate infrastructure and
institutions to make use of them). Such countries struggle to achieve food security
for their citizens. “Virtual” water imports—water used in the production of
imported foodstuffs—are limited options for low-income countries with large
food deficits and insufficient foreign exchange to pay for them. Even impoverished
countries that can afford “virtual” water imports are more susceptible to domestic
food security threats during times of spiking food prices, such as that seen in early
2008, leading to situations of internal conflict. Weather-related droughts, such as
Photo by Karl Grobl for CRS, 2005. the one gripping Australia over the past six years, causing its rice crop to plummet
by 98% (K. Bradsher, 2008), exemplify another aspect of the way in which water
resources affect food crisis.
Natural Disasters
Flooding, hurricanes, tsunamis—the violence inflicted upon human populations
General scenes of destruction, Banda by natural disasters is often devastating. In the aftermath of such water-related
Aceh, Indonesia, 2005. More than disasters, competition for water can be particularly volatile. Unfortunately, the
two weeks after the tsunami hit, in effects of these natural disasters are often intensified by man-made disasters
December of 2004, a body still floats that have already occurred prior to the natural event. As described in Box
in water less than 20 meters from the
I.6, ecologically unsustainable practices, from coral reef and mangrove forest
main road.
destruction to clear-cutting of forests for timber, have diminished the lines of
defense against natural disasters.

Box I.6 Asian Tsunami: Natural and Unnatural Disasters

The United Nations estimates that approximately 230,000 people died in “Those coastlines with
the December 26, 2004, Asian Tsunami (U.N. Special Envoy for Tsunami intact coral reefs, mangroves,
Recovery). Yet the violence inflicted upon the peoples of Indonesia, Sri vegetated dunes and robust
Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand, and other Asian countries was not solely the coastal forests came off better
result of an immense natural disaster. Sadly, a prior “unnatural” disaster–the [in the 2004 Asian Tsunami]
elimination of natural breakwaters, such as coral reefs, coastal mangrove
than those degraded by
forests, and sand dunes–exacerbated the devastating effects of the tsunami
(A. Browne, 2004).
pollution and insensitive land
use. So the environment is not
Following an extensive two-year scientific study, a team of researchers from a luxury. . . . It is an economically
Tohoku Gakuin and Tohoku Universities of northern Japan concluded that important insurance policy
natural barriers, such as mangrove forests and coral reefs, would have saved whose wisdom we ignore at
approximately half the casualties caused by the 2004 quake in their study our peril.”
area. The research team estimated that the area of mangrove swampland
at a survey spot in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, in 2003 was only 12% of the Klaus Toepfer 2005
amount that should have existed naturally. Since the 1960s, the mangrove
forests of Southeast Asia have been systematically destroyed to make way
for commercial shrimp farming and tourism, supported by governmental
and multilateral lending institutions. Protective regulations in place have
been diluted through these lobbies.
Shrimp farming alone is considered to be causing mangrove forest loss at

a rate of 1 to 2% per year (E. Yano, 2008). While 72% of farmed shrimp
comes from Asia, the vast majority of it is eaten in the US, Western Europe,
and Japan, where consumption has increased by 300% in the last 10 years
(S. Stonich and C. Bailey, 2000).
Since three quarters of Southeast Asian commercial fish species spend

part of their life cycle in the mangrove swamps, the loss of these swamps
has resulted in declining fish harvests. Moreover, the commercial feeds,
pesticides, antibiotics, and non-organic fertilizers used in intensive shrimp
farms generate huge amounts of pollution, destroying many of the remaining
fish and harming the coral reefs. As the fish have declined, desperate
fishermen have resorted to dropping dynamite into the reefs to drive them
out. Seventy percent of the world’s coral reefs have already been destroyed.
Eighty percent of Indonesia’s reefs are in danger (UNEP, 2001). This human
destruction of coral reefs is also driven by motives other than fishing. Local
inhabitants mine coral to be ground up and used as an ingredient in house
paint (C. Dreigus, 2007). Shipping interests view the reefs as an impediment
to their ability to meet the transport needs of the growing South Asian
economy (A. Browne, 2004).

The graph in Figure I.4 documents an exponential increase in number of disasters over the course of the 20th century.
The world’s exposure to natural hazards has been increasing in tandem with the planet’s growing population and
infrastructure. This is particularly true because the strongest population growth is located in coastal areas, areas that
have the greatest exposure to floods, cyclones and tidal waves. To make matters worse, land that remains available for
urban growth in many areas is situated in risk-prone areas, such as flood plains or steep slopes subject to landslides.
Figure I.4. A Century of Trends in Natural Disasters, 1900 to 2000.

Source: Emmanuelle Bournay, UNEP/GRID-Arendal, Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters
(CRED), 2005., <http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/trends-in-natural-disasters>. Reprinted with permission.

Human-Induced Climate Change

Global warming, also referred to as human–induced climate change, will transform
“Nobody can say that
the hydrological patterns on earth that determine the availability of water. Many
of the world’s most water-stressed areas will get even less water, and water flows
Hurricane Katrina was
will become less predictable and more subject to extreme weather events. Climate definitely caused by climate
change is expected to cause sea levels to rise, which would have dire consequences change. But we can say that
for many freshwater resources. For example, the river delta systems in Bangladesh climate change means more
could become saline, destroying the agriculture-based livelihoods of millions of Katrinas. For any single storm,
people. In East Africa, the Sahel, and Southern Africa, rainfall is predicted to decline as with any single drought, it’s
and temperatures to rise. As a result of climate change, in areas where freshwater difficult to say. But we can say
becomes more scarce, tensions around water can be expected to increase (UNDP,
we’ll get more big storms and
2006b).
more severe droughts.”
A 2007 report by D. Smith and J. Vivekananda of International Alert, cited by
Peter Schwartz, co-author of a 2003
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, calls for governments and local communities
Pentagon report on climate change and
to take immediate steps to prepare to adapt to the pressures of climate change. national security, quoted in S. Faris 2007
The consequences of climate change, especially in states already enduring poverty,
instability, and poor governance, will likely include increased violent conflicts,
which will in turn further undermine the ability of the states and communities
to adapt to the effects of climate change. The ongoing massacres in Darfur, as
described in Box I.7, could be a harbinger of what is to come, as the impacts of
global warming intensify. To highlight the links between climate change, peace, and
violence, the International Alert report, while acknowledging that “no conflict ever
has just a single cause,” identifies 46 countries with 2.7 billion people who are at
high risk of armed conflict, due to the consequences of climate change. Another
1.2 billion people in 56 additional countries are projected to be at a high risk of
political instability (pp. 3–4). The global map in Figure I.5 presents the extent of the
impending crisis.
The failure to assist these communities currently enduring severe socio-economic

and political pressures in adapting to climate change will only exacerbate their
existing grievances, increasing the likelihood of violent conflict.

Box I.7 Darfur: Conflict Driven by Climate Change and Scarcity of

Land and Water
Excerpts from Ban Ki-moon, “A Climate Culprit in Darfur” (2007), and the report by
D. Smith and J. Vivekananda, “A Climate of Conflict: The Links Between Climate Change,
Peace and War” (2007).
Photo by Brian Steidle/US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Reprinted with permission.

Almost invariably, we discuss Darfur in a convenient military and political
shorthand—an ethnic conflict pitting Arab militias against black rebels and
farmers. Look to its roots, though, and you discover a more complex dynamic.
Amid the diverse social and political causes, the Darfur conflict began as an
ecological crisis, arising at least in part from climate change.
Two decades ago, the rains in southern Sudan began to fail. According to U.N.
statistics, average precipitation has declined some 40 percent since the early
1980s. Scientists at first considered this to be an unfortunate quirk of nature.
But subsequent investigation found that it coincided with a rise in temperatures
of the Indian Ocean, disrupting seasonal monsoons. This suggests that the drying
of sub-Saharan Africa derives, to some degree, from man-made global warming.
It is no accident that the violence in Darfur erupted during the drought. Until then,
Arab nomadic herders had lived amicably with settled farmers. Black farmers
The village of Um Zeifa in Darfur would welcome herders as they crisscrossed the land, grazing their camels and
being burnt to the ground after the sharing wells. But once the rains stopped, farmers fenced their land for fear it
Janjaweed attacked and looted it. would be ruined by the passing herds. For the first time in memory, there was no
longer enough food and water for all. Fighting broke out. By 2003, it evolved into
the full-fledged tragedy we witness today (Ban Ki-moon, 2007).
A campaign of ethnic cleansing, to date has caused over 200,000 deaths and the
displacement of over two million people. The campaign itself is taking a further
toll of already scarce resources. Militias in Darfur are known for the intentional
destruction of villages and forests. The loss of trees in these campaigns reduces
the amount of shelter available for livestock and the amount of fuel wood for local
communities. This threatens their livelihoods and results in their displacement, while
simultaneously worsening the impact of desertification, which makes further conflict
over land and water access more likely. (D. Smith and J. Vivekananda, 2007, p. 12)

The Double-Headed Risk
ADED RISK
The consequences of climate change include a high risk of armed conflict in 46 countries with a total
population of 2.7 billion people, and a high risk of political instability in a further 56 countries with a total
quences of climate change
population
conflict in 46 countries with of 1.2 billion.
on people, and a high risk of
er 56 countries with a total
GREENLAND
NORWAY
FINLAND
SWEDEN
ESTONIA
ICELAND DENMARK LATVIA

NORWAY LITHUANIA
RUSSIA
FINLAND
IRELAND NETH.
U. K. SWEDEN
GERMANY POLAND BELARUS
ESTONIA
BEL.
DENMARK CZECH LATVIA
REP.
LUX. LITHUANIA UKRAINE
CANADA SLOVAKIA
AUSTRIA MOLD.
IRELAND NETH. HUNGARY
U. K. FRANCE SWITZ. POLAND
GERMANY BELARUS
SLOVENIA ROMANIA
BEL. CROATIA
LUX. CZECH REP. SERBIA
UKRAINE
SLOVAKIA B-H KAZAKHSTAN
AUSTRIA MOLD.
MONT. BULGARIA
FRANCE SWITZ. HUNGARY
SLOVENIA ITALYROMANIA MAC.
CROATIA
SPAIN ALBANIA
B-H SERBIA
UZBEKISTAN MONGOLIA
MONT. BULGARIA GREECE
MAC. GEORGIA KYRGYZSTAN NORTH
ITALY
PORTUGAL
SPAIN ALBANIA ARM. AZERB. KOREA
MALTA
GREECE TURKEY TURKMENISTAN TAJIKISTAN
f armed UNITED STATES TUNISIA CYPRUS
CHINA SOUTH
ALGERIA LEBAN KOREA JAPAN
MALTA
quence of MOROCCO TUNISIA CYPRUS SYRIAISRA
BERMUDA AFGHANISTAN
LEBANON
MOROCCO IRAQ
ISRAEL IRAN
JORDAN
f political ALGERIA KUWAIT PAKISTAN
SAUDI ARABIA NEPAL
BHUTAN
BAHRAIN
sequence LIBYA INDIA
BAHAMAS EGYPT QATAR
MEXICO WESTERN BANGLADESH
SAHARA
THE DOUBLE-HEADED RISK U.A.E. TAIWAN
CUBA DOM. BURMA

REP. PUERTO INDIA LAOS
RICO MAURITANIA OMAN
BELIZE JAMAICA HAITI ANTIGUA & BARBUDA MALI
ST KITTS & NEVIS
CAPE VERDE NIGER
DOMINICA CHAD THAILAND PHILIPPINES
HONDURAS SENEGAL ERITREA YEMEN
The consequences of consequences of climate change
GUATEMALA ST LUCIA VIETNAM
ST VINCENT & THE GRENADINES BARBADOS THE GAMBIA CAMBODIA
EL SALVADOR NICARAGUA BURKINA FASO SUDAN
GRENADA
GUINEA-BISSAU DJIBOUTI
include a high risk of armed conflict in 46 countries with
PANAMA TRINIDAD & TOBAGO GUINEA
NIGERIA SOMALIA
COSTA RICA
f 2007 shows VENEZUELA GUYANA SIERRA LEONE a total population of 2.7 billion people, and a high risk of
ETHIOPIA SRI LANKA
BENIN
TOGO
PALAU
GHANA
SURINAME CENTRAL AFRICAN REP.
cts, varying in LIBERIA BRUNEI
FRENCH GUIANA MALDIVES MALAYSIA
COTE political instability in a further 56 countries with a total
COLOMBIA D'IVOIRE CAMEROON
KENYA
EQUATORIAL GUINEA UGANDA SINGAPORE MALAYSIA
ECUADOR SAO TOME & PRINCIPE CONGO
population of 1.2 billion.
GABON
countries* as RWANDA
DEM REPUBLIC
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selection: INDONESIA
PAPUA NEW
ational watch GUINEA
BRAZIL TANZANIA
Water and Conflict

TIMOR-LESTE
International ANGOLA
COMOROS
States, the PERU MALAWI
es (bottom 50 ZAMBIA
MOZAMBIQUE MADAGASCAR
risis Group BOLIVIA
CANADA
list of Low NAMIBIA ZIMBABWE
MAURITIUS
BOTSWANA
CHILE PARAGUAY
peacekeeping
SWAZ. AUSTRALIA
in, economic
ARGENTINA LES.
racy towards
SOUTH AFRICA Map key:
URUGUAY
■ A: States facing a high risk of armed UNITED STATES

ere identified
imarily these conflict as a knock-on consequence of
xperience of Global exposure to climate change
climate change
e indicator of
, particularly ■ B: States facing a high risk of political
d very poor instability as a knock-on consequence
FALKLAND ISLANDS BA
uides to the MEXICO
of climate change
CUBA
■ C: Other states
dictions but
BELIZE JAMAICA HAIT
d that armed
thality and in HONDURAS
Figure I.5. Climate Change and Global Insecurity. GUATEMALA
ST VINC
l or regional EL SALVADOR NICARAGUA
Technical note PANAMA

COSTA RICA
ure to climate Source: D. Smith and J. Vivekananda, “A Climate of Conflict: The Links Between Climate Change, Peace The
andIPCC’s
War,Fourth Assessment
” 2007, pp. 18–19. Report of 2007 shows

pproximately that global warming will have global effects, varying in
both kind and degree. COLOMBI
31
ECUADOR
Research for this report identified 102 countries* as
Map key: being at risk of significant negative knock-on socio-
found at the
■ Serious-extreme political effects, using three criteria for selection:
1. Their presence on a variety of international watch
Watershed Degradation
Downstream victims of watershed degradation can be found throughout the world,
ever more so now as farmland and cattle grazing push further into formerly forested
areas. With the loss of natural vegetation, surface runoff increases significantly as
rainfall once absorbed into the earth now rushes downhill, itself a cause of increased
erosion, silting of waterways, and intensified flooding. (See Box I.8.) Watershed
degradation, with its negative impact on the replenishing of underground aquifers,
i.e., groundwater recharge, also directly reduces the availability of water for users
downstream. The upstream-downstream problems within watersheds are potential
sources of conflict at both the local and macro levels.
Box I.8 Watershed Degradation and

Argentina’s “Worst Environmental Disaster”
The Argentinean city of Santa Fe, located near the junction of the Paraná
and Salado rivers and home to a metropolitan population approaching half
a million people, has been flooded repeatedly. However, in May 2003, floods
Photo by Jason Gehrig/CRS.
struck the city in an unprecedented manner, inundating the homes of 200,000

of its residents. It was deemed by many to be “the worst environmental
disaster of Argentinean history,” including a large number of fatalities. However,
local environmental groups note that it was not just a “natural” disaster. They
point to the watershed degradation upstream, where “exhausted soils because
Cow blood from the municipal of monocultures like soybean and unwise deforestation throughout the whole
slaughterhouse in El Alto, Bolivia, basin” have significantly increased surface run-off, causing more significant
being dumped into the adjacent surges in flooding (Proteger, 2003).
river, which, en route to Lake Titicaca,
is also contaminated with untreated
industrial and residential wastes.
Water Pollution
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency divides water pollution sources into
two categories: point and non-point. Point sources of water pollution are stationary
locations such as sewage treatment plants and factories. Non-point sources are
more diffuse and include runoff from agricultural and mining activities, and from
paved roads. Violence is inflicted upon downstream riparians through the discharge
of untreated or inadequately treated upstream residential, commercial, and industrial
wastewaters, through poorly constructed and/or poorly located landfills, as well as
through uncontrolled dumping of solid wastes into waterways. As a case in point,
more than 90% of Salvadoran surface waters are contaminated, with only 3% of
the collected urban wastewater being treated prior to discharge into waterways
(Foro Nacional de Agua, 2008). Likewise, downstream urban water supplies dependent

upon surface waters are vulnerable to damaging effects of rural agricultural chemical
runoff (e.g., fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides). In some situations, the damage is
far-reaching: vegetables and other crops grown downstream, destined for market,
are irrigated with contaminated surface water, and fish tainted with high levels “Personally, I would prefer that
of heavy metals and pharmaceutical wastes end up back in urban food markets. Hurricane Mitch come again
Whether due to lack of resources or lack of political will, pollution of surface waters over this mining monster. Mitch
in developing countries is at crisis levels, certainly leading to conflicts that fall within
lasted eight days, but this mine
the scope of this text.
has now been here 8 years,
ruining our lives and the health
Extractive Industries and Water of our children.”
Whether mining operations involve small-scale cooperatives, state-run enterprises, Rodolfo Arteaga, former mine worker in
or transnational, capital-intensive corporations, the economic incentives to Goldcorp’s Valle de Siria open-pit gold
properly treat and contain the chemical and mineral pollution resulting from mine. With high levels of lead in his blood
mining operations simply do not exist. An attitude of “out of sight, out of mind” and a child born with birth defects, he
persists. Where regulations exist to correct for this market failure, enforcement became a leading community advocate
against mining abuses.
is often weak or non-existent. In addition, communities adjacent to large-scale
mines often find their traditional water sources drying up due to the massive
water requirements of the mining operations. Farmers, fishers, and community
members relying on water downstream of the mine suffer the health and economic
consequences of contaminated waterways. Employees of mining operations, often
pitted against downstream users of waters contaminated by their operations,
become concerned that their jobs could be eliminated by the enforcement of
any anti-pollution measures that might exist. Divided, the poor can end up fighting
amongst themselves. Meanwhile, transnational corporate mining operations have
in recent years continued to post record profits to their shareholders.
In order to understand the root causes of much of the conflict resulting from mining
operations, a quick primer is first required on two of the mining industry’s principal
threats to the environment–unsustainable water extraction and water contamination.
Unsustainable water extraction occurs because mining operations require large

quantities of water to extract valuable minerals from the bare rock. The minerals
may be solids, such as diamonds, gold, coal, iron, sand and gravel; liquids, such as
crude petroleum; or gases such as natural gas. Water is required in all processes,
including quarrying, milling (crushing, screening, washing, and flotation of mined
materials), and, in liquid/gas extraction, re-injecting extracted water for additional
mineral recovery. Since mining is such a water-intensive practice, local water
resources are frequently overused and, in more arid areas, destroyed, ruining
the livelihoods of the nearby communities and ecosystem.
Water contamination occurs principally in the form of cyanide or mercury

contamination, acid mine drainage, and/or increased salinization of soil.

Contamination from mining operations pollutes waterways, destroys habitats,

and poses serious threats to human and animal health.
“If history holds one lesson, Cyanide contamination results from leaks or spills in mining operations that use
it is that where there is gold, cyanide-leaching processes to strip metals, such as gold, silver, copper, nickel, cobalt,
or molybdenum, from the extracted ore. Since cyanide leaching began in the 1970s,
there is conflict, and the more
billions of gallons of cyanide contamination have been released, with devastating
gold, the more conflict.... Where effects upon the natural and human environment.
the mining corporation sees
a new reserve of wealth, the In general, fish and other aquatic life are killed by cyanide concentrations in the
local farmers and cattle grazers microgram per liter (part per billion) range. Bird and mammal deaths result from
see sacred mountains, cradles cyanide concentrations in the milligram per liter (part per million) range. Cyanide
of the water that sustains their poisoning can occur through inhalation, ingestion, and skin or eye contact. One
highland lives.” teaspoon of a 2% solution can kill a person (Wisconsin Environmental Resource
Center, 2004).
J. Perlez and L. Bergman 2005
While the use of cyanide is generally confined to large-scale, capital-intensive
mining operations, a more common contaminant from smaller-scale, cooperative
and artisan mining is mercury. Though less expensive and less effective in leaching
processes, mercury is more widely available than cyanide. Mercury vapors are often
inhaled by miners and nearby villagers during the gold extraction process. Health
experts say methyl mercury is an especially harmful substance for the unborn,
infants, and children, causing impaired neurological development, which can lead to
mental retardation. Mercury pollution of surface waters may enter the food chain
through consumption of fish (F. Andrew, 2006).
Acid mine drainage poses equally significant threats, but over a much longer time
period, as explained in this excerpt from an interview with Benoit Godin, head of
Environment Canada’s Environmental Contaminants section in Whitehorse, Canada
(2005):
Acid mine drainage occurs when sulphide compounds, like the iron
sulphide material in a mine, are broken up and exposed to the
atmosphere during mining operations. On contact with oxygen and
water, the sulphide compound starts to oxidize, producing sulphuric acid
and dissolved metal.
As the acid drains away from the rock from which it was produced, it
dissolves metals from them along the way and carries them into the
natural water drainage system. Almost any metal in the area might be
dissolved and swept into the waterways. Typical metals most likely to be
found in acid mine drainage are zinc, lead, nickel, arsenic, and/or copper.

