Session FT 4.39

Multistakeholder in local conflict mitigation

Conveners

• International Committee of the Red Cross
• UNESCO

The mitigation of local conflicts related to water resources can alleviate international ones. Armed conflicts can exacerbate the competition over shared water resources. It is essential to raise the awareness of concerned stakeholders on the importance to address such conflicts and their consequences on the well-being of populations facing armed conflicts and whose livelihoods have been threatened.

 

Lessons learned

 

1. Establish and develop contacts with local institutions and communities thus building baseline knowledge.
   
2. On the basis of the mapping of potential local conflicts between resident and displaced populations establish scenarios leading to plans of action.
   
3. Programmes should not be limited to emergency interventions but come as soon as possible within the scope of a development perspective.
   
4. Effective programming must combine different modes of action such as persuasion, support, substitution  and mobilization of various stakeholders.
   
5. Local partners should be integrated at early stages, appropriate training on the job and coaching are paramount to provide a proper handover and monitoring tools over time

 

Key messages

 

1. Promote an integrated and multi-stakeholder public health approach.
   
2. Enhance a comprehensive targeting to reduce probability of local conflicts.
   
3. Build-up socio-economical, political and technical knowledge of the context.
   
4. Establish a privileged network of key actors in the water and related sectors.
   
5. Use simultaneously the following modes of actions: persuasion, support, facilitation and substitution.
   
6. Adapt the responses to the complexity of the problems.
   
7. Design emergency interventions with a development perspective.
   
8. Privilege long term collaboration.

 

Orientations for action

 

1. Promote an integrated and multi-stakeholder public health approach.
   
2. Use simultaneously the following modes of actions: persuasion, support, facilitation and substitution.
   
3. Design emergency interventions with a development perspective
   

Local Actions presented

 

Integrating emergency and development activities in a conflict area with concomitant natural disaster involving all level of stakeholders. The example of Goma, RDC

International committee of the Red Cross

 

From 1998 until now the dramatic economic situation of the country and the isolation of several major centers including the city of Goma in North Kivu access to safe water was usually limited by the disfunctioning of the REGIDESO water treatment plants and distribution networks, which was commonly related to the bad state of infrastructures, to the absence of stable energy sources , and to the impossibility to acquire on local markets spare parts and water treatment chemicals triggered the response of the ICRC in providing to the REGIDESO ( National Waterboard) a support for water treatment plants in the form of essential spare parts and reagents for the treatment of water such as Aluminium sulphate , hydrated lime and chlorine
In parallel to this support to the existing institutional system the increasing influx of people displaced by the raging war in the Province caused rural exodus due to insecurity incremented the pressure on limited water resources in the periphery of the town. Disputes reached the level of strong confrontation when dwellers of fast growing areas came to fetch water to existing water points and standposts in town. To cope with these problems it was decided to extend the water distibution network to the areas of Birere and Munigi. 7000 meters of galvanized iron pipes of various diameters as well as one 90 m3 reservoir in Birere and one 100 m3 one in Munigi were constructed or installed, serving a population of more than 20000 persons. Community participation through more than 400 workers including plumbers and welders was involved managed to achieve the project ad brought water for the first time since the end of colonisation.Diseases such as cholera and bacillary disentary are now bad memeories.
In the middle of the overall program the eruption of the Nyiaragongo volcano interrupted the acomplishment of the works and created a supplementary stress as well as damages on the system, swift reaction from the community and the REGIDESO thanks to the capitalized confidence built up through the projects permitted a prompt response and quick recovering of the project.
Impact of implemented activity (social, economical, environmental, etc.) (no more than 500 characters).
The impact of the activity in alleviating or eradicating the water problem should be articulated.