The Impact of Water Conflicts on Pastoral Livelihoods

The report examines how competition for limited water resources in Wajir District, Kenya, leads to violent conflicts that undermine pastoral livelihoods. It finds that such conflicts divert critical time and labor away from livestock management and basic services, resulting in reduced access to food, education, and healthcare. The study highlights the failure of top-down development policies and recommends harmonizing traditional and modern resource management systems to reduce insecurity.

• Water availability is the primary determinant of pastoral success in arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs), with over-concentration of people and livestock around limited water sources during dry seasons leading to competition and conflict.
• Water-related conflicts have severe negative impacts on household capabilities, specifically reducing access to food (69%), trade (63%), education (61%), and health care services (59%).
• Conflicts significantly disrupt education and health services; 86% of students and teachers cannot attend school due to insecurity, and 99% of respondents report that insecurity and water scarcity lead to the closure of health facilities.
• The management of conflicts consumes an excessive amount of time and labor, with negotiations taking an average of five weeks and fighting taking another five weeks, totaling approximately 10 weeks of lost productivity.
• Insecurity restricts the mobility essential for pastoralism, forcing 58% of people to migrate livestock to neighboring boreholes and causing 99% of boreholes to close when fights break out.
• Pastoral livelihoods are further eroded by the loss of livestock through raids (affecting 66% of respondents) and the inability to access profitable markets, with 89% of people confined to low-income activities due to insecurity.
• Historical government development policies in Kenya's ASALs failed because they were based on misconceptions of pastoralists as 'primitive' and promoted sedentary production models that were ecologically unsuitable.

APA

Omosa, E. K. (2005). The Impact of Water Conflicts on Pastoral Livelihoods. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/security_pastoral_water_impacts.pdf

Chicago

Omosa, Eileen K. The Impact of Water Conflicts on Pastoral Livelihoods. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2005. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/security_pastoral_water_impacts.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Omosa |first1=Eileen K. |title=The Impact of Water Conflicts on Pastoral Livelihoods |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=August 2005 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/security_pastoral_water_impacts.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{omosa2005impact, author = {Omosa, Eileen K.}, title = {{The Impact of Water Conflicts on Pastoral Livelihoods}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2005}, month = aug, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/security_pastoral_water_impacts.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }