When more water leads to conflict

Video documentary from the Competing for Water programme

Making more water available, e.g. through the construction of public boreholes and pumps to bring out ground water, can make a big difference to people living in rural areas in developing countries. This is so not only to the poor who in many places lack reliable supplies drinking water, but also to the better-off who may become able to water bigger herds of cattle and bigger gardens. Therefore, competition for water often intensifies when more water becomes available.

Duration: 12.5 minutes. Produced 2010 by Sten Rehder and the Competing for Water programme with financial support from the Royal Danish Embassy, Lusaka, Zambia
Competing for Water - when more water leads to conflict from Sten Rehder on Vimeo.

With illustrations from Namwala district in Zambia, the video shows that it is often local power relations – rather than the need for water – that determine who get access and draw benefits when more water is made available.

In rural areas, water will always be used for multiple purposes. Clear rules that assign priority to domestic use over productive use of water is an important step to prevent the poor from losing out when more water is made available through new public infrastructure.

However, rules may be broken. When that happens, there is a need for independent mediating institutions which people who have their rights to water denied, can access. The design and establishment of such institutions is a challenge which future efforts to ensure pro-poor water governance will have to address.

The video "Competing for Water – when more water leads to conflict" is one in a series of three videos that illustrate conclusions coming out of the "Competing for Water" programme. The title of the other two videos are "Competing for Water – the challenge of local water governance" (available in English and Spanish) and "Competing for Water - when new water users emerge" (available October 2010). The videos can be downloaded and embedded from www.vimeo.com/channels/competingforwater.

The Competing for Water programme (www.diis.dk/water) is a collaborative research programme which has documented the extent, intensity and nature of water-related conflict and cooperation occurring over a 10-year period in one district in each of the following countries: Bolivia, Mali, Nicaragua, Vietnam and Zambia.

Some of the results from the Competing for Water programme will be presented at a public seminar held at DIIS on September 14, 2010.

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