Chapter
1:
Introduction
Chapter
1.
Introduction
The
goal
of
the
project
is
to
develop
policy
relevant
recommendations
for
the
prevention
and
the
resolution
of
water-‐related
conflict
by
assessing
the
political
economy
of
water
management
in
Yemen.
Water
management
is
a
complex
and
inherently
political
process
with
assumed
game-‐changing
potential.
It
may
prevent
an
acute
water
crisis
from
escalating
into
a
large-‐scale
violent
conflict,
or
it
may
exacerbate
the
situation
further.
Naturally,
the
underlying
assumptions
need
to
be
unravelled
further.
Customary
law
has
for
many
years
regulated
access
to
surface
water
in
Yemen.
Groundwater
is
considered
a
“fugitive
resource
that
has
increasingly
been
exploited
under
an
open
access
regime”
(Nibbering
1997:
40).
Nowadays,
water
management
regulations
in
Yemen
generally
lack
enforcement
and
equity
is
a
huge
problem
1
(Mewes,
2011).
Access
to
groundwater
is,
in
principle,
open
to
all,
but
de
facto
this
is
hardly
the
case.
A
recent
estimate
suggests,
“90
per
cent
of
the
water
resources
are
used
for
irrigation
and
that
45
per
cent
of
the
urban
population
has
no
access
to
centralized
water
supply
systems
and
about
65
per
cent
of
that
population
is
without
centralized
sanitation
systems”
(Yemeni-‐German
Technical
Cooperation
2012).
2
In
addition
to
technical
data
on
surface
water
and
groundwater
use,
one
also
needs
to
qcquire
more
knowledge
regarding
the
different
stakeholders
and
their
vested
interests.
In
Yemen,
groundwater
is
a
common
pool
resource
with
high
risk
of
unequal
access,
unequal
distribution
and
insufficient
control
mechanisms.
This
may
exacerbate
covered
conflicts
on
water
into
escalating
violent
conflicts.
Conflict,
however,
does
not
necessarily
need
to
turn
into
violence.
Up
until
the
1960s,
Yemen
possessed
a
“remarkably
effective”
(Moore
2011)
water
management
system
that
relied
on
an
“advanced
knowledge
of
water-‐flow
patterns
and
organizational
means
to
control
them”
(Harrower
2009).
This
primarily
applied
to
surface
water
and
was
effectively
regulated
by
means
of
customary
and
Islamic
legal
provisions
(Moore
2011).
Traditionally,
farmers
often
agreed
upon
and
implemented
sets
of
water
rights
and
rules
that
inter
alia
stipulated
which
field
would
have
to
be
irrigated
first
and
from
which
flood
category.
The
opening
of
the
country
for
the
import
of
modern
drilling
and
groundwater
withdrawal
technology
in
the
3
1970s
coupled
with
a
significant
increase
in
population
growth,
encouraged
the
use
of
groundwater
resources
for
agricultural,
industrial
purposes
and
domestic
use.
The
Yemini
government’s
water
policies
in
the
period
after
the
1970s
constituted
an
important
element
in
the
patronage
politics
that
secured
Saleh’s
power
position
for
the
following
30
years.
The
groundwater
development
enabled
farmers
to
raise
incomes,
whilst
the
subsidy
policies
allowed
the
government
to
“consolidate
its
alliances
with
many
important
interest
groups”
(Ward
2000).
Groundwater
abstraction
contributed
to
a
shift
in
the
local
configuration
of
power
in
Yemen
offering
even
greater
power
to
sheikhs
and
influential
elites,
which
led
to
the
marginalization
of
smallholders
in
rural
areas
and
the
urban
poor.
Some
individuals
have
made
c onsiderable
short-‐term
profits
from
groundwater
while
others
have
fallen
behind.
Moreover,
national
groundwater
abstraction
initiatives
–
unlike
traditional
forms
of
1
http://www.yemenwater.org/wp-‐content/uploads/2013/03/Negenman-‐T.-‐2000.pdf
In
the
case
of
groundwater,
this
implies
inter
alia
the
balance
between
groundwater
abstraction
and
recharge,
the
number
of
users
per
aquifer,
and
the
rules
and
regulations
determining
the
access
to
groundwater.
3
Population
growth
rate
is
estimated
by
UNICEF
at
2.7%
per
year
(UNICEF
Country
Statistics
Yemen
2012).
The
Global
Gender
Report
2013
estimates
the
population
growth
rate
at
3,06%
(World
Economic
Forum
2013)
2
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