The acid mine drainage makes the water in the streams themselves
more acidic, which means that the metals stay in solution and flow
downstream, traveling many kilometers from their sources. The metals
will stay in their dissolved form until the water passes through alkaline Fr. Marco Arana, a leading
rock that can reduce the acidity of the water enough to precipitate Peruvian advocate against
them out of the solution.
mining abuses recalls, “When
Dissolved metal can do a lot of damage to the inhabitants of the
[Newmont Mining Corp.’s]
stream. It basically kills fish. Metal ions in the water attach themselves Yanacocha [open-pit gold mine]
to the fish’s gills, interfering with respiration. They cause damage to liver began its operations, we would
and kidneys, and weaken the fish so that they are less fit to grow and only hear about how everyone
reproduce. Besides fish, invertebrates, algae, and every aspect of life in was happy. The mine was going
the stream can be affected. In high enough concentrations, the acid- to bring jobs, improve roads.
dissolved metals can even endanger larger animals and humans who No one thought much about
drink the water.
the inevitable collisions.”
Once acid mine drainage occurs, the contamination can go on for J. Perlez and L. Bergman 2005
hundreds of years unless the leaking is plugged or an adequate
collection/treatment scheme is installed, both of which are very
expensive processes and unlikely to occur where State resources,
regulations and enforcement measures are inadequate.
Salinization of the soil occurs when brackish groundwater seeping into the mine is
pumped out to shallow evaporation ponds. This highly concentrated brine water
in the ponds is susceptible to overflows during heavy rains. Once it enters the
bordering natural waterways during flooding, it disrupts natural ecosystems and
devastates peasant families’ livelihoods downstream, where fields and grazing lands
eventually become barren (E. Cuthbert, personal communication with authors,
Oct. 15, 2008).
In 2001, the mining industry in the United States released 2.8 billion pounds of
toxic pollutants. As the largest polluter of any industry that year, mining made
up 45% of all chemical releases in the United States according to the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxics Release Inventory (D. Mattson , 2005).
Similar, if not worse, levels of contamination can be expected to occur when mining
takes place in even less-regulated countries. A sampling of Peru’s long history with
mining and resulting conflict is discussed in Box I.9.

Box I.9 Peru: Mining Plus Contamination Equals Violence

“Before our struggle was for land, now it’s for water!” shouted campesino leader Félix Llanos during a road blockade
in the northern Cajamarca department in Peru, home to Latin America’s largest gold mine: Yanacocha. The Yanacocha
mine is a 251-square kilometer open pit mine located eighteen kilometers from the town of Cajamarca. The U.S.-based
Newmont Mining Corporation had already leveled five mountains, and had set its sights on its sixth target, Mount
Quilish. This was derailed in 2004 after a two-week protest and road block in Cajamarca. The community’s water supply
source was threatened by the proposed mining expansion. Ultimately, the Minister of Energy and Mines was forced by
the social upheaval to withdraw the company's Mount Quilish mining permit (Salazar, 2007).
In watersheds located below the mining operation, concentrations of aluminum, arsenic, and lead above international
limits for drinking water for animals were found. The rivers’ water volume has also decreased compared to past
years. Noting that the lack of water is one of the greatest factors in these conflicts, José de Echave of the NGO
CooperAcción notes, “Mining has become a great competitor of a resource that is running out.” Local environmental
activists claim and independent environmental audits show that the mining operations, which use large quantities of
dilute cyanide solutions, have contaminated the water sources (Salazar, 2007).
The Peruvian Environmental Health Office has declared that mining companies have polluted 30% of Peru's coastal
rivers, all of which rise in the Andes where extractives industries exist. According to the Ombudsman’s Office, there
were 89 cases of water contamination reported in the country in the first six months of 2007, and of the 35 cases of
social conflicts registered in Peru during the month of June 2007, 16 were linked to water and mining (Salazar, 2007).
Community leaders and environmental activists have been assassinated. Numerous others have received death threats,
including a local Catholic priest (Oxfam America, 2007). Such death threats and killings of activists who challenge
unsustainable mining practices occur repeatedly throughout the world.

11 principles for WATER and cooperation
Water is not only a source of division. Water also connects people. Mutual needs
to share water provide opportunities to forge peaceful cooperation between
societal groups. In fact, it will be shown that instances of water cooperation–on
the interstate as well as intrastate levels–far outnumber instances of water conflict.
Despite the prevalence of water conflict throughout the world, the potential for
water to bring neighboring parties together to achieve mutually beneficial results
is immense. This chapter is intended to equip the development practitioner with
Photo by Braulio Rojas, Suma Jayma, 2007. Reprinted with permission.

essential principles for peacebuilding and water valuation. Some of these principles
have been codified in international agreements, which advocate water’s role as a
positive force in peaceful coexistence.
CRS taps its peace-oriented Catholic roots to provide a social and ethical basis for
decisions related to the equitable use of water. Likewise, many faith traditions are
currently making important contributions to guiding the development practitioner
toward promoting more sustainable, lasting, water-focused relationships, both
between peoples and between humankind and the natural world. The world’s
indigenous peoples are making an important contribution to this shift. Their
understandings and attitudes are now beginning to be tapped as time-tested
approaches to promoting water cooperation.
Another historically excluded voice that is beginning to be incorporated into

water-related decision-making processes is that of women. No other segment ”Water is life! Now that we have water
of the population is so burdened with the daily toil of collecting and using and electricity in our homes, hopefully
our children will stay here instead of
water, while at the same time being so consistently excluded from water-related
leaving for the city,” this elderly man
decision-making. In promoting peace through water, the development practitioner from the community of Ichura, Bolivia,
needs not only to heed the voice of women, but also to find creative ways to explained. Each family contributed
bring female leaders to the decision-making table. manual labor and half a month’s
income ($15) toward construction
The latter part of this chapter presents an introduction to United Nations’ materials, which were coupled with
statements regarding water, including recently articulated recommendations budgeted municipal funds and foreign
on how to implement the increasingly acknowledged concept of the basic donations to install a spring-fed,
“human right to water.” International humanitarian law intended to govern issues gravity-driven community drinking water
system with 45 household tapstands.
pertaining to water during periods of warfare, including the Geneva Conventions,
are also touched upon.

11 principles for water and cooperation
CRS Peacebuilding Principles and Integral Human Development
Peacebuilding involves overcoming incompatibilities that lead to conflict. As will be

seen, constructive action by the international development community can help
parties in conflict move toward mutually beneficial understandings.
“For water users living in
poverty, the enormous It is helpful to recall that for parties in conflict:
hardship faced due to water
supplies being neither sufficient • Compromise is more likely when both sides believe they have more to lose
nor safe is rapidly becoming a than to gain from continuing the conflict.
right to life issue.”
• Conflict wanes or ends when one side imposes its will, or when both sides
Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace come to an agreement.
2003
As an organization committed to incorporating the promotion of lasting, just peace
into its development programming, CRS has identified what it believes are key
principles of peacebuilding. Peacebuilding:
Three major themes related to • Responds to the root causes of violent conflict, including unjust relationships
and structures, in addition to addressing its effects and symptoms.
Catholic peacebuilding:
No peace without justice. • Is based on long-term commitment.
No peace without • Uses a comprehensive approach that focuses on the grassroots while
reconciliation. strategically engaging actors at middle-range and top levels of leadership.
No peace without integral • Requires an in-depth and participatory analysis.

human development.
• Provides a methodology to achieve right relationships that should be
CRS 2000 integrated into all programming.
• Strategically includes advocacy at local, national, and global levels to transform

unjust structures and systems.
• Builds upon indigenous, non-violent approaches to conflict transformation

and reconciliation.
• Is driven by community-defined needs and involves as many stakeholders

as possible.
• Is done through partners who represent the diversity of our workplaces

and share common values.
• Strengthens and contributes to a vibrant civil society that promotes peace.

CRS Peacebuilding Principles and Integral Human Development
Integral Human Development

A helpful paradigm for guiding the process of managing water-related conflict is
the CRS Integral Human Development (IHD) framework (Heinrigh, Leege, and
Miller 2009).
CRS notes that the concept of IHD is central to Catholic social teaching, defining
it as “development that promotes the good of every person and the whole
person; it is cultural, economic, political, social and spiritual.” This emphasis on
wholeness and integration is the meaning of “integral.” The IHD process “enables
people to protect and expand the choices they have to improve their lives, meet
their basic human needs, free themselves from oppression, and realize their full
human potential” (CRS, 2004, p. 52). The five key component areas of IHD are:
Michael Moran C.P. for the JPIC–Ecology Working Group, June 2003. Reprinted with permission.
Outcomes (desired and actual) are goals, aspirations and objectives that guide
people in the decisions they make regarding their families, livelihoods, and
communities.
Strategies are the variety of initiatives employed by people to realize their desired
outcomes.
Assets are the resources—human, spiritual, physical, social, natural, political, and/or
financial—that people draw upon to make their strategies work.
Structures and Systems are forces—legal, market, political and/or socio-cultural—

that organize and regulate a person’s or society’s behavior.
Shocks, Cycles and Trends, otherwise known as the vulnerability context, are the
external risks and opportunities—of a large-scale event (e.g., an earthquake) or of
a change that occurs slowly over time—which influence all the other areas of the
conceptual framework.
The CRS Integral Human Development conceptual framework is presented in “Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister
Figure II.1. Water, so useful, lowly, precious and pure.”
Canticle of the Creatures, St. Francis
of Assisi.

Figure II.1. The CRS Integral Human Development Conceptual Framework
Recognizing that the IHD conceptual framework can appear confusing at first, CRS distills this approach into three simple
questions, using the palette of key terms laid down above:
1. What are the people’s desired and actual outcomes?
2. What strategies are they using to reach these outcomes?
3. How do their assets, the structures, and systems in their community, and the shocks, cycles, and trends in their
environment help or hinder the strategies they are using to achieve their desired outcomes?
If the IHD conceptual framework is used before, during, and after a project, the work of development practitioners in
promoting change in each of the above-mentioned five component areas of IHD can be monitored and evaluated.
The importance of the feedback loop (monitoring and evaluation) cannot be overstated.

Catholic Social Teaching Principles Applied to Water
Catholic Social Teaching Principles Applied to Water
In July 2008, Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and
Peace, delivered Pope Benedict XVI’s message to the International Exposition on
Water and Sustainable Development in Spain:
“Jesus Christ, having declared
Water is “a universal and inalienable right” for all people and an himself ‘Source of Living Water
“essential and indispensable gift” from God. Its use must be guided by that springs forth eternal life,’
“reason and solidarity,” taking into account the “growing and perennial
calls us to administer water with
needs of people who live in poverty.” (C. Glatz, 2008)
justice and equity in order to
quench the thirst of all.”
This built upon an earlier address by the Holy See at the Third World Water Forum Bolivian Episcopal
in Kyoto, 2003. There the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace spoke about Conference 2003, Art. 110
applying Catholic Social Thought to the critical issue of water:
• Right to water: Access to clean and sufficient water supply is a human right.
• Privatization and the common good: There are inherent dangers associated
with viewing water as just another commodity, to be sold in the marketplace.
• The Integrity of Creation: A Christian is called to promote and protect the

environment, not only for the benefits of the human community, but for the
integrity of the whole of creation.
• The Prevention Principle: Prevention of harm is the best method of

environmental protection and pro-poor strategies.
• The Precautionary Principle: Decisions and actions must be taken to avoid the
possibility of serious or irreversible environmental harm, even where scientific
knowledge is insufficient or inconclusive.
• The Polluter Pays Principle: Those causing harm should pay compensation to
victims and pay for redress of environmental damage caused.
• Righteous indignation: Knowledge of environmental degradation and exclusion

from access to water, along with the dangers inherent in its commercialization
in favor of the privileged, should elicit a just indignation among the followers
of Jesus.

Indigenous Perspectives on Water
In recent years, a shift in perspective has begun to take place among the world’s
leading authorities on water. This shift involves the opening of spaces for indigenous
voices to contribute towards the search for effective water governance approaches.
“Water and humans are
Indigenous perspectives tend to place water and other natural resources within
living beings co-existing in a spiritual framework that strives for greater harmony with the divine, with all of
the ‘Pacha’ —Aymara for creation, and within humanity. Many indigenous leaders, however, still see their
‘Sacred Universe.’ To recreate inclusion in the mainstream deliberations as little more than mere acts of courtesy,
life in abundance, an integral, rather than substantial acknowledgments of the wisdom of peoples who have
subject to subject relationship sustainably governed the use of water for millennia.
between human beings and
water is required.” The Indigenous Water Initiative (2003) articulates this frustration:
Calixto Quispe Huanca 2006 • Indigenous cultural and spiritual understandings about water
are misunderstood or simply ignored by the dominant Western
societies.
• Indigenous communities are not included meaningfully in water

policy and planning processes.
• Customary access and rights to water are seldom recognized by

the state authorities that now control indigenous areas.
• Water bodies that are critical to indigenous people’s cultural and

physical well-being are being polluted by outside forces beyond
their control.
As just one example of the values that indigenous peoples embrace which could
help inform more equitable and sustainable—and thus less conflict-ridden—modern
water governance practices, Box II.1 provides a synopsis of the place of water in the
cosmovision of the Andean people.

Indigenous Perspectives on Water
Box II.1 Water in the Andean Cosmovision

Excerpts from CONDESAN, The Andean Vision of Water (2003), pp. 3–4.
“Mechanisms for fair use must
For Andean peoples, water is much more than a hydric resource.
be formulated that respond to
Water as a Living Being
the needs of nature and of the
Water is a living being, the provider of life and animation for the universe. One human communities, prioritizing
dialogues with water, one treats it with affection, one nurtures it. . . . the rights to subsistence,
food sovereignty and local
Water as the Basis of Reciprocity and Complementarity Rather than Opposition development.”
Water allows the integration of living beings, the articulation of nature and human
society. It is the blood of the earth and of the Andean universe. . . . It orders the life CONDESAN 2003, p. 5
of individuals, presents difference not as opposition but as complementarity, and
facilitates the solution of conflicts on the basis of community agreements.
Water as Universal and Community Right

Water is “everybody’s and nobody’s”. It belongs to the earth and to living beings,
including human beings. It is distributed equitably according to needs, customs, and
community patterns and according to its cyclical availability.
Water as an Expression of Flexibility and Adaptability

Water behaves according to ecosystems, circumstances, and opportunities without
following rigid norms. . . . Its sustainable use implies the generation and application
of knowledge and skills obtained during centuries, as well as the construction of a
hydraulic infrastructure that permits harvesting and distributing water on the basis
of efficient community management.
Indigenous peoples have much to contribute to the technological and social

systems of water management.1 They bring to the table time-tested approaches to
transforming conflicts that arise out of competing water interests. Box II.2 shows
what Aaron Wolf, one of the world’s leading experts on international water conflicts,
found when he investigated methods of water conflict resolution among indigenous
peoples who have historically inhabited arid regions.
1
The Indigenous Peoples Kyoto Water Declaration, presented to the Third World Water Forum
held in Kyoto, Japan, in March 2003, provides additional insights into indigenous perspectives
regarding water.
Box II.2 The Berbers, the Bedouin, and Conflict Transformation Lessons Learned from Indigenous Peoples Living in
Arid Lands
Excerpts from A. Wolf, “Indigenous Approaches to Water Conflict Negotiations and Implications for International Waters” (2000).
The indigenous peoples of two drylands regions—the Berbers of the North African High Atlas Mountains and the Bedouin of the
Negev Desert in southern Israel—have faced conflicts arising out of water scarcity and water fluctuations for centuries. Lessons
learned from these indigenous approaches to water conflict transformation that are applicable to modern problems include:
1. Allocate time, not water. Berber water management quantifies water in units of time rather than in units of volume. This
method allows for local management of a fluctuating supply, and provides a means for a water market without storage
structures.
2. Prioritize different demand sectors. Berbers and Bedouin prioritize demand differently, but each provides a hierarchy of
importance. This allows for less important uses to be cut off throughout a valley during low flow regimes, rather than entire
down-stream villages, and protects investments in infrastructure... Highest priority is for drinking water for humans, followed by
drinking water for animals—both of these uses are sacrosanct and neither may be denied anyone for any reason at any time.
The next priority is irrigation water which flows through the canal system. Water to mills is the next priority.
3. Protect downstream and minority rights. Berbers allow only traditional, piled rock diversion structures. The use of modern
materials for a canal intake such as artificial pumping or cement is quite simply forbidden by regional law. Through their
"inefficiency,” these traditional structures allow for flow to continue downstream, while Bedouin concepts of equity address
honor and pride, as well as right and wrong.
4. Alternative dispute resolution. Each group has sophisticated mechanisms of dispute resolution, from which modern
international management might benefit. Techniques include “shared vision” exercises and recognition of a defined water
authority. For example, within each Berber village, an a'alam or naib is chosen to manage the irrigation schedule and to
resolve internal disputes. Within the Bougmez and M'goun valleys, this authority is chosen generally through their ability to
resolve disputes equitably, and rotates from family lineage to family lineage.
5. The "sulha." Both Berbers and Bedouin follow this Islamic practice of a ritual ceremony of forgiveness, which consists of private,
often mediated, negotiation of redress between the affected parties, followed by a public declaration of forgiveness and,
usually, a festive meal. Once the ceremony is performed, the dispute may not be discussed—it is as if it never occurred.

Gender and Water
Gender and Water
“There isn’t a single development issue that isn’t a women’s rights issue,” concludes
Jessica Woodroffe of ActionAid (A. Penketh, 2007). Transforming water conflict is
no exception. Penketh’s study shows that women face particularly unremitting and
insidious structural violence that robs them—and all of us—of precious knowledge “Thanks to the new
and energy: Honduran national law
requiring at least 30%
Women, are one-half of the world’s population, yet make up 70% female participation in public
of the one billion people living in extreme poverty. Women work leadership positions, our
two-thirds of the world’s working hours, yet earn only one-tenth of community water entity’s
the world’s income. Women produce one-half of the world’s food,
once all-male board of
yet own less than two percent of the land. And when 43 million girls
in the world are still not able to go to school—“not seen worth the
directors is now comprised
investment,” or busy collecting water or firewood or doing other of two-thirds women,
domestic chores, it is sadly not surprising that today two-thirds of the because of a simple change
world’s 800 million illiterate adults are women. in the statutes allowing
spouses of the officially
Confronting structural violence towards girls and women must be incorporated registered users to be eligible
into water development efforts of a peacebuilding paradigm. While suffering under for office.”
the yoke of gender-based oppression, women are not just victims; rather, they are
also found at the forefront of promoting more just social and economic structures María Luisa Ventura, president of
leading to their own liberation and that of all marginalized populations. Jesús de Otoro’s water entity, JAPOE.

Box II.3 Water Decision-Making: Increased Female Participation,

Increased Social Equity and Effectiveness.
“Women have an important Excerpts from Peace Corps, Honduras, Equidad de Género y Calidad de Agua
role to play in promoting a (Gender Equity and Water Quality) (2004).
new attitude towards the use
Typical household responsibilities of rural women are much more water-intensive
of water resources, based not
than those of rural men, up to 70 times more. Yet, women are frequently excluded
only on technical knowledge, from water-related decision-making processes that impact their lives and those
but also on cultural and ethical of their children. This marginalization of women’s voices in water-related matters
values. This new attitude would exacerbates structural violence.
contribute to building a more
just and peaceful world. . . .” Aware of the need to approach any culture respectfully, many peacebuilding
water development practitioners are emphasizing gender equity in their
Aureli and Brelet 2004, p. 32 programming. But what exactly does “gender equity” mean? First, what it is not:
• Not just equal numbers of men and women, boys and girls in activities.
• Not that the needs of both men and women are to be attended to in
the same manner.
• Not that men and women are identical.
What it does mean:

• The rights, responsibilities, and opportunities of any given person should
not depend on whether that person was born a man or woman.
In terms of water-related decision-making, the benefits of increased participation

of women include:
• Increased attention to the needs of women, boys, and girls.
• More transparent social oversight over, and more equitable benefits
from, water resources.
• Tapping into the vast knowledge, experiences, and wisdom of women.
• A more peaceful society based on social justice.
For addressing the root causes of structural violence against women through
gender-informed water programming, Niala Maharaj et al. (1999) recommend that
the following strategies be employed at the project/local/community level:
• In-depth gender-sensitive consultation processes that allow

participation of both women and men in decisions regarding
location of water installations, technology, and price.

Gender and Water
• Care in ensuring gender balanced participation in management

at community levels.
• Capacity building so that women are able to perform

managerial functions. This includes the development of skills in
financial management, decision-making, community participation,
leadership, confidence building, and communications.
• Gender training for both men and women at local levels, so that
men understand and support the changes taking place in social
organization. This requires also training of trainers, both men and
women.
• Capacity building to equip women to perform technical functions.
Photo by Paul Jeffrey/ACT-Caritas.

• Strategies to ensure that both women and men share the
benefits of changes in water supply management.
• Gender stratification in research and planning. Most current

investigations of users and their needs fail to collect data
differentiated along gender lines. This results in faulty assessment
Women and girls fetch water in the
of levels of need and patterns of need. (pp. 31–33)
Hassahissa IDP Camp near Zalingei,
Sudan, 2005.
Emergency situations involving the needs of internally displaced persons or

refugees as a result of natural disasters or armed conflict pose a particular risk
for the most vulnerable segments of society, especially women and children.
A sampling of key gender-based water and sanitation actions recommended by
the Inter-Agency Standing Committee for response to man-made and natural
disasters is included in the final section of this text, “Applications of Peacebuilding
Methods to Conflict Scenarios.”

United Nations Declaration of Water as a Human Right
In November 2002, access to water was declared an essential human right with the adoption of General Comment No. 15
by the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (UN CESCR). As a result, UNESCO notes that,
The [close to 160] countries which have ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights (ICESCR) are now compelled to progressively ensure that everyone has access to safe and secure
drinking water, equitably and without discrimination (p. 3).
Greater access to this element that is essential for life should lead to reduced conflict. But what exactly is meant by a
“right to water”? Table II.1 is helpful in that regard, and important for promoting water-related development programming.
Table II.1 Misconceptions and Clarifications Regarding the Right to Water and Sanitation.
Excerpts from Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions, AAAS, SDC, and UN-HABITAT, Manual on the Right to Water and Sanitation. Box 2.1, 2007.
Misconception Clarification
The right allows for unlimited The right entitles everyone to sufficient water for personal and domestic uses
use of water. (approximately 50 liters per person per day minimum) and is to be realized in a
sustainable manner for present and future generations. Water and sanitation services
need to be affordable for all.
The right entitles everyone to a Water and sanitation facilities need to be within, or in the immediate vicinity of, the
household connection. household, and can comprise facilities such as wells and pit latrines.
The right to water entitles People cannot claim water from other countries. However, international customary law
people to water resources in on transboundary watercourses stipulates that such watercourses should be shared in
other countries. an equitable and reasonable manner, with priority given to vital human needs.
A country is in violation of the The right requires that a State take steps, based on the maximum available resources,
right if not all its people have to progressively realize the right.
access to water and sanitation.

