The Causes and Effects of Water Conflict: Evidence from Damavand
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598 Bulgarian Journal of Agricultural Science, 26 (No 3) 2020, 598–604 The causes and effects of water conflict: evidence from Damavand Bahareh Gholizadeh and Mehrdad Niknami* Garmsar Branch, Islamic Azad University, Department of Agricultural Extension and Education, College of Agriculture, 3581631167 Garmsar, Iran *Corresponding author: [email protected] Abstract Gholizadeh, B. & Niknami, M. (2020). The causes and effects of water conflict: evidence from Damavand.Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 26 (3), 598–604 In spite of the scarcity of water resources, the farmers’ competitions to use water resources and their insistence on it have resulted in the occurrence of conflict and the tragedy of the common resources. Conflict may have both positive and negative aspects. If the conflict resolutions are correctly understood, its causes and effects can be managed. The objective of this study was to investigate the causes and effects of water conflict in Damavand, Iran using structural modeling method. The research method was a relational causal study. Results revealed that water conflict can be attributed to different causes categorized into interdependent climatic, managerial, social, agronomical, and educational factors, among which the climatic factor was found to include the most important causes. These causes have had positive or negative impacts. Keywords: water conflict; water resource; management; participatory irrigation; climate-smart agriculture; Iran Introduction water resources management to serious and tough challeng- es, one of which is the augmentation of water conflict. Water While per capita renewable water is declining through- scarcity and inequality in access to water resources are two out the world, it has been projected that the global demand main causes of water conflict. Thus, water-related violence for water will be increased by 55% by 2050. Since climate is an ever-increasing phenomenon. It has been predicted that change will entail complicated and unpredictable impacts, the access to water resources will lead to different wars (Gehrig water demand and the conflicts on water will be influenced & Rogers, 2009; Wenjuan et al ., 2009). The city of Dama- too. Accordingly, the competition of different water-using vand has an area of about 188,000 m2 located 45 km from sectors, as well as the competition between the stakehold- Tehran, Iran. Its annual precipitation is, on average, 149 mm. ers of the common water resources, will intensify the risk of Seventy percent of water resources of the agricultural sector local and regional disputes and conflicts and the continued is wasted in this city for diverse reasons. The main challenge inequality in service availability (UN, 2015).In Iran, the ag- of the local agricultural sector is the scarcity of water re- ricultural sector is the largest and most important water user sources and the land use change, leading to the desolation of accounting for 92 percent of total water use. On the other most rain-fed farms and predicaments for the irrigated lands. hand, water scarcity is the main limiting factor of the crop This has limited the potential of production and the use of production. According to the Falkenmark indicator, Iran is the agricultural lands by the local farmers, thereby resulting at the threshold of the water crisis. Average per capita water in water conflict among them (Jaod, 2017). The complexities figures show that Iran has entered the water stress stage since of water exploitation system in the studied region and the 2006 (Bijani & Hayati, 2011; Saadati et al., 2012). The im- differences in water users’ views and attitudes have rendered balance between water supply and demand in Iran has posed the conflict an inevitable phenomenon. Conflict refers to The causes and effects of water conflict: evidence from Damavand 599 an explicit disagreement between, at least, two interrelated The issues that are continually and potentially at the people in which inconsistent goals, concepts, values, and/ heart of resource conflicts at the national and sub-national or beliefs can be detected. Accordingly, water conflict is a levels include ownership of resources, power allocation for term that describes the disputes between countries, states, or the management of resource access and/or development, re- human groups over water access (Tulloch, 2009 ). source income distribution, and environmental and social Indeed, water-related conflicts are conflicts that take damages arising from resource exploitation. Most conflicts at place between two or more regions or groups with differ- the local level have been resolved by the legislative, regula- ent, competing interests in water resources access, alloca- tory, managerial, and traditional mechanism with no interna- tion, and utilization. Thus, conflict is a social situation where tional interventions (Brown & Keating, 2015). In Iran, Bijani water resource users attempt for more access to resources & Hayati (2015) revealed that, among the groups involved in at a certain time and/or the groups are inconsistent on their water conflicts, the main conflict was between farmers and interests (OECD, 2005; UNDP, 2012). Obviously, the en- the government. Farmers in downstream were the main los- vironment around the mankind will be influenced by such ers in water distribution. The dominant water conflict was conflicts, resulting in social and ecological changes. When “latent” as well. The main reasons for agricultural water negative conflicts develop and inelastic demand arises for conflict were “water scarcity”, “drought”, and “the kind of water, its consequences emerge in a tragic way. This trag- water management”. Some also relate the water conflicts to edy implies that there has been a long-term uninterrupted such factors as supply shortages, water pollution, resource demand for resources in human systems whilst nature is in- variability, high demand, low water use efficiency, improper capable of replenishing its resources in accordance with this regulatory and institutional networks, improper governance demand. If this trend is not changed, the system is destined and centralization, water tariffs, lack of financing, unplanned to collapse (Bijani & Hayati, 2013). All in all, it can be stated change in water management schedule, inadequate partici- that the suitability and exploitability of the conflict depend pation of water users, socioeconomic conditions, and inade- on the recognition of its causes and effects. quate public awareness (AbuZeid & Abdel-Meguid, 2006). The assessment of the performance of water users asso- Causes and effects ciations in Egypt revealed that these associations have been successful in improving crop yield, alleviating conflicts and Data on water conflict between 2000 and 2009 show that disputes among the local people, reducing irrigation costs 68% of the conflicts were at the local level and 32% were at and time, enhancing farmers’ relationship with irrigation the international level (Gebremariam, 2011). At the local lev- advisory service personnel, increasing women’s participa- el, there may be tensions on water use that can lead to low-lev- tion, and increasing the use of modern irrigation systems by el violence and instabilities within the states or regions. The farmers (Hassabou & EL-Gafy, 2007). In a similar study on survival and livelihood of millions of poor people, especially the performance of water users associations in India, it was in rural areas, rely on the subsistence farming whereas this found that they exhibited the highest efficiency in two tasks: farming, in turn, depends on water availability. Rising water irrigation water distribution and the resolution of disputes scarcity, when is combined with low economic development (Joseph, 2001). The last two decades have witnessed exten- and poor governance, is an indicator of the increased frequen- sive studies on water conflict, mainly focusing on the water cy of conflict and instability. Water conflict may have vari- scarcity, the involved institutions, and the socioeconomic ous causes, the most important ones being the socioeconomic conditions in transnational basins. factors including increased level of endowment and demand, However, there has been lower tendency to address wa- poverty, production development initiatives, social inequality, ter resource conflicts at the local level that is resulted from marginalization, economic anomalies, and competitive inter- complicated interactions and feedbacks among a wide range ests at the community level; institutional/political factors in- of variables in human and natural systems (Hilmenet al., cluding poor governance, the lack of transparency, tensions on 2015). In a study in Iran, Valizadeh et al. (2019) found that borderline displacement, aggressive foreign policy wrapped in many environmental dilemmas such as water scarcity orig- national security claims, militarism culture with violence his- inate from human behavior. Also, it was concluded that the tory, and dam construction projects; and environmental factors findings showed that factors that have been mentioned in including water scarcity, population growth and basic human social-cognitive theory could be considered for enhancing needs, natural disasters, climate change, aquifer degradation, farmers’ water conservation behaviors since the theory pro- water pollution, exploiting industries, and water users (Gehrig vides a more realistic insight into farmers’ behaviors with an & Rogers, 2009). emphasis on farmers’ social and structural