Houdret, Annabelle: INEF Policy Brief 3. Scarce Water, Plenty of Conflicts? Local Water Conflicts and the Role of Development Cooperation

Growing water scarcity increases competition for the access to the resource and subsequent conflict potentials in many countries. Water management and related conflicts are increasingly a question of distributive justice and political legitimacy. The Policy Brief analyses the causes of intrastate water conflicts and introduces the main challenges for international development cooperation. By typologising water conflicts and showing corresponding policy options the paper provides an overview of possible strategies to cope with water conflicts. Finally, the Policy Brief offers recommendations on how to better identify, resolve and prevent conflicts in the water sector.

The Institute for Development and Peace (INEF), which was founded in 1990 is a research institute of the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Duisburg-Essen, located at the Campus Duisburg. It closely cooperates with the Peace and Development Foundation (SEF), Bonn. The Institute combines basic research with applied and policy-related research in the following areas: Global Governance and Human Security, Fragile States, Crisis Prevention and Civilian Conflict Management, Human Rights and Corporate Social Responsibility. Director of INEF is Prof. Dr. Tobias Debiel, the Executive Director is Dr. Cornelia Ulbert.

Annabelle Houdret, Dipl. Pol., Researcher at the Institute for Development and Peace (INEF), University Duisburg-Essen, and member of the joint Research Unit Water Management, Actors and Uses (UMR G-Eau), Montpellier. Her topics of research include environmental security, development, water conflicts and social, political and ecological trends in North Africa.