Water Conflict, Cooperation & Governance

Question 1

What are water rights?

Answer 1

A form of property right
Rights involve use of water, not full ownership. Many countries’ laws state that all water is the property of the public or the state.

Question 2

What are the different types of water allocation institutions

Answer 2

User Group Management - collective decisions among water users
Agency Allocation - bureaucratic agency controls directly
Water Markets - trading among users, temporary or permanent transfers

Question 3

Advantages and Disadvantages of User Group Management?

Answer 3

Local knowledge and experience adaptable
Legitimacy based on custom

X - more difficult if users do not know each other and lack existing relationships

Question 4

Advantages and Disadvantages of Agency Allocation?

Answer 4

Standard procedures
Technical expertise

X - difficult to customise to particular conditions

Question 5

Advantages and Disadvantages of Water Markets?

Answer 5

Voluntary
Prices reveal opportunity costs for users, create incentives to conserve

X - risk of neglecting impacts on 3rd parties

Question 6

What is water tenure?

Answer 6

“the relationship, whether legally or customarily defined, between people, as individuals or groups, with respect to water resources”.

The reference to ‘water resources’ as opposed to simply ‘water’ is justified by the need to distinguish the discussion on water tenure from the discussion on the human right to water, which focuses specifically on questions related to access to water for domestic purposes

Question 7

What is the water war hypothesis?

Answer 7

The belief that water leads to war (historical).

The mechanisms linking water and violent conflict:

• water is a cause of conflict
• water is a consequence of conflict, used as a tool in it

Question 8

What refutes this hypothesis?

Answer 8

1. Cooperation is more prevalent than conflict.

2. Cooperation/Conflict should be viewed as a spectrum rather than a binary.

Question 9

How does the case of Syria exemplify the link between water and conflict?

Answer 9

Syria’s civil war can be traced back to droughts of 2006-10, which lead to rural-urban migration, rising unemployment which alongside other social/political issues lead to violence.