ABSTRACT
This chapter will explore the comparative social, economic and political resourcefulness of selected actors and communities to adjust to water scarcity. In addition it will indicate the socio-political and socio-economic potential and constraints at work in a politicised environment such as the Sa’dah basin, to implement water demand management strategies. While there is evidence of economic (allocative) and technical (productive) water efficiency it will nevertheless become clear that increasing water scarcity has resulted in resource capture and has led to a degree of ecological marginalisation. At the same time, there are examples of adaptive capacity to resist resource capture by powerful actors. While this is encouraging Chapter 6 will indicate that tribal-political change in the Sa’dah basin over the past two decades appears to inhibit community participation and the formation of water user groups to address the challenges posed by groundwater mining. Finally, it will be argued that adaptive capacity is obscured by legal pluralism, a contradiction within Yemen’s water legislation, which seeks to reconcile established belief systems as enshrined in customary and Islamic law with a modern water legislation based on principles of sustainability and equity.
