Conflict Resolution and Negotiation
Skills for Integrated Water Resources
Management
Module One: Integrated
Water Resources Management and
Conflict Resolution
Objectives and Outcomes of the session
Objectives
 To understand the meaning and principles
of IWRM
 To demonstrate relevance of IWRM for
managing conflicts
 To introduce various tipping points for
conflict and cooperation on water
resources
Objectives and Outcomes of the session
OUTCOMES
 The participant will have a clear
understanding of the link between IWRM,
conflict and conflict management, and have
a clear understanding of the relevance of
conflict management skills.
SKILLS
 The participant will be able to systematically
analyze his or her own particular setting
through the lens of IWRM and to perceive
possible entry points for conflict resolution
from the perspective of Alternative Dispute
Resolution (ADR).
Presentation Outline
1.
2.
3.
4.
Introduction
What is IWRM
IWRM principles and elements
IWRM and conflict management
 Tipping points for conflict..cooperation
1. Introduction
The Importance of Water
 Water is essential to human survival (20-40
litres per person daily)
 Effective primary health care
 Fight poverty, hunger, child mortality, gender
inequality and environmental damage.
 Millennium Development Goals
1. Introduction: Facts on Water Crisis




More than 2 billion people suffer from water
shortages in over 40 countries;
1.1 billion people do not have access to safe
drinking water;
2 million tonnes per day of human waste is
discharged into water courses;
Every year 1.6 million children below 5 years
old die because of unsafe water and lack of
basic sanitation.
1. Introduction: Reasons for Water Crisis
 Water resources under pressure from
population growth, economic activity,
growing competition from many water users;
 Withdrawals increased more than twice the
rate of population growth;
 Development and pollution are exacerbating
water scarcity;
 Uncoordinated development and
management of water resources;
 Climate change will impact on water
resources.
2. What is IWRM?
 A systematic process for sustainable
development, allocation and monitoring of
water resource use in the context of social,
economic and environmental goals and
objectives.
 IWRM is a process which promotes the
coordinated development and management of
water, land and related resources, in order to
maximize the resultant economic and social
welfare in an equitable manner without
compromising the sustainability of vital
ecosystems (GWP 2000)
2. What is IWRM? IWRM is a paradigm shift
Departs from traditional approaches in three
ways:
 Cross-cutting and departs from traditional
sectoral approach.
 Spatial focus is the river basin;
 Departure from narrow professional and
political boundaries and perspectives and
broadened to incorporate participatory
decision-making of all stakeholders (Inclusion
versus exclusion).
2. What is IWRM? Interdependency
 The basis of IWRM is that there are a
variety of uses of water resources which
are interdependent.
The need
to consider
the
different
uses of
water
together
2. What is IWRM? Competing but
Interdependent Uses
2. What is IWRM? – A Water Balancing Act
Supply
• Quantity (Natural Scarcity,
Groundwater Depletion)
• Quality Degradation
• Cost of Options
Demand
• Increasing in all sectors
• Inefficient use
IWRM
2. What is IWRM? Dimensional View
Infrastructure for
management of
floods and
droughts,
multipurpose
storage, water
quality and source
protection
Policy/
Institutional
framework
Integrated Water Resources Management
Water supply
& sanitation
Irrigation &
drainage
Management
instruments
Political economy
of water
management
Water Uses
Energy
Environmental
services
Other uses
including
industry and
navigation
2. What is IWRM?
Prosperity
Governance
Policy/Inst.
Framework
Objectives
IWRM Water and water related policies review and revision
Social
Economic
Development
Development
Env.
Protection
Feedback
Management
Institutions
IWRM
Ecosystem Mgt.
Coastal Mgt.
Pollution Prev
Industry
Agriculture
Energy
Floods/Droughts
Water Supply
Water Quality
Health
Activity
Sectors
(water uses)
IWRM Resource development, management, monitoring, and evaluation
Resource availability/use analysis and allocation
3. IWRM Principles and elements
1. Fresh water is a finite and vulnerable
resource.
2. Water development and management should
be based on a participatory approach.
3. Women play central role in provision,
management and safeguarding of water.
4. Water has an economic value but should be
recognised as an economic good and a social
good.
Principle 1: Freshwater is a finite and vulnerable
resource.
Precipitatio
n
Evaporation
Evaporation (ET)
Evaporation
Ocean
Infiltration
Aquifer
runoff
Precipitation
Evaporation/ET
Surface Water
Groundwater
Why is it vulnerable?
Water is essential for development and is
vulnerable to development.
 Holistic approach: Link social and economic
development with the protection of natural
ecosystems.