As for obligations imposed upon State parties, the CESCR has stated that, as with
all human rights recognized by the United Nations, States have the obligation to
respect, protect, and fulfill the human right to water. In its Manual on the Right to
Water and Sanitation, Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (2007, p. 15) applies “The human right to water is
these stipulations to the right to water: indispensable for leading a life
in human dignity. . . . Water, and
The obligation to respect, requiring State parties to refrain from
interfering directly or indirectly with the enjoyment of a human right. water facilities and services,
Examples: must be affordable for all.”
U.N. Committee on Economic, Social and
• Refraining from arbitrarily interfering with customary Cultural Rights 2002
or traditional arrangements for water allocation.
• Unlawfully diminishing or polluting water resources.
The obligation to protect, requiring State parties to prevent third parties

(including individuals, groups, corporations, and other entities under their
jurisdiction) from interfering with the enjoyment of a right. Example:
• Adopting effective legislative and other measures

to prevent third parties from denying equal access
to water or polluting or inequitably extracting from
water sources.
Photo by Jim Stipe/CRS.

The obligation to fulfill, requiring State parties to facilitate, promote,
and provide this human right to water —especially when individuals or
groups are unable, for reasons beyond their control, to realize the right
themselves by the means at their disposal. Examples:
• Facilitating, by taking positive measures to assist Duriaman, age 45, takes a drink of
individuals and communities to enjoy the right to water from the new water system in
water. Kund 1 village, Pakistan., built in 2006
with assistance from CRS in the Siran
Valley near Mansehra, Northwest
• Promoting, by ensuring that there is appropriate Frontier Province, Pakistan, 2006. His
education concerning the hygienic use of water. family used to get water from a spring
which was a forty-minute walk from
• Protecting, by implementing measures to safeguard his house. When the October 2005
water sources and incorporate methods of earthquake hit his Pakistani village, it
minimizing wastage. turned the spring water muddy, making
it unfit to drink. CRS worked with the
The ICESCR imposes minimum core obligations on State parties to ensure, at the village to plan and build a water system
that now brings clean drinking water
very least, the achievement of basic levels of the human right to water, as described
directly into the village.
in Box II.4.

Box II.4 Water as a Human Right: Minimum Core Obligations for State Parties According to U.N. General
Comment No. 15.
Excerpts from U.N. CESCR, “General Comment No. 15 The Right to Water (Articles 11 and 12 of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights, para. 37) (2002).
1. To ensure access to the minimum essential amount of water, that is sufficient and safe for personal and domestic uses to
prevent disease.
2. To ensure the right of access to water and water facilities and services on a non-discriminatory basis, especially for
disadvantaged or marginalized groups.
3. To ensure physical access to water facilities or services that provide sufficient, safe and regular water; that have a sufficient
number of water outlets to avoid prohibitive waiting times; and that are at a reasonable distance from the household.
4. To ensure personal security is not threatened when having to physically access water.
5. To ensure equitable distribution of all available water facilities and services.
6. To adopt and implement a national water strategy and plan of action addressing the whole population; the strategy and
plan of action should be devised, and periodically reviewed, on the basis of a participatory and transparent process; it
should include methods, such as right to water indicators and benchmarks, by which progress can be closely monitored. The
process by which the strategy and plan of action are devised, as well as their content, shall give particular attention to all
disadvantaged or marginalized groups.
7. To monitor the extent of the realization, or the non-realization, of the right to water.
8. To adopt relatively low-cost targeted water programs to protect vulnerable and marginalized groups.
9. To take measures to prevent, treat and control diseases linked to water, in particular ensuring access to adequate sanitation.

The U.N. General Comment No. 15 provides guidance for priority-setting in allocating water among competing uses:
Water is required for a range of different purposes, besides personal and domestic uses, to realize many of
the Covenant rights. For instance, water is necessary to produce food (right to adequate food) and ensure
environmental hygiene (right to health). Water is essential for securing livelihoods (right to gain a living by work)
and enjoying certain cultural practices (right to take part in cultural life). Nevertheless, priority in the allocation
of water must be given to the right to water for personal and domestic uses. Priority should also be given to
the water resources required to prevent starvation and disease, as well as water required to meet the core
obligations of each of the Covenant rights. (U.N. CESCR, 2002, para. 6)
U.N. General Comment No. 15 also refers to the Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable
Development (WSSD), where States committed to:
Develop integrated water resources management and water efficiency plans to: ... (c) Improve the efficient
use of water resources and promote their allocation among competing uses in a way that gives priority to the
satisfaction of basic human needs and balances the requirement of preserving or restoring ecosystems and
their functions, in particular in fragile environments, with human domestic, industrial and agriculture needs,
including safeguarding drinking water quality. (U.N. WSSD, 2002, para. 26c).
Efforts by the international community to advance human and civil rights through United Nations treaties are, however,
blocked when nations fail to ratify the treaties. The United States, while a leader in composing the 1948 Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, for example, has been reluctant to ratify many U.N. treaties in the years since then
including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) in force since January 3, 1976
and ratified by 159 countries, but not by the United States.

Millennium Development Goals
In September 2000, Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were agreed to by all of the world’s countries and leading
development institutions. These goals constitute a blueprint for galvanizing a global partnership to more effectively meet
the needs of the world’s impoverished through a series of time-bound targets ending in 2015. The eight MGDs are:
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development
The third target under the goal of “Ensuring environmental sustainability” is arguably the most relevant to the focus of this
text, since it seeks to mitigate structural violence through water and sanitation programming:
Halve, [between 1990 and] 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking
water and basic sanitation.
Recent data on the global progress towards meeting this MDG target for drinking water and sanitation show that limited
progress has been made in both sectors, although less so in terms of sanitation (WHO/UNICEF, 2008). Key report findings
include the following:
• Access to sanitation in the developing world increased from 41% coverage in 1990 to 53% in 2006 (p. 6). At
this rate, the world is not on track to meet the MDG sanitation target for 2015, since 2.5 billion people still lack
access to improved sanitation (piped sewers, septic tanks, latrines, etc.), including 1.2 billion who have no facilities
at all (p. 2). Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia are identified as areas of particular concern.
• As for drinking water supply, current trends suggest that the world is on track to meet the MDG target (p. 24).
Data from 2006 show that 87% of the world’s population uses drinking water from an improved source, an
increase of 1.6 billion people since 1990. For the first time, the number of people without improved drinking
water has dropped below one billion, to 884 million people (p. 23). While improved drinking water coverage in
Sub-Saharan Africa continues to fall short of the level achieved in other regions of the world, access has increased
from 49% in 1990 to 58% in 2006. This translates into an additional 207 million Africans now using safe drinking
water during that time period.

Millennium Development Goals / Water and Warfare: Provisions of International Humanitarian Law Protecting Water
Water and Warfare: Provisions of International Humanitarian Law Protecting Water
During Armed Conflict

In cases of violent conflict between states, international humanitarian law has been
established to regulate the conduct of hostilities and ensure the protection of war “In times of violent conflict,
victims. Such international humanitarian law, based on various texts including the non-combatant communities
1907 Hague Regulations and 1949 Geneva Conventions, is intended to protect are like leaking buckets. Their
people who are not or are no longer taking part in the hostilities, and to restrict
resources–human capacities,
the methods and means of warfare. Among many other things, international
humanitarian law prohibits, directly or indirectly, the immoral use of water as a
social fabric and cultural values–
military weapon and target in times of war. (Boisson, Tignino, Boutruche, 2003). are being depleted, often the
result of deliberate targeting by
In the aftermath of the devastating environmental impact of the use of chemicals armed groups.”
and defoliants by the United States in the Vietnam War, two additional Protocols to
the 1949 Geneva Conventions were adopted in 1977. With them came additional Wessells and Ager 2008
legal safeguards for protecting water in times of armed international conflict
(UNESCO, 2003):
• Protocol I (Art. 54) prohibits, “whatever the motive,” the attacking, destroying,
removing of “objects indispensable to the survival” of civilian population, such
as “drinking water installations and supplies and irrigation works.”
• Protocol I (Art. 56) prohibits attacks against “works and installations

containing dangerous forces, namely dams, dykes and nuclear electrical
generating stations.”
A frequent violation of Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions continues to be the

targeting by military campaigns of electrical power systems, which results in the
cutting off of an urban population’s access to water, as water pumps and treatment
facilities are unable to operate. Boisson et al. note that another controversy involves
the impact on human health and the environment of using depleted uranium in
armor-penetrating military ordinances, specifically the effect of depleted uranium
dust on water, which has been cited as a concern by the World Health Organization
(2001, p. 8).
Although Protocol I was ratified by more than 159 states, politically strong
countries including the United States were opposed to its ratification, preventing
the widespread application of these laws to date. Such a protocol to the Geneva
Convention still carries considerable moral weight during war, and serves as a means
for demanding more humane behavior in times of armed conflict between states.
Moreover, Boisson et al. argue that since human rights treaties are commonly held
to apply during armed conflicts, the 2002 General Comment No. 15 on the Right to

Water, adopted by the United Nations Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights, converges with international
humanitarian law in establishing a holistic approach to ensure protection of water in times of war. General Comment
No. 15 affirms the obligation of states to refrain from “limiting access to, or destroying, water services and infrastructure
as a punitive measure, for example, during armed conflicts in violation of international humanitarian law” (UN CESCR,
2002, para. 21).
During Military Occupation

The Hague Regulations and the Fourth Geneva Convention are also two principal sources of international law that
pertain to military occupation. Article 55 of the Hague Regulations establishes that an occupant cannot claim ownership
of public properties. It can use such property according to the “usufructuary” principle, but it must protect the “capital”
of the property. Thus, in terms of water resources, over-exploitation in which a renewable resource becomes a non-
renewable resource (e.g. excessive groundwater extraction leading to a permanent degradation of the aquifer) sets the
absolute usufruct limit for military occupation.
Boisson et al. (2003) note that this article limits the occupier to using water resources only for the purposes of the
occupation itself. Using its water to promote the occupying power’s own economy, or to pump it into the home country,
is forbidden. The situation of the Palestinian-occupied territories and the extraction of its water resources to Israel, as
described in Box I.4, is a clear violation of Article 55.
Boisson et al. summarize the Hague Regulations mandate in this way:
The provisions of the Hague Regulations can provide a detailed and nuanced legal framework upon which
to examine the responsibility of an occupying power in relation to the freshwater resources of the occupied
territory (p. 4).
By linking water to the concept of property, Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention can be interpreted to
provide additional legal backing for challenging a military occupation’s negative impact on the local water resources.
Article 53 states:
Any destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively
to private persons, or to the State, or to other public authorities, or to social or cooperative organizations, is
prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations.

Shared sacrifice brings shared benefits. Here members of the Bolivian
Part 2
community of Pucara Pajchani make the long trek to a spring carrying putting peacebuilding Principles
PVC pipe that will soon bring safe water to their homes. into water practice
111 Framing water development within a peacebuilding paradigm
Traditionally, water development practitioners have been concerned with material

infrastructure—“tubes and tanks.” While there certainly continues to be an enormous
need for implementing physical water-related improvements throughout the world,
the need to construct “social infrastructure” capable of handling emerging water- “If the underlying
related conflicts has emerged as of paramount concern. Emphasis on strengthening cause of poverty and
local water-related social infrastructure vastly increases the long-term sustainability
underdevelopment in
of any water resources initiative. Ken Hackett, President of CRS, notes (2000):
a region is conflict and
A great number of private voluntary organizations see their traditional violence, then investments
paradigm of moving assistance through a continuum, from relief to undertaken solely to
rehabilitation to development, as patently insufficient. They realize promote poverty relief and
that if they are not consciously engaged in a process that integrates infrastructure development
reconciliation and the promotion of justice in their programs, nothing will lead to little more than
lasting will be accomplished. (pp. 272–73) ‘band-aid’ solutions. Donor
agencies need to adopt
It is important that NGO practitioners on the ground understand the water-related
conflict dynamics and risks in the communities and regions they intend to serve. a broader strategy that
Framing water development efforts within a peacebuilding paradigm increases combines and integrates
conflict sensitivity on the part of development practitioners, and facilitates conflict conflict resolution and
transformation and violence prevention for the parties in dispute. Yet prior to development aid.”
focusing outward on the much-needed task of incorporating peacebuilding principles Lubarr 2005, p. 13
into water programming, a good look inward may be in order for practitioners.

111 FRAMING WATER DEVELOPMent within a peacebuilding paradigm
Points for Reflection
Ethical Obligations
“In addition to delivering An emphasis on ethics is especially important when incorporating peacebuilding into
goods and services, aid delivers water-related programming. As Nick Smith (2002) writes:
messages. The content, style,
Not knowing what constitutes best practice is incompetence. Knowing what best
and modes of aid communicate
practice is, but not knowing how to achieve it, may be inexperience. Knowingly not
values, which can also reinforce, following best practices, when one knows how to achieve it, is unethical.
prolong, and exacerbate conflict
or reinforce and support Cheyanne Church and Mark Rogers (2006, p.190) note that the ethical obligations
capacities for peace.” required of practitioners in the design phase of peacebuilding-driven water projects
include:
Anderson 1999, p. 55
1. Involving the parties to a conflict in determining the change that will satisfy their
respective interests.
2. Considering any possible negative ramifications that may occur as a result of a

project and doing everything possible to eliminate them.
3. Developing projects which maximize the opportunities for positive change.
4. Establishing accurate indicators for later gauging the project’s relative success.
While the ICRC/IFRC/NGO Code of Conduct (1994) seeks to guard NGO

standards of behavior during disaster response programs, these same principles
are applicable as well to guiding approaches and attitudes involved in disaster
preparedness, transitioning out of disaster relief, and, to a very large degree,
longer-term sustainable development. The key principles articulated in the
Code of Conduct include:
1. The humanitarian imperative comes first.
2. Aid is given regardless of race, creed or nationality of the recipients and without
adverse distinction of any kind. Aid priorities are calculated on the basis of
need alone.
3. Aid will not be used to further a particular political or religious standpoint.
4. We shall endeavor not to act as instruments of government foreign policy.
5. We shall respect culture and custom.
6. We shall attempt to build disaster response on local capacities.

Points for Reflection
Being the Peace We Strive to Promote

NGO practitioners should carry out ongoing self-examination as members
of the international relief and development field. This is because inappropriate “We must be the change we
interventions at the community levels can lead to conflict, often despite the best wish to see in the world.”
intentions. Indeed, in the spirit of humility, as “guest” organizations in foreign host
Gandhi
communities, NGOs must continue to be aware of the potential the efforts have
to negatively impact the communities they desire to serve. By first humbly adhering
to the principle advocated by Mary B. Anderson—“Do no harm” (1996, 1999)—
one can proactively take steps to promote peacebuilding and water-related conflict
transformation through programming.
On the basis of general experience related to water and development in diverse

settings involving actual or potential conflict, CRS has found that it is essential first
to be aware of one’s own individual “baggage” as well as the baggage of one’s
organization, and ideally “unpack it” prior to attempting to “put in order” other
people’s houses. Lessons learned from such experiences suggest the following
checklist:
• Do we and our partners take steps to avoid raising undue hopes and
expectations?
• Have we allowed ourselves to be aligned with one faction of a community?
• Have our perspectives been shaped by the attitudes toward rural and semi-
urban peasants that are prevalent among the urban, professional classes, or,
for that matter, among the expatriate community living in areas of privilege?
• Are the funds we receive free of a political agenda promoting one group,
region, or political ideology over another?
• Are we placing our organizational or personal gains above the best interest
of the communities?
• How well is our own internal conflict handled? How collaborative and
participatory is our organizational structure?
• How do we relate to other NGOs in the field? How do we avoid conflict-

inducing competition in order to promote a comprehensive development
agenda with various actors?
• How well do we know a given community and surrounding area before

jumping in? Do we have the knowledge of priority needs, local leaders,
tensions, and histories of conflict that will provide us the necessary insight
for successful project planning and implementation?

• How willing are we to make space for local leadership in decision-making

within our organization, with our partners, and with the benefiting
communities?
“To be effective in the
humanitarian action and Poorly implemented community development projects, especially those involving
water infrastructure so essential to a community’s well-being, can lead to intense
international development
resentment and lasting conflict among community members. If construction
fields, we must embrace materials are inadequate or there is unexpected and costly maintenance of flawed
relationships with the or technologically inappropriate works, community frustrations may flare into open
benefiting communities conflict. Inadequate budgets and delays in project implementation too can lead to
marked by a spirit of community members resorting to public acts of civil disobedience.
accompaniment, deep
listening, and an ability to Role-modeling, mutual respect, and the acknowledgment of beneficiaries as
be self-critical.” essential partners, both in rights and responsibilities, in any community development
project—these are key conflict prevention tools essential to the development
Wessells and Ager 2008 practitioner. By building upon lessons learned from their past experience, Mary B.
Anderson notes that, “Aid workers can ensure that future aid does not exacerbate
or prolong conflict and that it does strengthen connectors and support local
capacities for peace” (1999, p. 67).

Peacebuilding: A Widening of Perspective, An Embracing of Change
The development aid system knew of the disintegration of Rwandese

society; saw the many Tutsis working for aid agencies or partner NGOs
being harassed, threatened, or killed; discussed these matters and surely
regretted them; but seemingly felt it was outside its mandate or capacity “Go with the people.
to intervene, that all it could do was to continue business as usual. Thus aid Live with them.
continued to muddle through, trying to make its usual projects work with a Learn from them.
faltering government, until the day the genocide began (Uvin 1998, p. 65).
Love them.
What would applying peacebuilding and conflict transformation to typical water and Start with what they know.
sanitation development programming look like? What does this mean for the NGO Build with what they have.
practitioner accustomed to professionally carrying out the “nuts and bolts” planning, But of the best leaders
design, and implementation phases for a given water resources development project?
When the job is done,
The answer is relatively simple: In the beginning, it involves nothing more than a the task accomplished,
widening of perspective. The people will all say,
As Cheyanne Church and Mark Rogers (2006) note, ‘We have done this ourselves.’ ”
Peacebuilding is about change. As peace builders, we need to be observant Lao Tsu
enough to see change when it happens, aware enough to understand how
change happens, innovative enough to create change, and strategic enough
to create change where it can make a difference. . . . (p. 23).
To have a real impact on conflict, the same authors conclude:

Individual/personal change must be translated into actions at the socio/
political level. Even then, work with more people is not enough if it does
not reach key people, while work with key people is not enough if it does
not reach more people (pp. 39-40).
As development practitioners, a key question should be continuously asked, and
answered, in striving to follow peacebuilding principles: How do our daily attitudes,
motives, and actions foster processes of change among the benefiting populations
that can evolve to meet the challenge of actual or potential water conflicts?
If development practitioners take the time, at the outset of water and sanitation
projects, to dialogue with stakeholders regarding the potential that each step in the
project has for preventing and/or transforming conflict, an attitude of peacebuilding
will take root. For each key social and technical task associated with water/sanitation
projects, participants can raise strategies that ethically promote change and foster the
aims of peacebuilding.The results of this process at the project’s start also make it more
feasible to stay focused on peacebuilding goals, by establishing a set of indicators against
which development practitioners can periodically “check-in” to help stay on track.
Consider, for example, the opportunities available to articulate “change processes” and/
or ethical obligations for each of the key steps in planning, implementing and evaluating
a typical water supply project, as presented in Table III.1.
Table III.1 Peacebuilding-Guided Water Supply Project Planning and Implementation
Peacebuilding “Change Process”

Task and/or Ethical Obligation
Pre-Project “Concept Note” Phase

1. Invitation by the community to funding and implementing 1. Persons enduring the “structural violence” of poverty
organizations to coparticipate in water supply project. and marginalization must be involved in determining the
change that will satisfy their respective interests.
2. Preliminary visit to community and corresponding local 2. An in-depth and participatory social context analysis is
government to determine project’s technical, financial, and an essential first step toward peacebuilding. This should
social feasibility, while keeping community expectations to a include research into both intra-community and inter-
minimum. community tensions and conflicts.
3. Interviews of community members, especially women and 3. Creating space in decision-making for those who have
children, to assess the current situation and identify the been historically silenced promotes more inclusive and
desired outcomes from any potential project. effective programming.
Project Design and Proposal Phases
4. Written, signed agreement among all stakeholders, granting 4. Proper documentation of agreements reached is a key
permission for use of water source for the water supply step in preventing future conflicts.
project.
5. Water quality analysis performed on the proposed water 5. Possible negative ramifications of a project must be
source. considered, with appropriate preventive measures taken.
6. Written, signed commitments that detail the contributions 6. Peacebuilding is driven by community-defined needs and
to the project of the community and each benefiting family. involves as many stakeholders as possible.
7. Make explicit the expectations of the design engineer to 7. Peace and fostering equity emerges out of a process of
incorporate community participation into the water system breaking down isolation, polarization, division, prejudice,
design (e.g., selection of water source(s), routing of water and stereotypes between/among groups.
lines during survey phase, identification of families’ homes by
name on the plans).
8. Stringent review of design calculations, quantities, and budget 8. Projects should be developed which maximize the
to meet “standard of care" requirements expected to be opportunities for positive change in social relationships.
exercised by reasonably prudent water sector professionals,
thus increasing the likelihood of a successful water project.

