"Conflicts over Water and Water to Solve Conflicts", GWA seminar at World Water Week 2008

Date: Sunday 17 August

Time: 9:00 - 12:00

Location: Room K23, Stockholm International Fairs and Congress Center

Convenors: Saferworld, UK and GWA, The Netherlands

Chair: Dr. Sara Ahmed, Chair GWA, India

Co-Chair: Hesta Groenewald, Conflict Prevention Adviser, Saferworld, UK.

Conflicts over water increasingly take place on different levels worldwide. On the one hand, scarcity of water, particularly in areas where there are already societal conflicts can lead to escalation of these conflicts. On the other hand, enabling access to water can help solve conflicts, bringing diverse, often oppositional communities and individuals, women and men, together in water management institutions. Water governance needs to address key questions around gender, power and inclusion by multi-stakeholder dialogues and participatory learning processes: which women or which men participate in decision-making? In India after communal violence shared water facilities were unsafe places for women and improved access to water and sanitation proved to be crucial in peace building. Work with local governments and civil society in Eastern Africa shows how water provision can prevent conflict and contribute to peace. Conflict sensitive approaches (CSA) are applied to various development programmes. Lack of sanitation as well as access to new facilities can cause or solve conflicts, depending on equal involvement by men and women users, based on their cultural perception of water and social power relations. This seminar draws on critical insights from Saferworld and GWA members in Africa and Asia.

Programme

• Welcome and introduction by Chair Dr Sara Ahmed, GWA
• Lessons on Conflict-Sensitive Water Delivery in 2 pilot districts – Kasese and Arua, Uganda, by Capson Sausi from Saferworld and/or Didas Muhumuza from the Center for Conflict Resolution (CECORE, Uganda).
• Peace building by improved access to water and sanitation for women and men in Gujarat after communal riots, by Nafisa Barot, Executive Trustee, UTTHAN, India.
• Relevance of Conflict-Sensitive Approach to Water Provision at the Local Level, by Lamu Olweny Omalla, District Water Engineer, Kasese District, Uganda.
• Gender, water and sanitation in displaced people’s camps in Darfur, by Ragaa A.Alzain, Sudan Academy of Sciences, Khartoum, Sudan.
• Drama and awareness raising to solve conflicts between different groups of users of sanitation and water facilities in Borno State, by Aisha Hamza, Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency, Maiduguri, Nigeria.
• Iraqi water crisis and conflicts - More suffering for poor, women and children, by Behar Ali, Gender and Water Alliance, The Netherlands
• Discussion
• Summarizing key messages to be conveyed to the Stockholm Water Symposium
• Closure of session