adelphi develops tool to analyse and prevent local water conflicts

Local water conflicts affect the everyday life of many communities. However, most research and analytical tools focus on international or transboundary disputes. To bridge this gap and to better understand the conflict potential of water adelphi has developed the WACCAF as part of the EU’s Initiative for Peacebuilding.

Peruvian police shot five farmers protesting against a gold mine and its potential impacts on their water supply. A conflict between clans over water boreholes in Northern Kenya left four people dead. Riot police was deployed when 10,000 farmers protested against a dam on the Dadu River in the Sichuan Province of China. Local water conflicts like these are very common and affect many communities. Still much of the discourse and academic work on water conflicts focuses on international and transboundary water issues. The same is true for analytical tools and trainings on water conflicts.

To help close this gap adelphi has developed the Water, Crisis and Climate Change Assessment Framework (WACCAF) as part of the European Union’s Initiative for Peacebuilding. It can support those working in the water sector or in crisis prevention. It provides a framework that guides the user through an analysis looking at the different factors that play a role in local water conflicts. It puts a special emphasis on the social and historical context in which crisis escalate into conflicts – for example the marginalisation of certain user groups or a history of conflict. It is based on the state of the art in the field as well as adelphi’s own research and has been tested in Africa and India.

For further information:
http://www.adelphi.de/de…
http://www.adelphi.de/de…
http://www.ifp-ew.eu/cli…