Task Peacebuilding “Change Process”

and/or Ethical Obligation
Project Design and Proposal Phases
9. Written, signed local government commitment, detailing its 9. Emphasis should be placed on supporting stable
cash and in-kind contributions of labor, equipment, and/or and reliable civil and social institutions that promote
materials to the project. democracy, social equity, justice, and fair allocation of
resources.
10. A copy of project design proposal made available to 10. Access to information mitigates vulnerability to
each local partner, including the community drinking manipulation, fosters greater accountability, and reduces
water committee, local government, and implementing the likelihood of future conflict.
organization(s). The same should occur with the final
project report upon conclusion of the project.
Project Implementation and Monitoring Phase
11. Project construction kick-off meeting, with leaders of 11. When leaders model collaboration and support peace,
all participating parties coordinating responsibilities and others usually listen and follow suit.
scheduling.
12. Strategic use of external funding as leverage, to: 12. Neutral third parties can facilitate dialogue and
• Serve as a “carrot” to overcome tension between collaborative efforts which encourage conflict-prone
local partners and as incentive to achieve viable, groups to supplant mistrust with shared accomplishment.
locally-determined water use agreements required at
the onset of project.
• Ensure that local government-promised project
contributions are realized transparently.
• Ensure that commitments made by benefiting
families are met.
13. Identification and swearing in of the new drinking water 13. Strengthening and contributing to a vibrant civil society
committee members in a community-led assembly. promotes peace and helps achieve right relationships.
14. Workshops and on-the-job training for drinking water 14. Capacity-strengthening of local leadership promotes
committee members, including: sustainability and increases the ability of the community
• Operation and management skills through assisting to resolve future water disputes that arise in a changing
project-paid masons and plumbers. environment.
• Administration skills through directing manual
labor contributions to the project (e.g., organizing
trenchline excavation by the families).
• Accounting skills through recording any family cash
contributions toward the project.

Peacebuilding “Change Process”

Task
and/or Ethical Obligation
Project Implementation and Monitoring Phase
15. Community-wide workshops on health/hygiene, water 15. Appropriate training that builds upon the community’s
system cleaning/maintenance, introduction of drinking existing wisdom can prepare historically marginalized
water committee to statutes and importance of collecting populations, including youth and women, to prevent or
monthly tariffs for ongoing operation, maintenance, transform conflicts now and into the future.
replacement, and source protection costs.
16. Project implementation, scheduling, and community 16. Indigenous, non-violent approaches to conflict and
organizing, building upon local traditional practices, beliefs, reconciliation are pathways to right relationships.
and organizational structures.
17. Timely reviews of monthly project updates, prepared by 17. Periodic mapping of potential future conflicts facilitates
the implementing NGO, along with periodic site visits by timely preventive measures.
funding NGO representatives.
Project Evaluation and Close-Out Phase
18. Final project walk-through with participation of all 18. The precautionary principle of avoiding the possibility
partners, including a bacteriological analysis of water of harm should be incorporated into all stages of
from several of the distribution points. Once all issues are peacebuilding-driven water development.
addressed, official document signed by all acknowledging
successful project completion.
19. Representatives of the implementing and funding 19. Celebration of communal milestones achieved offers
organizations are present during the inauguration of the opportunities for reflecting on conflicts overcome and
community-organized and community-led water supply setting new goals.
project.
20. A process is established for ongoing accompaniment 20. The level of trust and resulting peaceful coexistence
and training of the drinking water committee in order to increase between and within communities through
facilitate effective water system administration, operation, collaborative initiatives that increase the amount of
and maintenance into the future. constructive, safe interaction taking place between them.
For a more comprehensive list of steps to consider taking in the development and implementation of water supply and sanitation
projects, refer to the CRS document, Guidelines for the Development of Small-Scale Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Projects in East Africa
(Warner and Abate 2005).

1v applying peacebuilding and conflict transformation to

water and sanitation programming
At this point, the reader may be thinking, “I agree with the concept of promoting
peacebuilding. The background on causes, manifestations, and projections of water
conflict is helpful. The statements by leading world bodies increasingly promoting
the human right to water are heartening. But how do we bring these lofty conflict
“Once an aid provider
transformation ideas into the realm of tangible, concrete water and sanitation
projects and programs on the ground?” has internalized the idea
of dividers/tensions and
This chapter is aimed at responding to such concerns. Three sections are included capacities/connectors, she or
here to assist practitioners in this endeavor: he will always view choices
through these lenses. It will
1. How to organize a comprehensive water development agenda, with a focus on become second nature to
peacebuilding, supplemented by concrete examples of actions called for by leading think about the inadvertent
water advocates of our day.
side effects of programming
2. What specific tools and methodologies to use for resolving disputes and decisions in the context of
transforming conflicts associated with water. Many of these same techniques conflict. . . . Additionally, it will
can promote conflict prevention. become natural to consider
how to achieve the agency’s
3. What recommended conflict transformation steps to use in addressing a variety of mandates and programming
typical water-related conflict scenarios. Offers a “what to do” list that development purposes in ways that do
practitioners can tap into in order to establish their own response, specific to each not exacerbate intergroup
individual situation and generated with full participation by local leadership.
tensions but that support and
strengthen connections among
people as they build a just and
peaceful society.”
Anderson 1999, p. 74

1v applying peacebuilding and conflict transformation to water and sanitation programming
Peacebuilding Perspectives to Guide a Water Development Agenda
A top priority in guiding water and sanitation programming in areas of possible and
actual conflict is to “advance the peacebuilding potential created through the trust
developed by community partnerships and cooperative ventures.” (Lubarr 2005, p. 6).
“A global ‘Blue’ covenant on Peacebuilding can be enhanced by focusing on:
water is needed, and should
include: • Root Cause/Justice
• Building Relationships
Water conservation: • Institutional Development
‘The right of the Earth and of • Appropriate Technology / Development Approach
other species to water.’
Water justice: Examples of successful water-related peacebuilding efforts that fall within the scope
‘Solidarity between global North of each of these components are provided in Boxes IV.1 through IV.4.
and South, promoting water for all
and local control of water.’ “Root Cause/Justice”
Water democracy:
Peace can be achieved by addressing the underlying issues of injustice, oppression/
‘Recognition of water as a exploitation, threats to identity and security, and people’s sense of injury/victimization.
fundamental human right for all.’ ” (Woodrow 2002)
Barlow 2007 • Implement the concepts of “the human right to water” and “water as a
vehicle to end poverty” by enabling access to, and provision of, potable water
and sanitation facilities (Wright and Warner 2008).
• Treat water development projects not as ends in themselves but rather as

means toward reducing poverty, meeting basic human needs, and increasing
human security (Conca 2006, p. 2).
• Put social equity and the interests of the poor at the center of integrated
water resources management (UNDP 2006b, p. 28).
• Support grassroots organizations and civil society networks in their advocacy

efforts to promote the recognition and practical implementation of the
human right to water, both at the local levels and globally.
• Educate students and the broader public about the right to water and
sanitation (Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions et al. 2007, p. 48).

Peacebuilding Perspectives for Guiding a Water Development Agenda
• Educate the general public about the opportunities squandered by

excessive military spending, in order to put pressure on policy makers
to adjust budget-spending priorities in the direction of peacebuilding,
including water and sanitation infrastructure development. “Respect for human life and for
the dignity of the human person
• Assist religious leaders, such as the national bishop’s conferences and extends to the rest of creation.”
interfaith bodies conferences of religious and diocesan justice and peace
commissions, in the formation of reflection / guidance documents John Paul II 1990, Art. 16
pertaining to equitable water governance policies.
• Enhance understanding of the global demands that drive local resource

pressures and resulting water-related conflicts—from commercial shrimp
and salmon farming to massive hydroelectric projects—by supporting
such measures as product certification, consumer information campaigns,
and “cradle to grave” accountability. (Conca 2006, p. 3)
• Advocate for an end to practices by multilateral lending institutions that

involve the imposition on developing countries of water privatization
or “full cost recovery” as a condition for new loans and renewal of
loans. Likewise, advocating for the exclusion of water privatization and
liberalization clauses from any multilateral, regional, or bilateral trade
agreements. (Indigenous Peoples Kyoto Water Declaration 2003,
Arts. 25, p. 26).

Box IV.1 “Root Cause/Justice”

Examples from the Field
• In Cajamarca, Peru, where U.S.-based Newmont’s Yanacocha mine is polluting downstream water resources and
causing conflicts and fatalities, Oxfam America provides periodic news updates that serve as a vital link between
Peruvian advocates on the ground and global justice and peace actors. This is part of its stated goal “to ensure
the oil, gas and mining industries respect the rights of community members impacted by extractive industries
projects, and that projects contribute to the long-term reduction of poverty” (Oxfam America 2007).
• Following the destruction of two wells by the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip which provided the Palestinian
town of Rafah with nearly half of its drinking water supply, Save the Children-Jerusalem worked with local
municipal authorities to develop a case study included in the 2003 “Thirsting for Justice” report by the Center
for Economic and Social Rights (CESR). The report was presented for consideration to the 30th Session of the
United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
• In El Salvador, CRS partner Caritas El Salvador is taking a leading role in the “Foro de Agua,” a permanent Water
Forum comprised of more than 100 organizations and institutions. The Forum’s stated aim is to influence public
policy in order to achieve responsible, equitable, efficient, and participative governance of water resources.
The forum has taken a public stand against privatization of water services and unsustainable practices—from
uncontrolled urban sprawl to large dam construction and metal mining—and in 2007 presented a proposed
General Water Law bill to the Salvadoran legislature.
• In Tamil Nadu State in India, where the poorest of the poor are the Dalits (the "untouchables" caste) and tribal
people, children are segregated by caste at school, Dalit women cannot draw water from the same well as
others, and men must use separate drinking containers based on caste. Trócaire, the overseas development
agency of the Irish Catholic Church, supports a Dalit self-help group, the People's Education and Economic
Development Society. They educate, use the law to challenge such discrimination, and run credit unions and
income-generation programs (CRS 1998, 16).

“Building Relationships”
Peace emerges through breaking down isolation, polarization, division, prejudice and
stereotypes between/among groups. Strong relationships are built first on commonalities “Obviously nature knows
that later enable people to respectfully explore differences (Woodrow 2002). no boundaries; the
interdependence of natural
• Increase the level of trust between and within communities via multi-party resources requires a region-
collaborative water development projects, by facilitating opportunities for wide, cross-border management
constructive, safe contact among them. Past sources of conflict, or “dividers,” in order to solve urgent matters
are supplanted by newly achieved “connectors,” linking people for peace
such as water scarcity and the
across conflict lines (Caritas Internationalis 2002).
pollution of water resources.
• Provide appropriate incentives for parties historically in conflict to come Here lies the potential of
together and resolve their differences as a precondition for the opportunity environmental peacebuilding
to participate in a mutually-beneficial water development project. to contribute to the process
of building peace in a region of
• Take the initiative to mediate informally or formally between differing parties protracted conflict.”
(Ndelu 1998, p. 73).
Harari 2008, p. 23
• Initiate ventures requiring leaders of opposing factions to work together
(Ndelu 1998, p. 73).
• Help various stakeholders (e.g., communities, civil society organizations,

and local governments along a given binational watershed) to join forces,
communicate problems, and identify common solutions (Centro Agronómico
Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza 2007).
• Provide a collective ecumenical or inter-religious voice in local and global

public debate on water and sanitation issues, recognizing that when religious
leaders model collaboration and support peace, others often listen and
support peace too (CRS 2008, p. 124).

Box IV.2 “Building Relationships”

The Good Water Neighbors Project of the Middle East
Excerpts from N. Harari and J. Roseman, Environmental Peacebuilding Theory and Practice (2008).
The “Good Water Neighbors” (GWN) project was established by EcoPeace / Friends of the Earth Middle East in 2001 to raise
awareness of the shared water problems of Palestinians, Jordanians, and Israelis. The GWN methodology is based on identifying
cross border communities and utilizes their mutual dependence on shared water resources as a basis for developing dialogue
and cooperation on sustainable water management. There are clear indicators that confirm that GWN has created real
improvement within the water sector by building trust and understanding that has led to common problem solving and peace
building among communities in the midst of conflict.
Seventeen Israeli, Palestinian, and Jordanian communities participate in the project. Each community is partnered with a
neighboring community on the other side of the border/political divide to work on common water issues. On the local level,
GWN works with community members to improve their water situation through education and awareness activities, and urban
development projects. On the regional level, GWN works to encourage sustainable water management through information
sharing, dialogue, and cooperative ventures. Program participants include youth, adults, environmental professionals, and
municipal leaders.
Concrete results of this initiative in a context of seemingly intractable violence include:
• Exchange of information and gathering of individuals from neighboring communities.

• Formation of youth volunteer water trustees.
• Transformation of a public building, such as a school, in each community into a water-wise facility.
• Launching of public petitions concerning a common cross-border water problem needing to be solved by each
pair of neighboring communities.
• Creation of ecological gardens in each community.
• Organization of workshops on water-wise issues.
• Generation of a series of “Memorandums of Understanding” by mayors of the paired communities.

“Institutional Development”
Peace is secured by establishing stable/reliable social institutions that further
promote democracy, equity, justice, and fair allocation of resources. Establishing “Support to local organizations
better mechanisms for social oversight of water governance leads to greater that promote participation
accountability and transparency, reduced conflict and more effective water resources and pluralism is part of the
management. (Woodrow 2002) process to ensure lasting
peace. . . . By effectively
strengthening local NGOs
• Develop integrated water resources management strategies that set national in civil society, constituencies
water use levels within the limits of ecological sustainability and provide a
can be created that hold
coherent planning framework for all water resources (UNDP 2006b, p. 28).
governments accountable to
• Support the work of governments and communities by providing information, adopting policies that
facilitating community organization, and assisting communities with their minimize conflict.”
advocacy and social oversight efforts (Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions Hackett 2000, p. 278
et al. 2007, p. 47).
• Support the development and growth of local and national civil society
organizations and community-based organizations (Centre on Housing Rights
and Evictions et al. 2007, p. 49).
• Build community and government capacity and knowledge of water and

sanitation issues, including rights and responsibilities, management, and
technical information (Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions et al. 2007,
p. 48).
• Monitor actions on water and sanitation by government and third parties

(Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions et al. 2007, p. 48).
• Deliver on promises and thus inspire further development—“Success breeds

success” (Ndelu 1998, p. 73).
• Establish between states the development of shared data, information

systems, water management institutions, and legal frameworks, which help
sustain efforts to reduce the risk of conflict (OECD DAC 2005, p. 1).
For an example of an organizational structure arising out of years of successful

institutional development experience, see Box IV.3.

Box IV.3 “Institutional Development”

Good Community Water Governance Equals Good Conflict Prevention
Organizational structures that institutionalize participatory democracy and civil society leadership create an environment
in which the likelihood of water-related conflict is reduced and the conflicts that do occur are effectively “transformed.”
Take the JAPOE Water Services Administrator for the 10,000 person community of Jesus de Otoro, Honduras (Fiallos
2008). The administrative structure is built upon institutionalized participatory decision-making, as follows:
Sector Assemblies
(City is divided into 10 geographic sectors, each averaging 1,000 people.)
All users from each sector meet on the same day, once every two months. Failure to attend
results in a community-determined fine added to the next month’s water bill.
GRASSROOTS “BASE” STRUCTURE
General Board of Directors Oversight and Discipline Council

(11 members, at least one from each sector plus (10 members, 1 representative from each sector)
2 local government representatives) Provides social oversight and monitoring of
Meets monthly. General Board of Directors and Administration
OPERATING LEVEL OPERATING LEVEL
Assembly of Sectorial Board of Directives

(50 members, 5 elected from each sector. Meets semi-annually.)
Among other responsibilities, elects General Board of Directors.
EXECUTIVE LEVEL
All above community leadership positions are unpaid, democratically-elected, and of three-year duration, with established
term limits. A small, paid administrative/technical staff works full-time, reporting to the General Board of Directors.
Approximately 30 landowners—more than 80% in the area of the recharge zone for JAPOE’s water source—have
signed “environmental services” provider contracts. Upon annual verification by university volunteer interns that soil
conservation, reforestation, and water protection measures are being implemented as agreed upon, each participating
landowner receives an “incentive” payment of approximately $100 each per year, funded by the users through their
monthly water bills.

“Appropriate Technology / Development Approach”

Sustainable technologies and development approaches appropriate for the context
in which they are to be applied can improve livelihoods and lead to reduced conflict.
• Defuse tensions as water stress worsens by increasing productivity of

water-use-output per unit of water through drip irrigation and other
Photo by David Snyder/CRS. (2007)

agricultural measures that increase the “crop-per-drop” ratio (Postel and
Wolf 2001, pp. 7–8).
• Utilize “soft path” approaches to match quality of water with its use, e.g.,
grey water systems for irrigation, and to match the scale of infrastructure
to the scale of the need, e.g., decentralized rainwater capture and storage
for domestic use or small-scale irrigation, as opposed to large, often
conflict-ridden centralized facilities (Gleick and Wolff 2002, p. 1). A Lesotho villager waters a keyhole
garden, a small but nutrient-rich and
• Recalibrate the response to global warming. Place greater emphasis on highly productive plot that lets her
strategies for adaptation in national water management policies and aid grow more food to feed her family.
efforts, in order to assist marginalized populations facing the negative
consequences of climate change (UNDP 2006b, p. 28).
• Recognize traditional, indigenous systems for managing water, developed

and validated over the course of hundreds of years. For that reason, they
should be better understood, valued, recovered, and disseminated as proven
alternatives for sustainable approaches to water governance (CONDESAN
2003, pp. 5–6).
• Widely communicate research on ways to implement the right to water

and sanitation, including lessons learned on-the-ground by development
practitioners. The goal is to share outcomes with all stakeholders as well as
peer organizations (Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions et al. 2007, p. 48).
An example of the application of the Appropriate Technology / Development

Approach is shown in Box IV.4.

Box IV.4: “Appropriate Technology / Development Approach”

Local Autonomy Supplants Local, Corruption-Driven Conflict
The community development approach employed by Bolivian NGO Suma Jayma minimizes the potential for conflict
through an ongoing, yet at times intermittent, working relationship with small communities and their corresponding local
governing officials in five municipal jurisdictions in the Andean high plains. Dedicated to implementing technologically
appropriate water projects (e.g., gravity water supply systems and locally made hand pumps), Suma Jayma’s defining
strength is its ability to be autonomous in deciding whether or not to continue implementing future community projects
within a given municipal jurisdiction, based on the performance of the local government officials.
By earning the trust of its foreign funding partners, Suma Jayma is able to determine whether to continue working
in a given municipal jurisdiction or to put on temporary hold the start-up of any new water projects. An indefinite
postponement may be required until the municipality resumes best practices of transparency and accountability. If local
government officials are “unable,” i.e., unwilling, to continue best practices, Suma Jayma gives them “time to mature.” In
the meantime, members of the surrounding villages, denied implementation of Suma Jayma-led water projects, are usually
quite willing to help these elected officials in their “maturing” process. More effective, transparent, local government, as
well as increased citizen participation in local democratic processes, is the result. Conflict caused by corrupt development
practices is minimized.
An Aymara himself, like the villagers whom he helps, Braulio Rojas, in his role as director of Suma Jayma, sees the NGO’s
efforts as serving two principal aims: to meet the critical need of rural indigenous families for access to improved water
in their homes, and to foster good governance at the level of the local drinking water committee and the municipal
government. Having faced his fair share of wayward officials, he beams when explaining the benefits of this conflict-
minimizing approach to water development:
• We can opt for the local governments that are most ready to work, most likely to complete their agreed upon
commitments in a timely fashion, and most willing to do both without entering into corrupt practices.
• With several local government partners, we don’t have to stop everything if the operation of one becomes paralyzed
due to political in-fighting or freezing of municipal accounts due to irregularities. We can give more time and energy to
those that are most fired up about working, rewarding effective and efficient local public administration.
• By working with various municipalities, we can hold up successful actions taken by a given local government as positive
examples of what can be achieved by the others. ‘Look at what the Municipality of Calamarca is doing in allocating
funds from different sources within its budget. . . . The local government of Comanche not only provides use of their
heavy equipment for transporting construction materials, but the fuel as well!’

Water-Related Conflict Transformation Tools and Techniques
In this section, Mark M. Rogers provides a menu of dispute-resolution and

peacebuilding tools and techniques that can help transform water-related conflict.
It is important that water development practitioners be equipped with them
because unforeseen circumstances can result in water-related conflict despite the “Water management
best-laid plans and investment in conflict prevention. by definition is conflict
management.”
Unlike many other types of conflict, water-related conflict offers few opportunities
for creating a bigger pie—in this case, adding new water to the equation. Zero-sum Dourojeanni 2007, p. 2
scenarios are common, and “both . . . and” strategies may not be viable. Without
the option of creating more water, solutions tend to focus more on water use,
such as more equitable sharing of existing resources, improved efficiency of supply
and demand, conservation, and/or short-term transfers from other areas. Despite
this constraint, the full menu of conflict transformation, dispute-resolution, and
peacebuilding tools and techniques can help address water-related conflict.
Multi-stakeholder planning, policy dialogue, and conflict transformation are all

multi-faceted processes that draw on similar tools and techniques. Few of these
techniques used in isolation yield the desired changes. Instead, a series of initiatives
tailored to the needs of the people and the realities of the context is often needed.
Several of the techniques covered here are also conflict-prevention techniques,
and may have value at any stage of a conflict. Generally speaking there are three
broad, though rarely separate, phases in any given multi-stakeholder planning,
peacebuilding, or dispute resolution initiative:
1. Preparation and groundwork
2. Planning and negotiation
3. Implementation and monitoring
Advocacy has a role to play in many cases, and may be brought to bear in different
phases or moments.

The phases, in greater detail, are:
1. Preparation and Groundwork2

a. Analyzing Conflict
b. Identifying and Engaging all Stakeholders
c. Improving Communication and Building Trust
d. Addressing Historical Needs for Reconciliation
e. Designing a Process
2. Planning and Negotiation

a. Defining an Agenda—Issues to Work On
b. Identifying Interests
c. Collecting Information
d. Developing and Exploring Options
e. Engaging and Informing Constituencies
f. Negotiating Agreement
3. Implementation and Monitoring

a. Advocacy to Win External Support
b. Working Out the Details
c. Monitoring Agreements
d. Renegotiating as Needed
Box IV.5 presents an example of how this holistic approach to rebuilding social cohesion among conflict-divided
groups can lead as well to a restoration of a community’s shared water resources.
2
Adapted from Fisher and Saul (2001).

