Local Water Conflict and Cooperation: Gaps in the Legal and Administrative Water Governance Framework in Bolivia, Mali, Nicaragua, Vietnam, and Zambia

In 2007 the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) launched the research programme Competing for Water: Understanding conflict and cooperation in local water governance”. Along with partners in five developing countries (Bolivia, Mali, Nicaragua, Vietnam, and Zambia), the programme aims to contribute to “sustainable local water governance in support of the rural poor and otherwise disadvantaged groups in developing countries by improving the knowledge among researchers and practitioners of the nature, extent, and intensity of local water conflict and cooperation and their social, economic, and political impacts, and how this may change with increased competition for water” (DIIS, 2007). The country research teams developed an overview of the national water governance frameworks at an early stage of the Competing for Water programme period (Bustamante and Cossio, 2007; Djiré, et al., 2007; Gómez, et al., 2007; Nguyen, 2007; Mweemba, C.E., 2007). The purpose of these overviews was to position the research findings on the extent and nature of local-level water-related conflict and cooperation in the context of on-going efforts to
improve the policy, legal, and administrative water governance framework in the five countries, and discuss their implications. The present paper synthesizes possible ‘blind spots’ in the national policy, legal, or administrative water governance frameworks with reference to the identified types of water-related conflictive and cooperative situations identified during the inventories.