Chapter
9:
Case
studies
in
Ta’izz
Institutional
capacity
The
NWRA
in
Ta’izz
does
not
seem
to
have
much
power
or
capacity
to
intervene.
In
the
case
of
the
Halhalah
conflict,
Abdussamad
Shuja,
the
head
of
NWRA
in
Ta’izz,
indicated
that
Person
94
is
a
powerful
man,
well-‐
connected
and
experienced
in
Shariah.
Furthermore,
the
courts
allowed
him
to
construct
matters
in
his
favor.
The
NWRA’s
role
is
limited
to
sending
“enforcement
officers”
to
study
conflicts
and
refer
cases
to
courts.
NWRA
has
5
lawyers
on
staff
who
follow
up
on
specific
cases
in
prosecution
and
courts.
Apart
from
that
NWRA
90
is
not
able
to
do
much .
NWRA
indicated
a
problem
in
enforcing
court
sentences,
but
maybe
more
importantly,
NWRA’s
ability
to
address
or
at
least
lead
an
effort
to
address
the
root
cases
of
conflicts
over
water
is
limited
by
small
budget
allocations,
poor
legislation,
and
lack
of
cooperation
from
local
and
district
authorities.
Most
of
the
time,
the
NWRA
tries
to
broker
peaceful
resolution/settlement
informally
among
locals
that,
in
the
opinion
of
the
Head
91
of
NWRA
in
Ta’izz,
does
not
put
an
end
to
conflict.
Although
peaceful
settlements
are
not
perfect
and
do
not
resolve
the
root
causes,
they
sometimes
prevent
the
conflict
from
escalating.
“Twisted
peaceful
settlement
is
better
than
functioning
Shariah”
is
a
local
saying.
This
saying
indicates
how
little
trust
people
have
in
government
and
rule
of
law.
One
of
the
problems
that
were
brought
up
is
that
NWRA’s
immediate
reaction
is
to
issue
“stopping
orders”,
meaning
orders
to
prevent
any
water
related
activities
that
are
being
disputed.
This
most
of
the
time
happens
92
without
proper
investigation
and
examination
of
the
problem
or
who
is
affected.
In
the
case
of
Halhalah,
for
example,
this
pushed
the
Qassems
to
resort
to
NWRA
Sana’a
for
help.
Governance
problem
There
is
a
tremendous
poor
level
of
management
with
a
clear
disconnect
between
district
level
authorities,
governorate
level
authorities
and
national
level
authorities.
NWRA
Ta’izz
complains
that
there
is
not
enough
support
from
the
central
Government.
Budgetwise
the
allocations
are
too
small
and
will
not
even
cover
the
basic
functions
NWRA
is
required
to
perform.
For
example,
the
budget
includes
only
10,000
(less
than
$50)
a
month
for
gas.
The
NWRA’s
ro