Box IV.5 CRS Peacebuilding School: Restoring Social Cohesion to Protect Water
Since 2003, CRS El Salvador has facilitated an annual Peacebuilding School, designed to strengthen the ability of
experienced community organizers to serve as a catalyst in promoting and articulating social transformation initiatives
within their own communities. With approximately thirty participants each year, the three-day participatory workshops,
given over a period of nine months, address a variety of peacebuilding topics, ranging from non-violence to human
rights, and from dispute mediation to political advocacy.
Perhaps the greatest testament to the effectiveness of this program is the achievements of the students themselves.
Take, for example, Demetria Portillo:
Concerned about the heavily contaminated Jalapa River passing through her community and that of others, she initially
organized a trash clean-up campaign along the river. Just two weeks later, however, frequent dumping had it already
looking the same as before. Realizing a more comprehensive, lasting approach would be required, she then led efforts
to overcome institutional, political and geographic divisions to build the social cohesion necessary to sustain an effective
control over the quality of their water resources. As part of the peacebuilding school program, she developed a plan to
accompany, train, and energize existing civil society and government bodies to put aside ideologically and personality-
driven divisions in this polarized, post-civil-war society in order to take a united stand in defense of water. With minimal
outside funding, their efforts included:
• Facilitating gatherings of a newly created inter-institutional network of key stakeholders, including local
community leaders, health professionals, and government officials dedicated to the cleaning up of the Jalapa
River watershed. This network continued to exert pressure upon commercial, industrial, and municipal entities
to stop their contaminating practices.
• Coordinating with fourteen schools to encourage student-led advocacy and direct service efforts aimed at
promoting the health of the river ecosystem.
• Utilizing mass media to promote environmental awareness-raising among the general population.
Over a several year period, Demetria helped her community achieve an enormous change in attitude, not only in
regard to issues of watershed protection, but also in terms of what can be achieved when people work together for
a common cause. A couple of concrete examples of change included:
• The hospital no longer dumps its medical waste into the river.
• The municipalities have established solid waste collection points.
The process is not as linear as the above outline suggests and often multiple activities and even phases may run at the same
time. There is an art to scheduling, sequencing, integrating, repeating, scaling up, and creating synergies between these tasks and
the different tools and techniques. Invariably, however, there is a common starting point—the conflict assessment. Details of the
phases are described in the following sections.

Preparation and Groundwork

Analyzing Conflict
“Where climate change
and violent conflict create Out of the wealth of literature on conflict assessment, two factors in particular
a potential vicious circle of merit repetition and reinforcement here.3 First, assessments of water-related conflict
destructive effects, adaptation need to take into account the full range of potential root and proximate causes.
As with many types of conflict, water-related conflicts rarely exist in isolation from
and peacebuilding combine to
other conflicts. Water can be used for political purposes, as an expression of power.
construct a virtuous circle of It can be manipulated out of greed. A thorough conflict analysis should reveal the
increasing stability.” connections between water-related conflicts and other, concurrent conflicts.
Smith and Vivekananda 2007, p. 46
Second, even though the presenting issue may appear to be limited to a single
dimension, such as social equity, other concerns, such as ecological and economic
efficiency, should also be investigated as part of the assessment. Few conflicts are as
neatly categorized as they may appear in this text. Expect there to be elements of
all three concerns: social equity, ecological/environmental concerns, and economic
efficiency. The conflict assessment should weigh the importance of each factor
involved. Where environmental-impact studies, hydrological surveys, evaluations,
and data are available, they too should be considered in the conflict assessment.
Appendix A, “Summary of Lines of Inquiry for Evaluating the Risk of Water-Related

Conflict,” contains a list of additional questions to consider when assessing water-
related conflicts.
Identifying and Engaging All Stakeholders
Given the almost universal need for water, a complete and thorough water
stakeholder analysis is essential. Often, water conflicts are framed in terms of
the primary parties, such as urban/rural, industry/agriculture, small farmer/agro
industry. Rarely are only two groups affected by water conflict or the solutions to
these conflicts. Solutions may spark new conflicts among other stakeholders. In
water-related conflicts, analysts should consider all water stakeholders, not just the
presenting stakeholders in the conflict at hand.
Box IV.6 contrasts two water programming initiatives. One, based on a

Martin Lueders
comprehensive conflict assessment, led to decreased suspicion and increased

collaboration. The other, devoid of such groundwork, led to increased tension in
an already highly charged setting.
Children in Afghanistan face a harsh
environment as well as years of violent
conflicts.
3
A thorough inventory and description of published sources on conflict assessment
frameworks and methods is available in Africa Peace Forum et al. (2004) and Paffenholz and
Reychler (2007).
Box IV.6 Water Projects in Postwar Angola

Excerpts from T. Paffenholz and L. Reychler, (2007).
“When the common good
When evaluating the peacebuilding effectiveness of two water rehabilitation is defined by the people
programs in post-war Angola, we found two totally different results: one agency who are confronted with the
had planned its program using only development criteria and set up water problems and then supported
points at those areas indicated by the water feasibility study. This led to serious by international organizations,
tensions between the two villages located in the area. One village was full of actions that follow will more
returning refugees belonging to the former conflict party UNITA, while most of likely address the structural and
the inhabitants of the other village belonged to the other former conflict party,
cultural tensions in society.”
the ruling MPLA party. As the new water point was much closer to the “MPLA”
village, the “UNITA” villagers saw this as proof that the MPLA government was Hackett 2000, p. 280
monopolizing aid resources for their supporters and that aid agencies were
working hand-in-hand with them.
In the second water program the aid agency had conducted a water feasibility
study and additionally a participatory conflict/peace analysis: They had invited
the conflicting stakeholders to jointly decide where the water points should be
established (taking into account both the development feasibility study and
the conflict/peace analysis), and also established joint water management
committees. Thus, the program did “no harm” to the conflict situation and also
contributed to local peacebuilding through the joint committees.
Although water can be a great unifying force, polarization, fear, ignorance, and
Photo by David Snyder/CRS, 2005.

prejudice conspire to keep people apart. In certain circumstances, primary
stakeholders will not take advantage of opportunities for dialogue and negotiation
until they are brought together by conveners or public figures respected by all
sides, such as religious leaders, former ministers, judges, or ambassadors, or even
celebrities. The convener can directly facilitate the process; bring the parties together
for a process to be facilitated by professionals; or be part of a mixed team.
In the wake of Angola’s civil war,
Convening is a preliminary step in a larger process. Although the larger process traditional leaders participate in a
does not need to be mapped out in its entirety ahead of time, organizers do need conflict resolution course taught as
to anticipate possible next steps. Once people come together, conveners need to part of the CRS PARTICIPAR project.
be able to articulate the options available for dialogue and negotiation.
Improving Communication and Building Trust
Improving dialogue
Dialogue has come to mean many things to many people. In the traditional sense,
“dialogue” refers to a discussion with the exclusive purpose of enhancing mutual
understanding. There is no preconceived subsequent step. But dialogue is often a

precursor to planning, negotiation, and other collaborative processes. Reference to a dialogue “platform” calls up a need for
ongoing engagement, although in a way that keeps expectations to a minimum, so that there is greater room for flexibility.
Box IV.7 presents lessons learned from an effort at promoting dialogue over the contentious issue of water.
Box IV.7 Results from Dialogue in a Tanzanian Water-Stressed Basin

Excerpts from J. Sarmett et al., “Managing Water Conflicts through Dialogue in Pangani Basin, Tanzania” (2005).
Pangani [Tanzania] is a water-stressed basin with many latent and emerging conflicts [over scale, tenure, and location] . . .
among water user groups. To address these conflicts, dialogue platforms were established at each site to bring together actors to
discuss the contentious issues and work towards consensus in resolving them. . . . One case involved recognizing the efficacy and
to some extent reinstituting traditional systems where water was managed by hydrological boundaries and not administrative
boundaries. In one case, [in] a conflict between the Arusha Urban Water Supply and small-scale downstream users, the dialogue
process stalled because of political and national interests.
We found that dialogue processes require time [and] resources and increase the transaction costs of water management. At
the same time, dialogue can strengthen Water Users Associations (WUAs), foster relationships between the government and
communities, and promote the formation of new WUAs. Dialogue processes have a better chance of success if they are initiated
prior to a crisis situation. The process should include: an analysis of the conflict, relationship and trust building, negotiating
solutions and action plans, and joint implementation of the action plans. The more inclusive the process is, the more sustainable
and equitable the outcome will likely be.
The precise meaning of “dialogue” has become diluted through overuse. As just mentioned, in the traditional sense “dialogue”
refers to a discussion with the exclusive purpose of enhancing mutual understanding. Guidance developed by CDA for OECD
(2007) proposes the following guidelines:
While there is no consensus on a precise definition of dialogue, there is broad agreement on elements that comprise dialogue
in the context of conflict prevention and peacebuilding:
• It is a deliberate process.
• It encourages (and provides opportunities for) disagreeing protagonists to talk with each other, in face-to-face
interaction or indirectly. The protagonists include parties to a conflict or potential conflict, or factions within a party.
• It is an organized form of communication when constructive discourse is difficult or blocked.
• Its purpose is to have a positive influence on the conflict.
The key aspects of dialogue include:
• A range of goals, from simply improving communication and relationships to recommending political solutions in
negotiations.
• A range of specific issues addressed.
• Varying degrees to which the process is carefully designed or evolves, based on the needs and interests of the group.
• A range of participants, from grassroots community members to mid-level influentials to high-level political
operatives with connections to decision-makers.
• A range of third party functions and roles.

Dialogue platforms invite engagement and effective communication. Many dialogue platforms today are used to engage in
planning and/or negotiation (Herzig and Chasin 2006).
Awareness-Raising
Water-related conflict involves a complex range of issues and can best be understood when viewed through the lens
offered by several different professional fields. Being a stakeholder does not necessarily mean that one is fully versed in all
the complexities associated with water-related conflict. Some awareness-raising initiatives are most likely appropriate for any
and all of the issues raised in the first sections of this text. These can range from national information campaigns; to building
community and government knowledge on water rights, responsibilities, and management; to collecting and disseminating
detailed scientific information on a specific subject. One example of consciousness-raising involves efforts to educate all
stakeholders (politicians, development workers, direct participants), as well as the general public, on the paradigm shift from
merely sharing water resources to sharing the benefits of water resources management and use, accounting for both human
and ecological needs (Wright and Warner 2008).
Confidence-Building Initiatives
Confidence-building initiatives can facilitate relationships among various stakeholders, such as communities within a given
watershed, and lead to improved communication and collaboration. Sharing a meal is one of the most common and powerful
confidence-building techniques. Participants are asked to refrain from talking about the issues and the conflict, and instead must
engage each other as human beings. Exchanges can also build confidence and may involve visiting delegations or an exchange
of video or audio communiqués. Unilateral or reciprocal good-faith gestures that are independent of preconditions can also
help build confidence.
Addressing Historic Needs for Reconciliation
Box IV.8 Somalia and Ethiopia: Unresolved Historical Conflicts Impede Water Cooperation
Excerpt from A. Mohamed, “Need for Transboundary River Cooperation” (2002).
Somalia in a vulnerable end user located in a downstream area, which is the least favorable position to be in hydro-
political terms. . . . [Somalia is] permanently very dependent upon the actions taken by Ethiopia. Although the issue of
the Juba and Shabelle Rivers is a hidden and powerful one that could explode at any time in the future, no negotiations
could be initiated before addressing and solving other more fundamental causes of the historical conflicts and the current
tensions. In view of [the] region's current political conditions as well as the historical facts, [the region] is unlikely to realize
the desperately needed cooperation, and future water conflict seems to be inevitable.
In situations like that described in Box IV.8 above, little progress can be made in the present until closure on past events is
achieved to everyone’s satisfaction. Unresolved issues may have nothing to do with water, and may even concern stakeholders
who died decades ago, so that people no longer remember the roots of the problem.

Reconciliation is the nexus of “truth, justice, peace, and mercy” (J.P. Lederach, 1997). Reconciliation programming options are
usually culture-specific. There are a number of common approaches to reconciliation, and programs may need or choose to
employ multiple approaches.
• Producing mutually acceptable historical records: History is recorded and reflects the bias of its authors. A mutually
prepared history of the conflict can introduce new language and new perceptions that bring closure on specific
issues. This might entail collaborative research by historians representing all stakeholders.
• Solidarity events: Ceremonial gatherings that bring together all stakeholders to celebrate common interests can
serve to demarcate the closing of one era—of conflict—and the opening of a new era, one of collaboration. These
events frequently take months of preparation, including, at times, single-identity preparatory work (Church, Visser, and
Johnson, 2002)..
• Cleansing and readmittance rituals: Where individual perpetrators have been identified and, in some cases, formally
judged, reentry rituals serve to reconcile the offender with his or her community.
• Public apology: A public apology may serve to bring closure to the past and shift the focus onto what needs to
happen next. This approach can be retroactive, as in the case of current administrations apologizing for the errors
of earlier administrations.
• Reparations: The more tangible the subject, the more feasible reparations become. Reparations can be readily made
for tangible items whose value is easy to assess. But how does one make reparations for lost dignity? Symbolic
reparations may be acceptable. Reparations may need to be accompanied by public apologies, revised historical
records, or solidarity events.
• Affirmative action: This refers to the additional preparation or investment needed to ensure that both privileged and
disadvantaged individuals—people coming from very different starting points—achieve the same or similar outcomes.
For example, even though two groups may receive an equal ration of water, if one group has the capacity to store
unused water and draw upon it during peak demands and the other does not, then access to water is not equitable.
The group with storage capacity has greater access, even though they receive the same volume of water. In this case,
affirmative action might include building similar storage capacity for the disadvantaged group.
Designing a Process
Although this text describes a general overarching process, there are many decisions that go into developing a specific process
that will respond to the needs of the participants and the challenges they are facing. The process and the participation of
stakeholders are closely linked.
Political power often trumps popular concerns, but rarely erases them. When political power suppresses popular interests,
conflict can simmer interminably. Levels of popular participation under these circumstances are often characterized as
manipulation, decoration, tokenism, or assignment (Hart 1992).
A more genuine process of give-and-take is likely to result in more durable solutions. Levels of participation under these
circumstances are characterized by consultation, empowered unilateral decision-making, and collaborative decision-making.

A number of well-known tools to build popular and political buy-in are listed in the section on Engaging and Informing
Constituents in the Planning and Negotiation phase. Process options include, but are not limited to: awareness–raising;
confidence-building; conflict analysis; dialogue; research; envisioning a common future; planning; negotiation; using third-party,
neutral facilitators; and advocacy among others. Conflict transformation is not linear and frequently involves multiple processes
or a series of processes. Participants move back and forth in a unique sequence they tailor to their own needs. A few options
not addressed elsewhere are mentioned here.
Building on Known and Proven Processes
Traditional methods of resolving disputes are usually well known and accepted by communities:
On the local level, traditional community-based mechanisms are already well suited to specific local conditions and are
thus more easily adopted by the community. Examples include the Chaffa committee, a traditional water management
institution of the Boran people in the Horn of Africa; or the Arvari Parliament, an informal decision making and conflict-
resolution body based on traditional customs of the small Arvari River in Rajasthan, India. (Wolf et al. 2005).
Water is rarely a new issue, and long-standing and traditional practices are often good places to begin looking at alternatives.
Appreciative inquiry into what has worked in the past frequently generates viable options for consideration. Care needs to
be exercised to ensure that people who were marginalized in past processes and solutions are not again marginalized by the
present application of options that worked previously.
Envisioning a Shared Future
Envisioning exercises are helpful in expanding the number of options and in setting the broad direction for the future. These can
be bottom-up processes that start at the grass roots, or cascading processes that originate higher in the state hierarchy. Because
the intent is to expand the number of options and generate creative possibilities, envisioning can be very useful in working with
large numbers of participants in many small groups spread out over different locations. Freed from the constraints of the past
and the present, envisioning can reveal aspirations shared by people in the conflict (Dugan 2003).
Using Research to Generate Options
A peacebuilder’s job is to expand the number of options. An important step in this is to separate the process of identifying
the options from the process of assessing the viability of those options. Because parties frequently enter negotiations and
collaborative processes having already decided upon their desired outcome, they will have to suspend evaluation until all options
have been identified. This can be extremely difficult for technicians involved in the negotiations who have been trained to focus
on the “best” option and/or instructed to “tell us what to do here.”
If a researcher is not a primary stakeholder, he or she probably should have no role in the decision-making. Instead, researchers
can offer important contributions by laying out various possibilities, with clear descriptions of the advantages and liabilities of
each option. Researchers can draw attention to ideas and options that are new to the primary stakeholders. They can provide
information on the efficiency of traditional methods. Researchers can also share information, experiences, and results from other
locations where different options were employed.

Bridging the Gaps in Technical and Social Ingenuity
Technical solutions may have unacceptable social consequences and, hence, generate additional conflict. These are sometimes
framed as “contemporary” versus “traditional” technologies. In some cases, it may not be possible to separate the technical
and social components. Identifying the social interests behind specific technical alternatives can help identify important criteria
for evaluating technical options. For example, proximity to a site of religious importance may require selecting an alternative
site that is less desirable from a technical standpoint. Box IV.9 is an example of this call for greater mutual respect between the
promoters of technical advantage and the partisans of social ingenuity.
Box IV.9 Southern Africa’s International Shared Water Facility: A Call to Balance the Technical with the Social
Excerpts from A. Turton, “A Southern African Perspective on Transboundary Water Resource Management” (2003).
Data imbalances increase power disparities within river basins in southern Africa, acting as fundamental drivers of conflict. . . .
The International Shared Water Facility (ISWF) runs the risk of being dominated by Northern, developed-country technocrats
with a bias towards technical solutions, which would de-emphasize indigenous forms of knowledge that are alive and well in
some social settings in the developing South. One example of such indigenous knowledge is the natural capacity that water
has as an element of cooperation in the semi-arid regions of Southern Africa. In Botswana, for instance, the local currency is
called the “Pula,” which literally means “rain” but culturally means “may you have the abundance associated with rain.”
The ISWF must be able to take these local nuances on board if it is to remain a true partnership amongst equals. If the
ISWF evolves into just another Northern-dominated institution, however, it runs the grave risk of becoming delegitimized in
the developing South.
Technicians can be the source of ideas and options that are new to the primary stakeholders. They can also assist in developing
additional criteria by which to evaluate options and educate decision-makers about standards in the technicians’ field of
expertise.
Water development practitioners should be wary of situations where each party wants to use “its own” technicians. Legitimate
differences in technical perspectives may be misconstrued as bad faith or manipulation and bring the entire process to a halt.
Moreover, one should recognize that there are disputes within technical fields that may have nothing to do with the situation
at hand. A joint technical team can help keep technical differences of opinion limited to the joint team, where they can be
addressed on technical merit rather than political preference.
Resistance to new methods or new technologies may stem from ignorance rather than informed opposition. The media,
education, outreach, communications packages, and other forms of information-sharing and awareness-raising can be helpful
in countering rumors, addressing fears, and informing stakeholders about opportunities for participation.
Facilitation and Dispute Resolution
Third-party neutrals can facilitate a wide range of dispute resolution processes. Large international agencies sometimes use the
services of an ombudsman. For example, in certain conflicts involving the World Bank, the Office of the Compliance Advisor
Ombudsman (CAO) serves as the independent recourse mechanism for the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and

the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA). CAO is accessible to any community or party with complaints or
grievances about the IFC or the MIGA.
Many ombudsmen fashion their services around the practice of mediation. While models vary somewhat, often the
ombudsman—like the mediator—is expected to facilitate a mutually agreeable solution, rather than impose a ruling. The
primary difference between ombudsmen and mediators is in their relationship to the parties. The ombudsman is often either
an employee of one of the parties or an employee of a service under contract with one of the parties. Mediators tend to
work as volunteers or on the basis of equitable remuneration from all parties.
Arbitrators are charged with making a ruling. The ruling may be either binding or nonbinding, depending on the terms laid out
prior to the hearing. The arbitrator’s role in statutory law closely resembles many traditional dispute resolution mechanisms, such
those mentioned above and the Bashingantahe of Burundi, a panel of distinguished village elders.
Litigation
Courts of law often adjudicate water-related disputes within their jurisdiction. Usually there is little room for negotiation once
hearings get under way. Rulings are made into court orders, which may be enforceable through law enforcement and regulatory
agencies.
Planning and Negotiation

Defining an Agenda—Issues to Work On
Participants and stakeholders need to know the objectives of the initiative and what issues will be addressed through the
emerging process (Fisher and Ury 1981). Possible objectives include relationship-building, fulfilling consultation and advisory
functions, information gathering, dissemination of information, decision-making, influencing public policy, dispute resolution, and
alliance-building, to name a few.
Issues are tangible and negotiable, for example “access to water for drinking and agriculture.” Issues should not be framed
in terms of one of the participant’s favorite solutions, such as: “Water being used for urban agriculture must be reserved for
drinking water.” It is important to frame the issues in language that is acceptable to all stakeholders. For example in a process
involving a community and a mining company, the mining company might be reluctant to engage in discussion around “pollution.”
The same participants might be more open to discussing “water quality.”
Presenting a broad list of issues early on helps people anticipate and prepare. It may also allow people to accommodate on
certain issues in exchange for consideration on other issues that are more important to them. Deciding which issues to address
first may be challenging. Some like to start with the low hanging fruit to demonstrate that agreement can be reached. Others
prefer to start with the heart of the matter, knowing that if it is resolved many of the other issues will be dropped.