 Integrated Perspective: No dichotomy between
land use and water use.
 The river basin is the logical unit for water
resources management.
Principle 2: Water development &
management should be participatory.
 Everyone is a stakeholder (inclusion/exclusion);
 Democratisation of decision-making principle is
adopted;
 Ideally, multiple stakeholders
 In reality, involvement in decision-making at
the most feasible level (subsidiary);
 Gender sensitive and sensitive to
issues of vulnerability and poverty.
Benefits of participation
 More successful projects in terms of scale,
design, operation and maintenance;
 Improve cost recovery . Key to revenue
generation and financing;
 Environmental resources are protected and
cultural and human rights are respected;
 Coordinate interests and resolve conflicts;
 Increase transparency and accountability in
decision-making.
Challenges to the Participatory
Approach
Participation does not always achieve consensus:
 Arbitration processes and conflict resolution
mechanisms needed.
 Government intervention needed to create
enabling environment for marginalised social
groups (poor, indigenous people, the elderly &
women.
 Disadvantaged groups must also have the
capacity to participate.
Think about it
 In your country are all stakeholders involved
in decision-making on water supply,
management and investment decisions?
Principle 3: Women play a central role in the
provision, management and safeguarding of
water.
 In many countries women are the
collectors of water, responsible for
safeguarding water for domestic use
and agricultural use.
 Women less instrumental than men
in key areas:
 Management;
 Problem analysis;
 Decision-making in relation to design
of systems and investment etc.
Links between Gender and IWRM
 Gender and environmental sustainability
linkages.
 Gender and economic efficiency linkages.
 Gender and social equity linkages.
Gender and economic efficiency linkages
 Women may be less mobile and have
payment constraints.
 Payment centres should be in closer
proximity to their homes.
 Payment amounts should be smaller and can
be made at more regular intervals making
more affordable.
Think about it
 In your country is a gendersensitive approach being
used to manage water
resources?
 If not, give reasons why
this approach has not been
adopted.
Principle 4: Water has an economic value among
all competing uses and should be recognised as
an economic good as well as a social good.
 Water has a value as an economic good as
well as a social good.
 The value of water in alternative uses is
important for the rational allocation of
water as an economic good as well as a
social good.
Think about it
 Is there any adoption
of water management
principles in your
country? Where can
you find them?
Key Criteria and elements of IWRM
Figure 8. The Three pillars of Integrated Water Resources Management
Economic
efficiency
Equity
Management
Instruments
Enabling
Environment
Assessment
 Allocation
instruments
Policies
Legislation
Environmental
Sustainability
Institutional
Framework
Central- Local
River Basin
Public - Private
Balance “water for livelihood” and “water as a resource”
Key Criteria and elements of IWRM
-- Change Areas
Enabling environment
 Setting goals for water use, protection and
conservation.
 Legislative framework – the rules to follow
to achieve policies and goals.
 Financing and incentive structures –
allocating financial resources to meet
water needs.
Key Criteria and elements of IWRM
-- Change Areas
Institutional roles
 Creating an organizational framework –
forms and functions.
 Institutional capacity building – developing
human resources.
Key Criteria and elements of IWRM
-- Change Areas
Water Resources Management
 Water resources assessment – understanding
resources and needs.
 Plans for IWRM – combining development
options, resource use and human interaction.
 Demand management – using water more
efficiently.
 Social change instruments – encouraging a
water-oriented civil society.
Key Criteria and elements of IWRM
-- Change Areas
 Conflict resolution – managing disputes,
ensuring sharing of water.
 Regulatory instruments – allocation and water
use limits.
 Economic instruments – using value and prices
for efficiency & equity.
 Information management and exchange –
improving knowledge for better water
management.
4. IWRM and conflict management: Tipping
points for conflict..cooperation
 Given all the IWRM change areas, its
introduction to the existing systems of
water resources management creates a
climate for both conflict and cooperation.
4. IWRM and conflict management: Tipping
points for conflict..cooperation
Achieving good water governance
 Each IWRM change areas holds potential to
contribute to more equitable, efficient and
sustainable water use and management
 But, it also holds the potential to create
conflict within and across user groups and
societies.
 While change is key, how one enters this
environment – the time, place and pace – are
equally important.
4. IWRM and conflict management: Tipping
points for conflict..cooperation
Securing water for people
Access to safe and sufficient water and
sanitation (basic human needs essential to
health and well-being).
Meeting water supply and sanitation needs for
urban and rural areas especially in developing
countries represents one of the most serious
challenges in the years ahead.
