Scarcity and surfeit : the ecology of Africa's conflicts

Spilling BIwd over Water? The Case of Ethiopia 289

involving many local communities in implementation. However, a followup

project was not approved by the central government, forcing the European

Union to withdraw.

A smaller project is currently being initiated by FARM Africa (a British

NGO) within zones 1 and 5 of Afar regional state, continuing with the same

approach as the APDP and recruiting former APDP staff.lA The project focus-

es on suitable uses of land along the Awash River to support pastoralist food

and livestock needs. The longer-term goals are to be decided through the

development of a Community Action Plan. However, the project may cause

~onflict."~ For example, the neighbouring lssa are unhappy that the Afar are

the focus of the project and are therefore refusing to cooperate with FARIM

Africa. Conflict prevention and resolution is recognised as an important com-

ponent of the project and there are moves to establish innovative and accept-

able means to resolve conflicts between all parties. This is pan of a wider

project involving FARM Africa and SOS Sahel and that is seeking to establish

useful conflict prevention and resolution initiatives at the local level.

Conflict in the Awash River Basin cannot be sustained. In many areas, the

desperate state of many local communities is testimony to the need to for-

mulate new and innovative responses to chronic resource scarcity and per-

vasive insecure rights to land and natural resources for the rural poor.

Difficult, informed and fair decisions regarding land and development need

to be made at the federal and regional levels. Bryden explains:

"The marginal territories of the Horn of Africa tend to be places of

chronic conflict and instability, and although their populations suffer

most from its consequences, the states in which conflict occurs are also

affected. Scarce resources that could be better invested elsewhere are

consumed by violence and the latent potential of the land and its peo-

ple goes untapped."173

Despite this, there is little concerted effort to explore and instigate more
thoughtful and appropriate conflict prevention and resolution measures to
address ongoing conflicts in Ethiopia. Partly this stems from the low priority of
the Awash Basin nationally. Although conflict in the Awash Basin has severe
impacts in the basin and beyond, the conflict is rarely translated to higher level
'water wars: As a result, there are few official attempts to develop effective
methods to resolve conflict in the basin. instead, the attention of national pol-
icy makers and government officials is on regional issues, such as conflict over
the allocation of Nile waters. Nevertheless, as Nicol et al suggest, "it is nor
impossible to envisage larger-scale 'water wars', although the potentially huge
(and futile) cost far outweighs any significant gain from 'capturing' water in
this way."174 This requires recognition by all parties involved, including the
government, when weighing the costs and benefits of further expansion of
commercial agricultural schemes in arid and semi-arid lands.