Identifying Interests
Interests are what motivate people to prefer certain solutions over others. For example, unemployed residents of an area
proposed for a small scale hydroelectric plant may favor construction of the plant because they would like to work for the
construction company and eventually the plant. Their position is that the plant should be built and their interest is future
employment. Knowing the interests of the stakeholders helps focus the exploration of solutions and serves as a reality check for
subsequent proposals (Gary and Karl 2003).
Collecting Information
As mentioned above under Designing a Process, a peacebuilder’s job can be to help expand the number of options, and
researchers can offer important contributions by laying out various possibilities, with clear descriptions of the assets and liabilities
of each option. They can draw attention to ideas and options that are new or provide information on the efficiency of traditional
methods.
Researchers can collect new data relevant to the parties in a dispute or share information and results from other experiences,
such as lessons from transnational stakeholder dialogue initiatives (e.g., the World Commission on Dams).
Research can also help participants recognize the global demands that drive local resource pressures and resulting water-related
conflicts—from commercial shrimp and salmon farming to massive hydroelectric projects (Conca 2006, p. 3; Campbell 2008).
Developing and Exploring Options
Study Circles
The study circle provides small and diverse groups with venues for in-depth, regular, lengthy discussions and deliberations on a
particular topic or issue. Study circles help inform citizens, who are then in a better position to contribute to the planning and
management of local natural resources. For example, a study circle might be formed to discover more about a specific interest,
such as community involvement in monitoring water quality.
A study circle comprises a diverse group of 10-15 people who meet regularly over a period of weeks or months to address
a critical public issue in a democratic and collaborative way. A facilitator serves the group by keeping the discussion focused,
helping the group consider a variety of views, and processing difficult questions rather than acting as an expert on the
issue. Often a study circle progresses from sessions on personal experience with the issue to sessions providing a broader
perspective and, eventually, to action-oriented sessions. Study circles have their greatest reach and influence when organizations
simultaneously engage large numbers of citizens—in some cases thousands—in scores of study circles on an important public
issue (State of Victoria, Australia 2007).
Engaging and Informing Constituencies
Water-related conflicts invariably involve large numbers of stakeholders and constituents. The success of any peacebuilding
initiative invariably depends upon stakeholder satisfaction. Therefore processes need to include ways to periodically involve
and inform stakeholders and constituents who are not directly participating in the process. Gauging constituents’ reactions

and capturing regular feedback are also important. There are a number of common
methods of addressing the challenges of large-scale initiatives. It is possible to:
• Create accordion processes that transcend vertical administrative boundaries. “Peacebuilding is about creating
• Set up thematic advisory groups. process structures which
• Organize widespread regular community meetings. equip community leaders to
• Survey and poll stakeholders/constituents and disseminate results.
handle future challenges/shocks
• Organize public hearings.
through transparent, inclusive
means leading to fair, equitable
Negotiating Agreement decision-making.”
Participatory processes in planning, setting policy, and dispute resolution invariably Rick Jones, CRS Justice and
involve negotiation. Two common approaches in development circles involve: Solidarity Director for Latin America
and the Caribbean
Community-based negotiation practices: Many NGOs seek to create a
physical space for negotiation between the communities and the state or, at
least, local authorities. Few NGOs, however, invest in the negotiations training
needed for community groups to participate more effectively in negotiations
with local authorities.
Professional facilitation: Local authorities and communities must find ways to

work together and preserve key relationships. Professional facilitators with in-
depth knowledge of group dynamics, multiparty negotiations, and intercultural
interaction can help keep collaborative initiatives moving forward. Using a
range of specialized tools, facilitators can help participants integrate thought
and action to achieve wiser, more equitable results.
Multiparty negotiations differ from classic two-party negotiations. When large

numbers of stakeholders are involved, frequently there is much more business to
be transacted and more information to work with. This may require using multiple
facilitators. In addition, coalitions may evolve and or shift at different points in the
process, or form around specific solutions, making alliances fluid and consensus-
Jim Stipe
building a challenge.
Different stakeholders have different communication and negotiation capacities. Community members in Ethiopia meet
Making a negotiation process equitable involves certain safeguards or precautions, a CRS delegation as they prepare to
inaugurate a water scheme in Koye Jijeba.
such as ground rules, use of neutral facilitators, adequate time for constituent
consultation, equal access to information, limiting use of technical jargon, and other
techniques that help to bridge the gaps between participants and make the process
seem readily understandable, fair, and feasible to all.
Box IV.10 presents a case of where the appropriate use of incentives by third parties
helped bring together parties in dispute in order to negotiate an agreement over
shared water resources.

Box IV.10 The Indus Water Treaty: Incentives for Negotiating Agreements
“Power concedes nothing
Persuasion and coercion, i.e., carrots and sticks, are two time-tested techniques
without a demand. It never did implemented by adversaries to induce opponents to move in their favor.
and it never will.” At times, a third party can serve an important role in bringing adversaries
Frederick Douglass 1857 together to cooperate in managing shared water resources. A classic example
of this involved several Western countries and the World Bank making
available the “carrot” of significant funds for Pakistani dams and Indian irrigation
canals upon conclusion of the Indus Waters Treaty in 1960, which partitions
the available water resources of the Indus River between these two countries,
despite the historic animosity between them (Klare 2001).
Implementation and Monitoring

Advocacy to Win External Support
Advocacy is a process that utilizes education, organization, research, and influence

to effect policy change. Policy change may mean creating new policies, reforming
existing policies to obtain greater equity, or ensuring that existing policies are
implemented and enforced. Advocacy is also used to hold policymakers accountable
for fulfilling their responsibilities.
Employing advocacy in water-related conflicts may be useful at various moments or

stages of a process. It may be part of Preparation and Groundwork, or of Planning
for a dispute process, as opposed to Implementation. We nonetheless have included
it here with the understanding that advocacy sometimes comes into play as a
particular justice and peacebuilding initiative—such as a struggle for water rights—
begins to be implemented.
Water-related conflict may stem from decisions made within local leadership
structures, national legislatures, or other powerful institutions. In these situations,
efforts are needed to reform harmful or ineffective policies. Solutions achieved
through informal processes may have policy implications. Mutually agreed-upon
solutions may need to be made into public policy in order to be perceived as
legitimate and enforceable.
Globalization has added a new layer of stakeholders, as evidenced in the previously

mentioned Cochabamba “Water Revolt” example (Box I.2) and in the mining-related
issues presented in Box IV.11 below. Public policy in one country can have severe
repercussions in another country. Corporations have their own sophisticated
advocacy efforts, often pushing agendas that are in direct conflict with local needs
and priorities. For example, campaigns waged by transnational alliances of civil-society

organizations have been at times quite effective in challenging positions taken by

corporations representing the extractive industries.
As for this increasing globalization of solidarity, Ken Conca identifies “two “In the Valle de Siria of
simultaneous global revolutions of communications and democracy” that make Honduras, where Goldcorp
it possible (2006, p. 1). The expansion worldwide of access to inexpensive operates an open-pit gold mine,
communications technologies has resulted in greater access to information and
one study found the infant
an explosion in national and global networks. A greater connectedness between
affected communities and sympathetic advocacy groups around the world is made mortality rate 12 times higher
possible. Meanwhile, the number of democratic countries have increased from than the national average.”
approximately thirty in 1975 (UNDP, 2002) to over 140 countries in 2006 that hold
multiparty elections—although noting that in over 100 of them, important civil and McKinley 2007
political freedoms are still limited (UNDP, 2006a).
Box IV.11 Mining: Bridging the Gap between Those Who Profit and
Those Who Suffer
Capital holders in transnational corporate mining interests need to be made

aware of the damage being inflicted at the local levels by the companies in
which they are invested. In El Valle de Siria, Honduras, for example, where the
Canadian–US transnational Goldcorp’s San Martín open-pit gold mine has
been operating for six years, 19 of the 23 main rivers of the zone have dried
up completely. Monitoring of the other water sources shows the presence of
cyanide and heavy metals well above the maximum allowed levels, as defined
by the World Health Organization. There is a high index of respiratory, skin,
and eye diseases, along with hair loss by children in the area, which medical
doctors associate with water contamination by heavy metals. A study
completed in 2006 found levels of infant mortality in the Valle de Siria to
be 12 times higher than the national average (McKinley 2007).
Advocating for change in a context of similar violence inflicted upon the

local environment and communities by mining operations in Bolivia, Bob
Dunsmore of the UMAVIDA network of the Presbyterian USA Church
concludes,
The people affected by mining contamination have practically no

political leverage. Just like the water and the land, they are part of the
damaged legacy of the need to grow capital. . . . The shareholders of
transnational mining corporations must be made aware of the hard
data coming from the affected communities—the blood being spilt
and the impact of mining contamination upon the water and the land.
. . . We must place corporations in a position of servitude beneath
humanity and creation. (Personal communication July 2, 2008)

Examples of different advocacy initiatives include:
• Increasing national investment and international aid for investment in water infrastructure, including storage and
flood control (UNDP 2006b).
• Building grassroots support for legislative resolutions and bills that support the recognition and practical
implementation of the human right to water (Church World Services 2007).
• Making water management an integral part of national poverty reduction strategies (UNDP 2006b).
• Broadening civil society participation in international river agreements. (Conca 2006).
• Strengthening policies to regulate groundwater use, protect rivers and lakes from degradation, and price irrigation
and urban water in ways that encourage its equitable distribution and efficient use (Postel and Wolf 2001).
• Withdrawing subsidies that encourage overuse of water by large users (UNDP 2006b).
• Organizing support for measures such as product certification, consumer information campaigns, and “cradle to
grave” accountability (Conca 2006).
Box IV.12 lists potential strategies that NGOs dedicated to fostering social and ecological justice can employ to support
grassroots advocacy.

Box IV.12 Strategies for Supporting Grassroots Water Advocacy

Water-related conflicts often result when sectors with more political or economic clout fail to acknowledge the
negative consequences of their water-resources-damaging actions upon less influential populations and the overall
ecosystem. Although technological means often exist to mitigate such negative consequences, they are not generally
employed, either because of the refusal of the offending party to spend resources or because of the reluctance of
government officials to expend political capital requiring environmental protections to be enacted.
For peacebuilding and water development practitioners, the responsibility to support the demands of civil society and
community institutions for justice should not be shirked for fear of being considered too “political.” Rather, such civil
society efforts reflect a more participatory democracy designed to influence public policy along lines embracing a
“preferential option for the poor and vulnerable,” “life and dignity of the human person,” “solidarity,” and “care for God’s
Creation,”—all key Catholic social teaching principles.
Yet, how are the demands to be supported in an appropriate and effective manner? CRS El Salvador (2007) and its
local partners compiled the following list of successful strategies arising out of their own grassroots experience:
• Obtain technical/scientific reports documenting negative impacts on water resources in order to lend
credibility to the demands being made.
• Reach agreements with and demand action from public institutions of the State, especially those charged with
the responsibility of protecting water resources, such as national water agencies, ministries of the environment,
and regulating authorities.
• Establish alliances with key local and national stakeholders and decision-makers.
• Engage in peaceful protest and non-violent civil disobedience/resistance.
• Convoke national and international media to highlight the problem, making the mitigation of the problem a
cause of note.
• Identify a legal strategy to promote the cause, while identifying and making public the violations of existing
laws and regulations that result from water-damaging practices.
• Welcome international pressure and support, in the form of organizations, solidarity, regulatory experts, and
pressures/actions in home countries of transnational corporations, when involved.
• Support measures that build the self-esteem of the local persons involved in or affected by the water-related
conflict.
• Practice communal organizing and empowering measures.
• Emphasize education and awareness-raising.
• Build local capacity and good governance.
• Avoid the interference of political parties with their own agendas.
• Widen mobilization efforts to involve other sectors driven by like-minded goals.

Working Out the Details
Broad project goals and good intentions invariably require additional and more nuanced decisions during project implementation.
Different perceptions surface and can be the source of additional conflict if there is not an agreed upon procedure for managing
these types of decisions. It is important to set up time for regular meetings, and establish explicit limits of authority in unilateral
decision-making, as well as instances that will require participation from greater numbers of stakeholders.
Monitoring Agreements
C. Church and M. Rogers (2006) note that, “Monitoring is an ongoing process that generates information to inform decisions
about [an undertaking] while it is being implemented. The decisions that monitoring informs are practical and detailed, and
often address an immediate pressing need or question.” They recommend that peacebuilding initiatives monitor four variables:
• Context: Peacebuilding often takes place in a very fluid situation, where circumstances can improve or deteriorate
quickly. Monitoring the context helps peacebuilders anticipate changes, make proactive programming shifts, and ensure
the safety of participants, partners, and staff. Context-monitoring involves continuous updating and refinement of the
conflict analysis.
• Implementation of activities: Implementation monitoring tracks how the initiative is running and provides key
information for decision by leaders, participants, and other stakeholders. It contributes to keeping the initiative moving
forward.
• Progress toward results: Monitoring progress toward results involves monitoring change. This goes beyond reporting
on planned versus actual activities and outputs, and focuses on objective-level results.
• Programmatic assumptions about how change happens: Periodically, assumptions inherent in the programmatic logic
need to be checked to determine if they are still valid. Some assumptions based on the situation may surface through
context monitoring. Sometimes this may involve additional collecting of data beyond what was anticipated in the
indicators and objectives.
Renegotiating as Needed
New needs, details, and unforeseen circumstances frequently require matters to be renegotiated. Implementers should
anticipate this and plan accordingly. Often matters can be easily renegotiated. Other matters may evolve into disputes that
require external assistance. Well-designed agreements stipulate the dispute resolution mechanism to be used.

Applications of Peacebuilding Methods to Conflict Scenarios
Examples of typical water-related conflict scenarios are presented below, along with suggested concrete steps that can be
taken to promote conflict transformation. Depending on the specific context of a given water-related conflict and its timing,
peacebuilding water development practitioners will shape the suggested conflict transformation strategy to meet either conflict
prevention or conflict mitigation needs. The overarching water conflict themes addressed here include:
1. Upstream-Downstream Users
2. Outside Interventions
3. Extractive Industries
4. Access to Water Supply
5. Forced Migration Induced by Natural Disaster or Armed Conflict
For each of the five water-related conflict themes or scenarios, a brief description of the problem, desired outcome, key
considerations, and recommended actions are presented. Additional steps are then listed for a more detailed process
appropriate to the specific example cited in the scenario. This is intended to assist water development practitioners seeking
further input and guidance as they take the necessary steps in shaping their own strategy, specific to the circumstances of
the water conflict being faced in the field.

Scenario 1 Upstream-Downstream Users

Conflict Between Small Upstream Villages and Large Downstream Community,
“Water is more than just with the Former Demanding Access to the Water System While the Latter
infrastructure. That would be Faces Diminishing Quantity and Quality of Supply
an offense. If the water initiative
is not born of the people Problem: The spring flow supplying the downstream community’s water system
themselves, it is worthless.” has diminished dramatically over the years since the system was originally
constructed, due to deforestation and overgrazing in the groundwater recharge
Cesar Abrego, El Salvador Ministry zone above the spring. Concerns about the quality of the water supply are
of Environment also growing among the community members as word spreads of widespread
agrochemical use and livestock grazing just above the spring. Meanwhile, two
smaller villages below the spring that were never connected to the original water
system despite the supply main passing through their properties are now also
clamoring for the right to be connected. Their lands include the recharge zone
of the spring serving the community below. As tensions and desperation on
both sides grow, animosity sets in between the community and the two villages.
Occasionally disgruntled village members anonymously sabotage the supply main.
Heated exchanges regularly take place in the community on market days when
the village members come down to trade.
Desired Outcome: To achieve a functioning water system with adequate quantity

and quality, coupled with water conservation measures able to meet the improved
water needs of both the upstream villages and downstream community.
Key Considerations:
Measures to decrease water demand:
• Ration water use.

• Install residential water meters to discourage wasteful practices.
• Revise monthly water use tariffs to more accurately reflect the value of
water infrastructure and its administration, based on “use more, pay more”
principles. Balance this with cross-subsidizing tariff structures ensuring access
to water for impoverished households.
• Install principal water supply meter(s) and calculate system losses by reliably
auditing supplies and comparing to total water demand. Take measures to
keep water system losses—often due to leaks or illegal connections—to a
reasonable minimum.
• Reuse grey water (from sinks, showers, washing) for gardening and irrigation
of public green spaces.
• Reduce upper watershed demand on available water resources through
more efficient irrigation techniques, e.g., drip irrigation technologies.

Measures to increase quantity and quality of available water supply:
• Find new water sources to augment the supply from current source(s).
• Install household rain catchment systems to complement the water system
supply.
• Improve quantity/quality of existing supply source through watershed
protection measures. These might include:
Forestry protection—reforestation, including fruit, coffee, and lumber; tree

nurseries; and fuel-efficient cooking stoves/ovens, solar ovens, compressed
“paper” fuel logs, etc. Native species should be prioritized, as some tree species,
such as eucalyptus, could actually diminish water flows.
Soil conservation measures—such as horizontal vegetative barriers, stonewalls,

trenches, and terracing.
Rehabilitation/replacement of existing source water catchment facilities.
Photo by Jason Gehrig/CRS, 2008.

Sanitation infrastructure—dry pit and composting latrines, recycling and
composting, solid waste disposal facilities, especially near the water source.
Restriction of livestock grazing in upper reaches of watershed above the water

source.
Reduced agrochemical use—such as promotion of organic horticulture, certified ”We are sowing water!” remarked
Don Miguel of El Salvador. Because
shade-grown, and organic coffee.
of CRS’ soil conservation and aquifer
recharge program in the upper reaches
Mitigation of other sources of contamination—for example, in coffee growing of the watershed, farmers’ livelihoods
areas, install simple treatment facilities to capture and provide primary are improving while water sources for
treatment of wastewater from washing and pulping of the coffee beans. downstream community water supply
systems are being replenished.
Recommended Actions (summary):
• Assess the situation: social, technical, participatory analysis.

• Obtain commitments from all key stakeholders.
• Explore social and technical solutions that are sustainable.
• Foster multi-party talks/negotiations.
• Gain upstream and downstream community consensus.
• Produce a formal, legally binding agreement.
• Disseminate the agreement widely.
• Implement and monitor.
Note: Potential “technical” solutions can be employed only after a “social” solution is first
achieved.

Detailed Recommended Actions/Process of Transformation4
Understanding the Problem

“We need to value the true
cost of treating, supplying and • Identify needs in order to understand the issues. Gather background
information, including history of the project such as why the two villages
distributing water. Take for
were not initially connected to the system and what were the types of
example electricity. Nobody land use practices occurring before the project and started afterwards,
goes to bed with the lights still concerns/ needs of parties in conflict, and potential solutions being
on in the house.” articulated by key stakeholders, but not yet agreed upon and enacted.
Pedro Azelaya, El Paraíso, Honduras
• Determine supply/demand requirements (water needs and available supply
assessment). This process of data-gathering leads to a better understanding
of the problem. It is not a decision in and of itself, but rather serves to shed
light on establishing viable decision-making criteria.
• Meet separately with each community and village to understand its

perspective. In that meeting, a small number of representatives should be
selected to participate in multiparty talks to take place later.
• Review available documentation and corresponding laws and norms.
• Investigate how other communities in similar situations have handled their

“Our children need to be water-related conflicts.
studying the environment and
its sustainable use, just like any Peacebuilding Interventions
other school subject such as
math or grammar! What good • Arrange for multiparty talks. Identify a facilitator for these multiparty talks
does it do our children to who possesses good interpersonal skills, a spirit of dedicated service, the
ability to remain neutral, and an understanding of the possible solutions.
learn a few words of English
Keep promises made by the facilitator aimed at moving the dialogue
or French, if they have no process forward, through regularly scheduled meetings. Otherwise
forest to provide for their negotiations will likely falter and the conflict deepen.
families as they get older?”
Reinieri Rodriguez of Las Manos,
• Consider bringing the multiparty commission into contact with leaders of
Honduras other communities that have already overcome similar kinds of conflict in
the past, so that they can hear directly how the solution to the problem
was achieved.
• Based on prior information gathering and technical understanding of the

problem, identify possible solutions along with the key stakeholders of the
multiparty commission.
4
This strategy for transforming conflict is based primarily on experience in the field,
communicated by Marianella Ramirez and Rodolfo Herrera of CRS El Salvador.
• Consider combinations of measures requiring shared sacrifice and shared benefits of all parties in dispute in
order to meet the water needs of all. For example, members of the small upstream villages could be authorized
to connect to the existing supply main upon installing residential metering and a system for rainwater catchment.
This permission might be granted by the community in exchange for annually verifiable commitments on the part
of the villagers to provide “environmental services” in order to conserve the spring. Articulate the justification for
payments for environmental services by the lower zone populations to those in the upper zone in light of a fairer
redistribution of water-generated resources, since water resources are often generated in the upper zones of the
watershed from which the lower zones benefit.
• Arrange the terms of the “environmental services” contract to provide incentives for landowners to gain lower
monthly water rates if they stop land use practices that harm water quality and employ soil conservation “water
planting” measures. Encourage the outside funding entity to commit to a one-time donation to kick-start the
program of contracting environmental services between the providers (the upper watershed farmers) and the
community’s drinking water committee. Subsequent years would be paid for by the water users themselves through
a percentage of their monthly water rates, often ranging from 5 to 10%.
• Consider other options for source water protection as well, including outright purchase of the land above the water
source in order to guarantee sustainable watershed practices.
• Once the multiparty commission reaches a tentative agreement, accompany the representatives as they meet with
their respective communities to seek ratification of the agreement. Note that this process of community “buy-in” is
essential. Without such consensus, measures initially agreed upon, such as installation of meters or water rationing,
could generate even more conflict.

Project Follow-Up
• Once agreement is reached on a solution, document and widely distribute

“When community members the agreement, ensuring that all are properly written and signed so as to
are involved in all aspects of be legally binding.
the water project, they become
• Realize that perhaps the most important aspect in this peacebuilding-
aware of the need to protect the driven process is a change in attitude, moving toward a greater sense of
water source above.” personal and collective responsibility for water resources stewardship.
Jose Angel Cruz, CRS Mi Cuenca Regional • Be aware that incentives offered by an external funding entity to bring
Manager for Central America together the parties in dispute should be used cautiously. Ideally, changes
in attitude should be motivated by the recognition that improved
inter-community cooperation will benefit all, whether or not a big
“carrot” awaits them at the end of the process. Otherwise, in the future,
when there is another water-related conflict and no such external
incentive exists, the parties might be less prepared to assume the
responsibility of reaching creative compromises on their own.
David Snyder
Farmers of the Chipatula Scheme in

Malawi use small, hand generated
pumps to irrigate their field and
enhance crop yield.

