ABSTRACT
In addition this chapter will explain the extent to which Islamic and tribalcustomary laws, pertaining to the allocation and management of the Sa’dah basin’s scarce surface water, define the relative power of one actor over the environment of another. In this context it will be demonstrated that extensification of groundwater irrigated agriculture was, until a crucial arbitration in 1972, impossible since a) most land was communally owned and managed and b) extensification was blocked by the power and control exercised by down-stream owners of runoff rights. The solution to the impasse mediated by a religious scholar in 1972, which consequently altered the control and balance of power with regard to land and water resources in the Sa’dah basin will be explained. The chapter will then introduce the area’s influential actors. Their quest to ‘capture’ and control the basin’s natural resources will be outlined.
