Urban water conflicts: an analysis of the origins and nature of water-related unrest and conflicts in the urban context

What are the causes of urban water conflicts?

This document is a collection of essays which survey the controversial aspects of the management of water resources in urban areas in view of the increasing urbanisation and privatisation of water services. It addresses and characterises the conflicts that arise within large human settlements due to economic and social implications of access to and use of basic water services. It also presents in-depth case studies from Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Exploring the geneses of the urban water conflicts the essays in the document list the following important causal factors:

quality/extension of drinking water services and their continuity
quality/extension of waste-water collection treatment
urban hydrology problems (storm water control)
impact of large cities upon their environment in particular water resources use and misuse
financing of investments issue
tariff setting and cost recovery
degrees of freedom left to the urban dwellers vis-à-vis service provider

How good is this research?
Assessing the quality of research can be a tricky business. This blog from our editor offers some tools and tips.
Read now

Related content

Document
How Biden Can End Vaccine Apartheid
, / Center for Global Development, USA, 2021
Building on spectacular scientific achievements, the rich world’s vaccine response to the pandemic within its borders has been (with notable exceptions) commendable. But the response of the international community has been mystifyingly myopic and unconscionably delinquent. We’re headed toward global vaccine apartheid.
Document
Impact of COVID-19 on RMG Sector: The False Narrative
Fairooz Subaita / BRAC Institute of Governance and Development, 2021
The ready-made garments (RMG) sector is by far the most important contributor to the economy of the country, amounting to 15 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and employing nearly four million people. There is no denying that the main driving force behind the RMG sector is the vast quantity of workers that it employs.
Document
The New Era of Unconditional Convergence
D. Patel, J. Sandefur, A. Subramanian / Center for Global Development, USA, 2021
The central fact that has motivated the empirics of economic growth—namely unconditional divergence—is no longer true and has not been so for decades. Across a range of data sources, poorer countries have in fact been catching up with richer ones, albeit slowly, since the mid-1990s.
Document
Tracking the Scale and Speed of the World Bank’s Covid Response: April 2021 Update
, , / Center for Global Development, USA, 2021
In 2020 the World Bank announced its intention to provide $104 billion in financing to developing country governments to help them respond to the COVID-19 crisis. We took stock of those efforts seven months ago in a Center for Global Development working paper and accompanying blog post.
Document
Challenges and Prospects of Youth Employment in the Post-COVID Scenario
, , / BRAC Institute of Governance and Development, 2021
Public health measures taken to contain the spread of COVID-19 have caused massive shocks to the global economy and all aspects of human lives. The pandemic is disproportionately affecting the youths, particularly in countries like Bangladesh where youths already struggle in the labour market because of limited experience and skills and with poor quality of education (World Bank, 2019).

Eldis

Urban water conflicts: an analysis of the origins and nature of water-related unrest and conflicts in the urban context