Scenario 2 Outside Interventions

Inappropriate Water Development Practices and Technologies as Sources of
Community Conflict “Now is the time for a new
‘creativity’ in charity, not
Problem: Depending upon circumstances, inappropriate water development only by ensuring that help is
practices and/or technologies can lead to strife in the “benefiting” community. They effective, but also by ‘getting
also create the potential for conflicts with neighboring communities that have close’ to those who suffer,
development practitioners dedicated to more sustainable, community-organizing- so that the hand that helps
based water and sanitation programming. The inappropriate practices might include:
is seen not as a humiliating
• Lack of documented community agreements governing use of the water supply handout but as a sharing
source and, in a growing number of countries, lack of land access easements for between brothers and sisters.”
infrastructure and piping.
• Setting up water development projects in a way that involves little community John Paul II 2000, Art. 50
commitment or sacrifice; worse yet, paying community members for their
manual labor to construct their own community water system.
• No role or contribution to the project required of local government authorities.
• Poorly constructed water infrastructure that fails to work and/or last.
• Infrastructure projects with no community organizing, hygiene promotion,
drinking water committee formation, and/or monthly water usage tariffs.
• Use of technologies beyond the financial and/or technical abilities of the
community to operate or maintain.
• Failure of the implementing NGOs to establish and follow through on a
coherent plan to bring the various stakeholders together to successfully
implement the water and/or sanitation project.
Desired Outcome: To strengthen community organization and increase water

security through the promotion of water and sanitation projects in a socially and
technically responsible manner, characterized by mutual respect.
Key Considerations: The basic process involves advice (to the communities and
local governments) and consent (by all stakeholders) through participatory methods.
• Ensure that community and local government commitments precede

outside funding.
• Have agreements signed before initiating outside support.
• Promote broad, gender-inclusive local organization.
• Secure appropriate commitments from all stakeholders: (a) benefiting families
and community, (b) local authorities, (c) funding entity, and (d) implementing
partner.

Detailed Recommended Actions/Process of Transformation: 5
Advise the community and local governmental authorities that outside funding
“We are an integral part of this of the water system project is to be put in place only after each phase of
water project’s success. We did their obligation to the project is fulfilled. The failure to make this clear could
not receive it freely, but rather inadvertently lead to increased likelihood of conflict. This is critical for the
following reasons:
at much sacrifice through our
contribution in labor and funds. • It serves as an incentive for local parties with conflicting water
Thus, it is our responsibility interests to overcome their differences in order to achieve both
that we take care of it well.” individual and community gain.
• Failure to undertake the necessary social organizing required to
Irineo Quisbert, Anchallani, Bolivia, eliminate current and potential sources of water-related conflict
community leader 2007 prior to initiating construction leads to increased likelihood of a failed
project, diminished community organizing ability, and increased conflict
into the future.
• If these critical issues (e.g., community control over a water supply
source) are not eliminated before outside funds are employed to
begin construction, unscrupulous parties can more easily draw the
“deep pockets” international development organization into the
negotiations. This gives the “hold-outs” enhanced negotiating power to
abuse the situation, often by demanding exorbitant sums of money.
Obtain consent in the form of written agreements from all stakeholders. These
agreements should be obtained prior to the outside funding entity making
an explicit commitment to support the project. These documents should
communicate the responsibilities of four sets of stakeholders involved in the
water/sanitation project, as presented below:
The benefiting community commits itself to:
o Initiate the water supply project effort by providing an official

written request inviting potential funding and implementing
entities to co-participate in the project with them.
o Achieve consensus backed by written, signed agreements among
all stakeholders, granting permission to use water source(s) for
the drinking water supply project and permanent easements for
right of access to water facilities/piping.
5
This strategy for transforming conflict is based primarily on experience in the field
communicated by Miguel Flores, Darinel Laenez, Marlon Medina, and Julio Zúniga of CRS
Honduras, as well as by Braulio Rojas of Suma Jayma in Bolivia. It should be noted that such
a formalized, documented approach, while ideal, may not be feasible in some countries.
o Form a gender-inclusive drinking water committee built upon

traditional community structures, charged with organizing
communal tasks and accounting for all family contributions
(in cash and in-kind labor). When possible, the committee “Never underestimate the
should obtain legal standing and be authorized to administer power of a people denied their
financial accounts.
dignity for so long, on the verge
o Identify water service connections for community facilities
(such as community centers, health posts, schools) and assume
of reestablishing it!” referring
responsibility for their installation and upkeep. to a community’s ability to
o Provide local construction materials (such as sand, gravel, exert pressure on its elected
rock, wood), their transport to the required project locations, officials to transparently meet
and related tools for such work (such as picks, shovels, wheel public funding commitments as
barrows). a condition for external water
o Provide lodging and meals for technicians and workshop trainers project funding.
during the water supply project implementation.
o Make available a secure location for storage of all construction Braulio Rojas
supplies required for the project implementation.
o Enter into dialogue as to the feasibility of residential/
commercial water metering in order to facilitate greater fairness,
accountability, water conservation, and water use tariffs.
The benefiting families commit themselves to:
o Supply all manual labor required for the project implementation

(excavation of trenchlines, carrying of pipe, concrete mixing, etc.).
o Provide agreed upon financial support to purchase a small
percentage of the non-local construction materials, often set to
approximately one-half month’s worth of income for a typical
family in the area. Allow for exceptions, especially for vulnerable
households identified by the community itself, e.g., widows, elderly,
single mothers, or physically/mentally challenged individuals living
in extreme poverty. It should be noted that this expectation of a
financial contribution to the project by the benefiting families is
not feasible in all countries.
o Participate actively in the community organizing processes,
Jason Gehrig
including attending meetings called by the drinking water
committee.
o Attend all training workshops (topics frequently covered include Non-violent public demonstration
components of a water supply system, community participation against privatization during the
and organization, hygiene and sanitation in the home, operation Cochabamba, Bolivia water crisis. The
banner reads, “It’s Our Water, Dammit!”
and maintenance, and protection of the system’s water source).

o Assist the drinking water committee in whatever tasks may be

required for the construction and upkeep of the water system.
o Agree to pay a monthly water usage tariff upon inauguration of
“The issue of budgeted project the project, to be managed by the drinking water committee.
funds and unexpected costs Taking into account the socioeconomic situation of the
arising during construction is community, the monthly tariff should be based on an analysis
of the following:
frequently a source of conflict,
potentially resulting in mistrust Administration, operation (including electrical if any), and
and animosity between former maintenance costs
development partners. These
conflicts can be prevented, An additional:
through thorough design
proposals with a sufficient  5%-10% (suggested) of the monthly tariff be charged
‘unforeseen costs’ budget for environmental services, e.g., water supply source
protection and groundwater recharge measures
line item, or mitigated,
 10%-30% (suggested) of the monthly tariff be charged
through flexible change order for savings for the future replacement of system, i.e.,
processes allowing for justified depreciation.
budget increases.”
The local government and, if applicable, governmental water authority,
Jason Obergfell 2008
commit themselves to:
o Fund a quality project proposal, including topographic design,

budgeting, and construction plans that meet corresponding
government-established design criteria. Laboratory results from
water-quality-testing of the water source must be included
in the design. It should be noted that frequently this step of
design/project proposal falls under the responsibility of the
funding entity and/or its local implementing partner.
o Prepare a written, signed commitment letter detailing cash and
in-kind contributions toward the implementation of the project.
o Acknowledge that external funding for each phase of the
project is dependent upon the local government’s agreed-upon
share first being contributed in a transparent manner.
o Assist the community with access to heavy equipment for
obtaining and/or transporting local construction materials,
if possible.
o Supply technical oversight and support during and after the
project’s implementation.

The external funding entity and its implementing partner commit themselves to:
o Assure that a quality design and project proposal is in place to

guide the project’s implementation, either through a substantial “If a marginalized community
review of existing design or through carrying out the design can make the dream of
themselves. obtaining access to safe
o Foster open lines of communication between all parties
water a reality, they might
throughout the project, employing strategic use of external
funding as leverage, if necessary, to encourage partners to fulfill dare to dream of creating a
their commitments. cooperative for their wool
o Fund non-local construction materials (such as piping, cement, products, or of installing
rebar) and skilled labor required by the project which are not latrines, or of any other
paid for or provided by other parties (such as local governments, number of development
families), as identified in the project proposal. efforts to improve their lives,
o Recognize that budgets need to have a certain level of flexibility and restore their sense of
given the unknowns, including volatility of foreign exchange rates,
human dignity.”
commodity prices, and fluid nature of grassroots development.
o Provide capable technical and engineering staff to supervise Jason Gehrig 2003, p. 33
construction and lead all works requiring skilled labor (spring
catchment works, storage tanks, boreholes and pump installation).
o Provide professional trainers to lead community workshops.
o Meet project-scheduling milestone dates, not exceeding a
maximum of six months in the case of typical community
water projects. Maintain flexibility so as to be respectful of local
cultural practices and beliefs that might impact the project’s
implementation and timeline.
o Administer and keep up-to-date inventory on all non-local
construction materials to be used in the project.
o Accompany and provide support to the newly formed drinking
water committee, including workshops and on-the-job training
in operations, maintenance, and administration including financial
skills.
o Given that information regarding the water project costs are
Sean Sprague
of a public nature, prepare and make available in the offices of
the local government and implementing NGO monthly project
updates and final project reports, including financial statements, Health workers in Aceh, Indonesia
narratives, and photos/video. discuss immunization strategy during
a 2007 training session.

Scenario 3 Extractive Industries

Extractive Industries, Especially Metal Mining, Negatively Impact Local Water
“Decisions must be judged in Quantity and Quality, Ecosystems, and Human Health and Livelihoods
light of what they do for the
poor, what they do to the poor, Problem: Prior to the global financial crisis of 2008, mining operations were
and what they enable the poor expanding tremendously in response to rising commodity prices for minerals such
to do for themselves.” as gold, zinc, and copper. While the mining industry frequently promises to bring
benefits, such as increased local jobs and revenues, to the state, the realization of this
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, promise varies greatly, as it depends on the type of mining operation (low-skilled,
1986, Art. 24 labor-intensive vs. technical, capital-intensive) and the effectiveness and enforcement
of applicable state laws and regulatory oversight. Any such benefits, moreover,
must be weighed against the frequently negative environmental and human health
consequences that result from:
• The siphoning off of local, available water resources for mining operations.
• The likely contamination of water resources both during and for many
years after the mining operation.
Thus, water-related conflict and metal mining often go hand-in-hand.
Desired Outcome: To improve the quality of life for all by supporting social equity
measures of local job creation and increased public revenues, and by demanding
enforcement of regulations to prevent or mitigate negative environmental and
health consequences due to metals mining. Alternatively, where this is unfeasible,
to support locally-led measures seeking to ban open-pit, metal mining and the use
of dangerous chemical substances, e.g., cyanide or mercury.
Key Considerations: In dealing with water-based conflicts arising from the

operations of extractive industries, emphasis first must be placed on collecting and
analyzing information and second on developing advocacy campaigns to bring about
changes in both mining laws and operations. Most of the steps to be taken involve
advocacy measures that require an understanding of the technical, legal, and social
aspects of the specific mining operation. Obviously, short-term mitigation efforts
to protect local populations can include finding alternative, improved sources of
water for human and livestock consumption. But such short-term measures taken
alone, without an approach to address the more structural injustice issues, would
be unethical. They could actually serve the mining operation’s narrow interests, by
pacifying the local communities’ demands for measures to prevent and mitigate
contamination of their water and land.
• Examine local needs, interests, and concerns.

• Research extractive plans, corporate track record, and relevant laws.

• Promote education of local communities.

• Strengthen local capacities to organize, advocate, document, negotiate, raise
funds and defend their rights.
• Foster unity, key alliances, and coalitions. “The biggest issue is the
• Gain religious leaders’ support.
one looming over every
• Monitor and denounce environmental, health, and other violations.
• Advocate for better laws and implementation both nationally and in
modern industrial gold mine:
corporations’ home countries. What happens when the
ore that lured the miners
Note: Problems, considerations, and actions may vary in cases of extractives other than here is gone? At Yanacocha
metal mining. for over 13 years, Newmont
has moved mountains for
Detailed Recommended Actions/ Process of Transformation:6
gold—30 tons of rock and
Local Peacebuilding Interventions earth for every ounce. By
the time it is through, the
• Listen to the concerns being expressed by members of the communities company will have dug up a
surrounding the mining operation. Together with the communities, identify billion tons of earth. Much
their available resources in terms of human capacity, social networks, and of it will be laced with acids
cultural values. Likewise, ascertain what the community members see as and heavy metals. . . . In the
the principal needs that outside specialists can help them meet. long term, the company’s
own tests show that all the
• Obtain and review documents related to the specific mining operation.
What kind of water resources will the mining operation require? What are components are in place for
its proposed contamination prevention measures? How many and what the huge piles of rock to leak
kind of local jobs will actually be created? In many cases, mining operations acids that will pollute surface
have become so technologically advanced and capital-intensive that as and groundwater.”
much as half of the operations involve foreign technical specialists.
J. Perlez and L. Bergman 2005
• Facilitate the strengthening of the community’s ability to organize, advocate,
and understand the technical aspects of mining. Equip community leaders
with cameras and camcorders to record mining abuses. Teach them how to
navigate the legal system to perform timely, formal denunciations, backed
by evidence.
• Assist community leaders when they elect to dialogue with the mining
companies and/or government. Build upon their existing negotiating skills
as they seek a voice at the decision-making table alongside mining and
government representatives.
6
This strategy for addressing the conflict generated by open-pit gold mining in Honduras
and Bolivia is based primarily on experience in the field, communicated by Carlos Patiño
and Juan Pablo Duron of Caritas Honduras and Evan Cuthbert of the Maryknoll Mission
Institute in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
• Support local community stakeholders in forming a united advocacy

committee and campaign, identifying key allies throughout all sectors and
levels of government. Remember that women can play an especially
“The sense of solidarity was
palpable. The gathering of important role, as they are more closely bound to issues of water and
health, especially for their children.
community leaders from all
over the Americas dedicated • Emphasize the ongoing vigilance that local organizations and communities
to challenging transnational must exercise, for example, to ensure that government-required
mining corporations needed environmental audits for new and existing mining operations be
to listen and share with undertaken by companies independent of the mining corporation.
each other, yet not solely for
the purpose of exchanging • Continue monitoring during mine-closure operations, to ensure that
information. It was evident that the correct processes are fully implemented to achieve environmental
restoration, including measures to minimize the risk of ongoing acid mine
some came from situations
drainage problems.
in which they felt very much
alone in their struggle to resist National and International Peacebuilding Interventions
destructive mining practices
and needed the emotional and • In tracking affected communities and learning about apparent violations,
spiritual support.” water-related peacebuilders need to study the country’s relevant water
and mining laws. Peacebuilders should educate themselves as well as the
Evan Cuthbert 2008 community stakeholders on all aspects of metal mining. What do the
national laws governing mining, water, public health, and the environment
have to say in the matter? What experiences have neighboring countries
had? Mining laws in many countries were “reformed” in the 1980s and 90s
to favor corporate mining interests as a result of pressure from the World
Bank and IMF to adopt structural adjustment policies. These “reforms”
often included:
o Giving the mining concession holder the right to use any amount of
water it deemed necessary from sources both inside and outside of
the mining concession area.
o Permitting the mining concession the right to arrange for entire
communities to be moved, if necessary.
o Significantly reducing royalties and state taxes that the mining
concession has to pay.
• Pressure relevant government agencies to carry out their regulatory

enforcement functions, e.g., national water agencies to measure impact on
local groundwater and surface waters; national environmental protection
agencies to monitor impact on water quality parameters and ecosystem;
national health offices to determine impact on human health.

• Lead legal studies that provide backing for governmental regulatory and
judicial actions.
• Seek funding for resource-starved local communities and governmental “This open pit gold mine is
regulatory agencies which, unlike the transnational mining corporations, are like a time bomb. The mining
often unable to contract required technical expertise for effective oversight corporation will soon leave, but
and monitoring. An example of relevant technical expertise in this case
the contamination of our land
would be hydrogeologists to perform independent analysis to determine
the impact of mining on local water resources. and water will remain
for generations.”
• Coordinate with the local scientific community to perform independent
water quality, quantity, and health impact studies on an ongoing basis. Rodolfo Arteaga 2008
• Research the track record of the transnational mining corporation in other

countries. Make contact and coordinate strategies with local organizations
in countries that have already dealt with the mining corporation.
• Denounce environmental and human health violations backed by credible

government or independent studies, utilizing local, national, and international
means of communication.
• Form national coalitions promoting citizen participation in decision-making

related to mining.
• Participate in regional and global mining justice advocacy conferences and

networks.7 Recognize the value of such international forums in networking
for solidarity—in terms of information as well as moral support. Moreover,
such gatherings help articulate what mining policies should be instituted
in order to maximize benefit for local economies and minimize ecological
damage. By doing so, “divide and conquer” tactics employed by unfettered
transnational capital may be at least partially overcome and challenges/
alternatives to the unsustainable “race to the bottom” in terms of
environmental protection, worker rights, and state revenues are put
in place.
• Monitor government regulatory actions, or the lack thereof.
• Sponsor workshops and other continuing education opportunities led by

national and international mining regulatory experts, aimed at capacity-
strengthening for local stakeholders, civil society professionals, and public
regulatory officials.
7
For an example of a regional-based approach to advocating for mining justice, see El
Observatorio de Conflictos Mineros de América Latina (Latin American Observatory of
Mining Conflicts), www.conflictosmineros.net.
• Sponsor open, participatory processes with local and national stakeholders to craft new proposed legislation
governing mining. Once a proposed bill is agreed upon, take public measures to pressure the government to pass the law.
• Seek both legal and moral victories. If the courts are not favorable to the people’s concerns, consider contacting
regional and global institutions promoting equitable and ecologically sustainable development.8
• Invite international mining experts to evaluate mining operations and mine closure plans. Not infrequently, operating
and closure plans being implemented by transnational mining corporations overseas would be deemed unacceptable
under the regulatory conditions in their home countries.
• Coordinate with international advocacy partners to educate shareholders of transnational mining corporations
regarding their company’s abuses. Welcome visits by international delegations, including legislators, in order to
promote education of and solidarity with actors from the countries of origin of the transnational mining interests.
Push for national laws in the home countries of transnational mining corporations which hold their mining companies
accountable for negligent behavior overseas.
• Educate associations of religious leaders (e.g., national and regional bishop’s conferences as well as ecumenical and
inter-faith organizations) on the issues, supporting international exchanges between religious peers in order to
prepare pastoral letters and statements, and advocate on behalf of the promotion of laws respecting human rights
and the environment.
• Be pro-active in educating communities on the options and pitfalls involved where future mining operations may
occur. Connect them with other communities that have already been impacted by mining to learn first-hand what
the pros and cons are likely to be.
8
In its 2007 Fourth Public Hearing, the Tribunal Latinoamericano de Agua (Latin American Water Tribunal)—an autonomous international
environmental justice organization seeking to contribute to the solution of Latin American water-related conflicts—ruled in favor of the
community environmental group opposed to the contamination and misuse of the local water resources by Goldcorp’s San Martín open-pit
gold mine in the Siria Valley of Honduras.
Scenario 4 Access to Water Supply

Conflict Between Families Connected to a Water Supply System and Other Families Not Connected
Problem: When a new community water supply system is initiated, there are frequently some families who choose not to
participate. This may be due to a lack of confidence in the water system ever functioning correctly (i.e., water arriving to their
homes), or even being installed. Seasonal migration may also impede some families from participating. Once the project budget
is set and the labor begins, it can be difficult to allocate sufficient water for additional participants.
For those families who made the ill-fated decision not to participate in the project from the onset, seeing their neighbors
achieve access to improved water in their homes causes regret and, along with it, the seeds of conflict. As an issue of fairness,
none should be denied access to water. Yet fairness also dictates that those who contributed their labor (often several months
of work), as well as cash, should be rewarded for their sacrifice.
The desperation of excluded families can become so intense that third parties may be pulled into the conflict. Until an equitable,
just compromise can be achieved, a community may suffer through much hostile division.
Desired Outcome: Access to improved water in the homes of all, with a fair distribution of sacrifice borne by all community
members.
Key Considerations: A sequence of steps is recommended for these conflicts. In the earlier phases, the emphasis should be
on conflict prevention, primarily through encouraging the maximum number of families to participate in the water project by
overcoming their distrust or other obstacles. In the latter stages of the project, as well as in post-project scenarios, the need is
for conflict mitigation, which seeks to help both sides in the conflict—the included and the self-excluded—to recognize the just
claims being made by the other side.
• Encourage maximum participation.

• Design and implement for maximum coverage.
• Foster community consensus, unity.
• Work with local authorities, assemblies, committees.
• Negotiate equitable agreements and commitments for additional or previously excluded families.
• Document and update all agreements.
Detailed Recommended Actions/ Process of Transformation:9
Initial Community Visit
• Communicate the minimum percentage of families in the community required to participate in the project before
external funding is made available. Dialogue with community leaders to establish a significant minimum number —
at least 80% participation is not uncommon.
9
This strategy for addressing conflict over access to water supply, specifically between original project participants and new families
demanding affordable access, is based primarily on experience in the field, communicated by Felipe Gonzales of El Palomar, Honduras,
and on various water projects with Suma Jayma in Bolivia.