4. IWRM and conflict management: Tipping
points for conflict..cooperation
Securing water for food
Population projections - Over the next 25
years food will be needed for 2-3 billion
more people.
Water is seen as a key constraint on food
production, equivalent to if not more crucial
than land scarcity.
Irrigated agriculture is already responsible
for more than 70% of all water withdrawals
(more than 90% of all consumptive use of
water).
4. IWRM and conflict management: Tipping
points for conflict..cooperation
Even with an estimated need for an
additional 15-20% of irrigation water over
the next 25 years - which is probably on the
low side – serious conflicts are likely to arise
between water for irrigated agriculture and
water for other human and ecosystem uses.
4. IWRM and conflict management: Tipping
points for conflict..cooperation
Water for ecosystems
Land and water resources management must
ensure that vital ecosystems are maintained
and that adverse effects on other natural
resources are considered and where possible
reduced when development and management
decisions are made.
4. IWRM and conflict management: Tipping
points for conflict..cooperation
Terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems produce a
range of economic benefits depending on
water flows.
Does this mean that concerns for
environmental protection stand above the
needs of economic development?
Limited resources requires managing the
environment and development, or
approaching development from an
environmentally sensitive way is not always
possible. Trade-offs will be necessary, but
how and who to decide?
4. IWRM and conflict management: Tipping
points for conflict..cooperation
Gender disparities
 The way that water resources are managed
affects women and men differently.
 Throughout the world, and particularly in rural
areas, women are the custodians of family
health and hygiene and providers of domestic
water and food. Women therefore are the
primary stakeholders in household water and
sanitation.
4. IWRM and conflict management: Tipping
points for conflict..cooperation
 Yet, decisions on water supply and sanitation
technologies, locations of water points and
operation and maintenance systems are
mostly made by men. How may this
effectively be changed? What, exactly, does
‘mainstreaming gender’ mean?
4. IWRM and conflict management: Tipping
points for conflict..cooperation
Managing Risks
 Drought, flood, point-source and diffuse
pollution, upstream actions with downstream
impacts – these are all common events with
often uncommon and unpredictable
outcomes.
 Ensuring early warning systems and adequate
structural responses to both natural and
human-made calamities are key activities in
conflict avoidance.
4. IWRM and conflict management: Tipping
points for conflict..cooperation
 Positive initial responses must be built
upon and lead to appropriate mitigation
and adaptation procedures – this is all the
more important in the face of the
anticipated negative effects on of global
warming on local and global hydrological
cycles.
4. IWRM and conflict management: Tipping
points for conflict..cooperation
Valuing water
 In addition to the economic, water in all its
uses has social, environmental and cultural
value.
 In addition to the economic cost of service
delivery water pricing must reflect issues
of equity, and meeting the needs of the
environment, the poor and the vulnerable.
4. IWRM and conflict management: Tipping
points for conflict..cooperation
 That means decisions must be made in
culturally, socially, economically and
environmentally sensitive ways: surely a
recipe for conflict!
4. IWRM and conflict management: Tipping
points for conflict..cooperation
Water for Industry and Cities
 Should agriculture continue to have 70% of all
withdrawals when the sector contributes only
4% to the GDP? While industry uses less water
to more profitable effect, there are ecological
costs involved.
 Many states are eager to attract new industry,
but lack the capacity to monitor their
behaviour fearing that applying the polluter
pays rule will drive them out to a neighbouring
country, many governments are unwilling to
adhere to their own laws regarding
environmental and social health.
4. IWRM and conflict management: Tipping
points for conflict..cooperation
 As cities grow, the demand for water rises
and governments may be faced with
questions of building dams or transferring
water from one basin to another.
 Rural people may lose out in these
decisions. What are the ways forward? And
how to manage the conflicts that are sure
to arise?
4. IWRM and conflict management: Tipping
points for conflict..cooperation
Water in a Transboundary setting
 States often act unilaterally when it comes
to the management of transboundary
waters. This is especially the case when
the upstream state is more politically and
economically powerful than the
downstream state.
4. IWRM and conflict management:
Tipping points for conflict..cooperation
 What do states disagree upon? The piechart (next slide) shows that most often
states argue about the quantity of water
and the types of infrastructure in place
that affect the amount and timing of flows.
Key IWRM questions to ask yourself
 What is the evidence of commitment to
integrated water resources management in your
country?
 Considering the water management structures in
your country, what institutional and legal
reforms are needed to implement IWRM?
 Is there an urgency to manage water resources
in an integrated manner and how is this best
done? What will be the benefits for the different
sectors?
 How are men and women affected differently by
changes in water resources management in your
country?