• Design the water supply system to bring improved water to any

community members (if household tapstands and/or hand pumps) or
zones (if public taps or community wells) seeking to participate in the
“In the context of watershed project. If not technically or financially feasible to extend piping (e.g.,
development efforts, households above the hydraulic grade line of the gravity system, or at
peacebuilding requires paying extreme distances), speak with the family/zone to identify alternatives, such
as much attention to the sets as hand pumps. If funding limitations make supplying water to the entire
community in one fiscal year impossible, establish a multi-year, consecutive-
of relationships as to the
project phasing plan until all zones are reached. Make every effort not to
technical aspects.” create tension in the community by failing to provide water infrastructure
Rick Jones 2008 to all zones.
• Encourage as many families as possible to participate in the initial project

planning and implementation. Communicate to all, especially the naysayers,
the financial difficulty they will face if they change their minds and want
to connect to the water system after the project has already been
constructed. In community-wide assemblies, explain how the budget to be
submitted with the project proposal for funding requires a thorough design,
including the specific number and locations of families to obtain access to
improved water.
• Be patient and understanding of those community members who are

distrustful. Keep in mind that rural marginalized communities have often
been deceived, both by elected officials and by NGOs that failed to live up
to the expectations they raised. Help overcome such distrust by inviting
representatives from another community that has completed a similar kind
of project to speak to the families about their own experience.
Project Approved for Funding
• On the funding side, establish a project budget with an adequate “extras”

line item which allows flexibility for accepting new families who now desire
to enter into the water supply project. It is important that these new
families are willing and able to meet the same participation requirements
as the rest, prior to construction beginning.
Project Implementation
• Prior to the water system’s inauguration, the assembly of water users

should approve its drinking water committee statutes, which needs to
include the determination of connection fees for future water users who
did not participate in the original construction of the system. Typically,
having committed so much of their time to the project, the participants

will want the full value of their labor included, plus any monetary contributions they have made. Moreover, any piping
or other construction materials required to extend the system to a new home after the project inauguration is often
also the responsibility of the new user, or of an outside funding entity, such as the local government.
Project Completion
• Sooner or later, following the inauguration of the water supply system, new families desiring to connect to the system
will make their needs known. More often than not, they will be shocked by the connection fee the existing water
users have established for new families to join.
• Take, for example, community XYZ, where each original participating family in the water system project contributed
$15 in cash toward construction materials, as well as 50 days of manual labor. Their connection fee for new users will
likely reflect the value of these in-kind and cash contributions:
Cash contribution by family during project implementation: $15

Value of manual labor per family (50 days x $4 per day): $200
Total project contribution by participating family: $235
In such a case, the connection fee for new families would be $235, an amount out of reach for almost all
rural families living on subsistence farming. Moreover, this doesn’t even include the cost for piping and other
construction materials that, if not paid by outside sources, now often falls on the shoulders of the new families
as well.
• Recognize that for the first half year or so following the inauguration, this community-set connection fee will probably
be non-negotiable. Meanwhile, resentment on the part of the new families desiring affordable access will be on
the rise, as a sense of helplessness sets in, coupled with a fear of being taken advantage of by the drinking water
committee members.
• Avoid overstepping boundaries, such as bypassing the authority of the legitimate drinking water committee acting
on the mandate of the water users assembly. When facing appeals from the new families to intervene as the outside
donor/implementing NGO, it is probably best to refer them to their drinking water committee, noting that the issue
is an internal community matter. With time, however, if the issue is still not resolved, a subtle support for compromise
may be in order, as suggested below.
Project Follow-Up
• Typically after some time has passed and additional families continue without success to demand affordable access
to the system, take up the issue of connection fees again with the assembly of water users and its drinking water
committee. While recognizing the justice issues raised by both sides, encourage the drinking water committee to be
flexible in developing possible solutions that can bridge the growing rift within the community of those with water
access and those without.
• Discuss possible compromises that appear fair to both sides. For example, propose a reduced cash amount for the
connections fee to be paid by new users, along with an interest-free installment plan. In exchange, new families would
agree to provide services in-kind through manual labor in upkeep/expansion of the water system.

• As outside parties to the conflict (such as local governments and NGOs), consider providing incentives for
reaching a compromise, for example, by offering to supply the required construction materials for the system
expansion once the parties in conflict achieve consensus.
• Further advance this compromise approach by reminding the original water system users that, one day, coming
ever closer, their own children may want to connect their new families to the water system, assuming they can
afford to do so.
• Finally, document any agreements reached, including the updating of the statutes and regulations governing the
community’s drinking water system.

Scenario 5 Forced Migration Induced by Natural Disaster

or Armed Conflict
“In some emergencies, poorly lit,
Emergency Response to Disasters/Armed Conflicts Results in Displaced unlocked latrines have become
Persons or Refugee Camps
sites of gender-based violence,
Problem: Camps for refugees (persons crossing international borders) and/or including rape, whereas in others,
internally displaced persons (within country of origin) are often conflict-prone. conflict at water sources has
This is true whether the displacement was caused by natural disasters, wars, or become a significant source
persecution. People caught in these situations usually feel a profound sense of of distress.”
violation, loss, and vulnerability, and possible hostilities may play out between
different groups of victims, victims and perpetrators, and even between existing Inter-Agency Standing
host communities and recent arrivals. Inadequate water and sanitation services Committee 2007, p. 179
aggravate existing tensions in such volatile situations and may lead to further
conflict. Although the welfare of those forced to migrate remains the legal
responsibility of the state of which they are citizens, foreign nations and NGOs
are often called upon to provide disaster relief to mitigate the negative effects of
displacement.
Desired Outcome: The proper functioning of refugee/internally displaced person

camps which meet the basic human needs—including water and sanitation
services—of those forced to migrate. Actions to promote this outcome must be
informed by an understanding of the psychosocial, mental health, and human rights
needs of the population, taking into account particularly the condition of vulnerable
persons, such as women, children, and the infirm.
Key Considerations: The technical and social standards for emergency camp
situations have been well developed in guidelines set out by the Sphere Project and
by the United Nations Inter-Agency Standing Committee. The steps shown below
are a brief introduction to the kinds of approaches, attitudes, and concrete actions
required to address water- and sanitation-related needs of displaced persons forced
to flee their homes. All steps presented here are taken from key references.
• Meet established humanitarian care standards.

• Attend particularly to vulnerable persons (women, children, infirm).
• Meet established standards for the provision of water supply, sanitation,
and hygiene.
• Ensure proper management, safety, social protection.
• Attend to host communities as well as the displaced.
• Foster appropriate gender-specific and culture-specific arrangements.
• Ask water committees and other community groups to help prevent
and manage conflicts.
• Monitor and respond promptly to group tensions.

Detailed Recommended Actions/ Process of Transformation
• Be well-versed in and meet the standards of care articulated in the

“In disaster response following key references. These standards have been developed by
situations, we must take off international humanitarian aid organizations over years of experience
our agency and ideological in emergency settings, in response to natural disaster and violence- and
persecution-induced forced migrations:
hats, and find out what the
people need. . . . Aware of o ICRC, IFRC et al. (1994). Code of Conduct for the International Red
what we bring, we must also Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief.
be respectful of what local
resources (human capacities, This “Code of Conduct” seeks to safeguard high standards of
social networks and cultural behavior and maintain independence and effectiveness in
practices and values) disaster relief.
already exist.”
o Sphere Project. (2004). Humanitarian Charter and Minimum
Wessells and Ager 2008 Standards in Disaster Response.
The Sphere Handbook identifies minimum standards to be

attained in disaster assistance, in each of five key sectors: water
supply and sanitation, nutrition, food aid, shelter, and health
services. The Humanitarian Charter affirms: the right to life with
dignity, the distinction between combatants and non-combatants,
and the principle of non-refoulement, i.e. the protection of
refugees from being returned to places where their lives or
freedoms could be threatened (16).
o Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Guidelines, including:
(2008). Human Rights and Natural Disasters: Operational Guidelines

and Field Manual on Human Rights Protection in Situations of Natural
Disaster.
(2007). Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in

Emergency Settings.
Karl Grobl
(2005). Guidelines for Gender-based Violence Interventions in

Humanitarian Settings: Focusing on Prevention of and Response to
Needs were vast for people in camps Sexual Violence in Emergencies.
along the Indian coast following the
2004 tsunami.
(2003). Guidelines for HIV/AIDS Interventions in Emergency Settings.

The IASC references are intended to give guidance on social

considerations relevant in working towards meeting the minimum
standards established by the Sphere Project. These considerations
are critical since, depending upon how such supports are “In Afghanistan, for example,
provided, they can either improve or harm the mental health and girls and women have
psychosocial well-being of the affected population (179–182). reported that the lack of
separate women’s latrines is
• Meet the minimum standards identified by the Sphere Project for water
a major concern, since the
supply, sanitation and hygiene promotion, specifically in the following areas:
hygiene promotion, water supply, excreta disposal, vector control, solid exposure of any part of their
waste management, and drainage. Refer to the Sphere Project for key bodies is punishable and could
indicators under each of these minimum standards for water/sanitation shame and dishonor their
(51–102). families.”
• As communicated in the IASC guidelines: “Plan to provide water and Inter-Agency Standing Committee
2007, p. 179
sanitation for all people (with appropriate targeting of people at risk) in
a manner that supports safety, dignity, privacy, and non-violent problem-
solving. Include specific social considerations in the provision of water and
safe, culturally appropriate hygiene and sanitation facilities (2007, pp. 28–29).”
• Enact the recommended IASC key actions regarding social considerations

when working towards the minimum water and sanitation standards set
out by the Sphere Project (IASC, 2007, “Action Sheet 11.1,” pp. 179–82).
As an example of these key actions, consider the following for issues of
safety and protection, as well as for managing water-related conflict within
the camps:
Promote safety and protection in all water and sanitation activities.
o Ensure that adequate water points are close to and accessible to

all households, including those of vulnerable people, such as those
with restricted mobility.
o Make waiting times sufficiently short so as not to interfere with
essential activities, such as children’s school attendance.
o Ensure that all latrines and bathing areas are secure and, if
possible, well-lit. Providing male and female guards and torches or
lamps are simple ways of improving security.
o Ensure that latrines and bathing shelters are private and culturally
acceptable and that wells are covered and pose no risk to
children.

Prevent and manage conflict in a constructive manner.
o When there is an influx of displaced people, take steps to avoid

“In some areas women the reduction of water supplies available to host communities and
and children walk miles to the resulting strain on resources.
get water —which further o Prevent conflicts at water sites by asking water committees or
other community groups to develop a system for preventing and
increases their risk of attack.”
managing conflict, for example, by rotating access times between
Joseph Ciza Nakamina, families.
UNICEF Canada 2006 o Consider trying to reduce conflict between neighboring displaced
groups or between displaced and permanent residents by
encouraging the conflicting groups to cooperate in building a
common well.
• Note that if the host population, which has not been directly affected by
the disaster, suffers from similar shortages of water and sanitation, shelter,
clothing, and essential health services as those affected by the disaster
currently living in the nearby displaced persons camps, relief should also be
provided to [the host population] on an equitable basis (IASC 2008, p. 32).
• Carry out gender-based actions for the water and sanitation sector in
emergencies. A sampling of IASC recommendations in this regard includes
(2005, pp. 46–48):
• Identify safety and security risks for women and girls and
incorporate them into the design and construction of water and
sanitation facilities, keeping in mind that communal water and
sanitation facilities which are not central, accessible, well-lit, or
well-secured can increase the vulnerability of women and girls to
sexual violence.
• In the context of emergencies in which people are very
susceptible to illness and death from water-borne diseases, it is
essential that all users, especially women and girls, have a voice
in identifying risky hygiene practices and conditions in order to
David Snyder
promote shared responsibility to reduce risks.

• With the frequent presence among displaced populations
Young girl in Chad makes her way home of single- female-headed households, adolescents, and
with water for the family. Fetching water unaccompanied female children, water and sanitation facility
places huge demands on their time and planning should be based upon women’s input so as to maximize
often limits girls’ exposure to schooling. the safety and minimize the burden of those tasked with water-
related responsibilities.

• Likewise, place emphasis on other especially vulnerable sectors of the displaced persons population. The following
is a sampling of key actions identified by IASC for inclusion in water and sanitation programming
to meet the needs of families affected by HIV in emergency situations (2003, pp. 42–43):
o Help dispel myths and misconceptions about contamination of water with HIV, thereby reducing
discrimination against people living with or affected by HIV/AIDS. Common misconceptions include the
following:
 Sharing a well with people who have HIV will cause contamination of the water point.
 People can become infected with HIV/AIDS due to groundwater pollution near the burial sites
of those with AIDS.
o Facilitate access to water and sanitation for families with chronically ill members. People living with HIV/AIDS
may have difficulty obtaining water due to stigmatization and discrimination, limited energy to wait in queues,
or insufficient strength to transport heavy water containers.
o Design water systems to take into account that, partly as a consequence of HIV/AIDS, it is increasingly
children and older people who fetch water. Make sure that pump handles are not too high, that pumping is
not too difficult, and that the walls of the well are not too high.
o Facilitate access to extra water for caretakers of people living with HIV/AIDS. They may need greater than
usual quantities of water to wash sheets and blankets of chronically ill family members and to bathe the sick
more frequently.
o Make extra efforts to ensure that the voices of people living with HIV/AIDS are heard either directly or
indirectly, by representation; infected people and their families can be inadvertently or intentionally excluded
from community-based water decision-making.

Conclusion
The purpose of this document is to inform and guide practitioners of water development, human rights and peacebuilding
to more effectively promote water as a force for unity and life, rather than division and violence. Part I provided data about
water security and inequities on a global scale; described concrete conflicts and their causes; and presented principles,
paradigms and protocols for water cooperation. Part II framed water development within a peacebuilding paradigm,
presented tools and techniques, and suggested appropriate actions in several typical conflict scenarios. The Appendices at
the end of this report summarize various approaches to risk assessment, point to valuable online resources, and provide the
key references used in the preparation of this text. To some, the document may seem overly abstract. To others, too full of
practical details. To still others, the balance may seem just about right. Our hope, in any case, is that this document opens a
broad window on the often turbulent world of water and provides a focused framework for practitioners seeking to prevent
and mitigate violent confrontations around water - the most vital of natural resources.
This report is a work in progress and, hopefully, one that will stimulate further inquiry. It may serve as an invitation to
plunge more deeply into specific core issues, such as transboundary conflicts or human rights, or a call to follow a number
of currents that were not fully explored, such as those around gender and water. It may also lend itself as a basis for
organizational training courses. The possibilities are many. Overall, CRS believes this effort to be a unique contribution to the
expanding literature focused on water and conflict. The document also complements recent works, such as Conflict Resolution
and Negotiation Skills for Integrated Water Resources Management (Cap-Net UNDP, 2008). A next step within CRS will be to
test the utility of this work in the field and to determine if it can provide effective guidance for practitioners. Comments and
suggestions are welcome.

Appendices
Appendix a
Summary of Lines of Inquiry for Evaluating the Risk of

Water-Related Conflict
Complex technical and social challenges tied to water resources await the
peacebuilding development practitioner. The lines of inquiry given below are aimed
at supporting the conflict prevention/mitigation efforts of the water development
practitioner in the field. Though neither all inclusive nor relevant to all situations, the
list can help facilitate the integration of water resources management and conflict
prevention/mitigation in the early stages of planning. This process is essential to
Photo by FUNDESA, 2008. Reprinted with permission.

“mapping conflicts” — an integral element of water conflict assessment required
for any water-related programming.
Socio-Economic Considerations
1. Who owns the water and the land? And who does not?
2. Does water policy favor one group over another? If yes, how?
3. What are the grievances of those whose access to water is most marginalized?
4. Is flooding, lack of water, or new dam construction depriving people of their Conflicts and contamination went
livelihood or forcing them to migrate? hand in hand in the use of this
previously unimproved community
5. How is the water-related conflict linked to other current conflicts? spring of Honduritas, El Salvador, used
for drinking water, clothes washing, and
livestock watering. Through innovative
6. How do historical differences and unresolved conflicts manifest themselves in engineering, the same three uses
the current conflict over water? continue to this day, but improved
infrastructure has eliminated water
7. In any given water conflict under consideration, have prior attempts already contamination and thus the source
been made at reaching a solution? If so, what took place? of past conflict.
8. How do water-related corruption and lack of transparency contribute to ongoing

social inequity?
9. Is the cost of accessing the potable water system (e.g., connection fees, monthly
consumption tariffs) within reach for the most vulnerable sections of the
population?

Appendix A
10. If the administration of local government water services was privatized, what is the history of that process? Was
such a decision made autonomously, or under pressure from foreign multilateral lending institutions? What are the
controversial terms of such privatization contracts? Pros and Cons? What are the cultural attitudes of the local people
toward commodification of water? Is the state able/willing to effectively monitor and regulate such arrangements?
11. What water-related documents produced on the local, country, and international levels by religious and other civil
society leaders might contribute to transforming conflicts?10
Institutional/Political Considerations
1. How are ownership and use of water legitimized? By whom?
2. Who controls access to water, and how do they grant access?
3. What are the accountability mechanisms for institutions regulating the use and distribution of water?
4. What elements of water governance have been decentralized? Which remain centralized?
5. Whether publicly or privately administered, does the governance structure of municipal water services allow for
effective oversight through user participation in decision-making?
6. How do statutory and customary laws regarding water/land ownership differ?
7. Are water management mechanisms (customary and formal) effective, enforced, and perceived as fair?
8. What institutions, rules, and regulations govern water resources? What are these policies based upon
(colonial law, post-colonial or modern law, traditional/customary law)? Do they overlap or contradict each other?
9. How is competition between different water users (e.g., mining, agriculture, hydroelectric, potable water supplies,
overlapping governmental jurisdictions) managed?
Environmental Considerations
1. What present and future environmental risks exist that threaten a given area’s water supply sources?
2. How does the failure to implement integrated water management practices on a watershed basis contribute to
environmental degradation, negatively impacting people’s livelihoods?
3. In what ways do upstream behaviors result in downstream pollution?
4. How do inadequate human sanitation practices affect water quality?
5. Are there demand-side management alternatives (e.g., conservation measures) to large-scale supply-side projects
(e.g., dams)?
10
For an example of religious leadership seeking to inform the public conscience regarding just water governance policies, see the Bolivian Episcopal
Conference (2003)

Appendix b
Additional Resources Available Online

Transboundary Freshwater Dispute Database
Providing an overview of water conflict prevention and resolution, this website includes a register of international river basins
and searchable databases covering international water events since1948 and international freshwater treaties since 1820.
Sponsored by Department of Geosciences, Oregon State University, Dr. Aaron Wolf.
http://www.transboundarywaters.orst.edu/.
UN-Water
Created in 2003, UN-Water is the official United Nations mechanism for tracing follow-up to the water-related decisions
reached at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development and the Millennium Development Goals, particularly the
goal to reduce the number of people lacking drinking water by half by 2015.
http://www.unwater.org.
World Water Council

International platform of private and public entities established in 1996 in response to increasing concern about water issues
on the part of the global community. Every three years, the Council organizes the World Water Forum.
http://www.worldwatercouncil.org.
Water for All—Food and Water Watch

Works with coalition partners in communities around the world to challenge the privatization of water. Its goal is to defend
water as a public resource, to ensure access to safe and affordable water, and to promote recognition of the right to water
internationally. http://foodandwaterwatch.org/water/world-water.
ToolBox for Integrated Water Resources Management

A collection of good practices for managing water resources at all levels. Sponsored by the Global Water Partnership.
http://www.gwptoolbox.org.
Global Policy Forum: Water in Conflict

The articles and analysis on this website examine international water disputes, civil disturbances caused by water shortages,
and potential regulatory solutions to defuse water conflict. http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/natres/waterindex.htm.
OECD Development Assistance Committee’s (DAC) Network on Conflict, Peace and Development Co-operation
The DAC Network on Conflict, Peace and Development Co-operation is the international forum that brings together
conflict-prevention and peacebuilding experts from bilateral and multilateral development agencies, including from the UN
system, the EC, the IMF, and the World Bank. www.oecd.org/dac.

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Appendix C
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Water and Conflict

Incorporating Peacebuilding into Water Development

Catholic Relief Services

Catholic Relief Services

© 2009 Catholic Relief Services—United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Written by Jason Gehrig with Mark M. Rogers

Graphic design by Judi Jachman

For a complete catalog of CRS publications, visit www.crsprogramquality.org.

Jason Gehrig with Mark M. Rogers

PART 1. WATER, CONFLICT, AND COOPERATION: BACKGROUND

CHAPTER I. WATER AND CONFLICT......................................................................................................................................................................................... 3

CHAPTER II. principles for water and COOPERATION................................................................................................................................37

PART 2. PUTTING PEACEBUILDING PRINCIPLES INTO WATER PRACTICE

CHAPTER III. FRAMING WATER DEVELOPMENT WITHIN A PEACEBUILDING PARADIGM.............................................................57

CHAPTER IV. APPLYING PEACEBUILDING AND CONFLICT TRANSFORMATION TO

This document is intended to assist water development practitioners, civil society

Photo by Anna Husarska/IRC, 2007. Reprinted with permission.

• Current global water situation.

Conflict Transformation and Cooperation

• Some form of scarcity

Photo by Karl Grobl/CRS, 2004.

In seeking to assist practitioners to establish programs aimed at preventing and

A situation where the conflicting parties enter into an agreement that

Like conflict transformation, peacebuilding is a “people-centered, relationship-building,

Peacebuilding occurs either before a violent conflict erupts (a preventative

Lack of Access to Water as “Structural Violence”

• Illness— at any given time close to half of all people in developing

Water and Conflict Incorporating Peacebuilding into Water Development 3

Water Conflict on the Local, National, International,

National: between different interest groups in relation to national policies affecting

Examples include hostilities generated by inadequate or even contradictory

from a lack of integrated water resources management at the national level. In

International: between states over the use of shared water resources.

Examples include tension and threatened hostilities between upstream and

4 Water and Conflict Incorporating Peacebuilding into Water Development

MOHNE. Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.

Water as Target, Tool, and/or Goal in Conflicts

British Bombing of the Mohne Dam in

Table I.1: Water as Target, Tool and/or Goal in Conflicts

2001: U.S. forces bombed the hydroelectric facility

2007: In India, thousands of farmers breached security

Water and Conflict Incorporating Peacebuilding into Water Development 5

Historical Perspective and Future Trends

Water-Related Conflict between Nations

Figure I.1. Transboundary River Basin Events, 1948-1998.

6 Water and Conflict Incorporating Peacebuilding into Water Development

Two opposite perceptions of the threat of water-related warfare are widespread.

Furthermore, water-related conflicts that begin on the local level as a manifestation

• The “water wars” angle discourages the engagement of key

• Water management offers an avenue for peaceful dialogue

Water and Conflict Incorporating Peacebuilding into Water Development 7

• High population density (>100/sq.km).

8 Water and Conflict Incorporating Peacebuilding into Water Development

Figure I.2. International River Basins at Risk of Conflict.

Water and Conflict Incorporating Peacebuilding into Water Development 9

10 Water and Conflict Incorporating Peacebuilding into Water Development

Water-Related Conflict within Nations

Box I.1 Somalia: Water Well Widows, Warlords, and Warriors