Introduction
Water Crisis - A Global Picture
Water is a basic human necessity and a vital natural resource for all
aspects of human life and health, environmental survival, economic
development, good quality of life, social stability and most importantly
in this context cultural preserve and cultural development. Lack of
freshwater was identified as being one of the major challenges and
problems facing humanity in this new century. 11 000 children die every
day because they don't have what we take for granted - water. Globally,
1.4 billion people lack secure access of safe drinking water, causing 7
millions of death yearly. . Fast growing problems of water inevitably lead
to disaster. Water is not however a source of life but also a source of
conflict among and between different communities in many parts of the
world, particularly in dry climate areas.
Somalia - the
Case Study Area
Somalia is by means
an exception in the above situation. There are substantial challenges in
the country including water scarcity. Located in a very advantageous
region bordering both the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, Somalia (see
Figure 1) geographically lies in the Horn of Africa, adjacent to the
Arabian Peninsula. Despite being politically disintegrated, Somalia has
ethnically and culturally homogenous society. In 1992, severe consequent
droughts combined with bloody civil war resulted the largest UN
humanitarian efforts and peacekeeping operations in history.
The paper presents a
brief about water in relation to culture and social conflict taking
Somalia as a case study. Prior to that, very short overviews of country's
water availability and religion are given as a base for further discussion
and analysis. The paper may give some very brief understandings about the
causes of country's ongoing crisis, particularly the role of water
resources in the current civil unrest.
Water Availability in Somalia
In Somalia, water
availability is naturally a climatic issue. Being a primary factor in much
of Somali life for the large nomadic population, the climate forms the
life system in the country. Having extremely low rainfall (250 mm per year
on average) and much higher potential evaporation (over 2000 mm per year),
the country is characterized as water-scarce. Much of the country has arid
or semi-arid climate due to the extremely low and variable rainfall, which
is often unreliable. In comparison with the north, the southern part of
Somalia between the two rivers, the Juba and Shabelle, is relatively well
watered (as shown in Figure 2) and constitutes the richest arable zone in
the whole Somali populated areas in the Horn of Africa.
Figure 1. Map of Somalia
Figure 2. Rainfall in Somalia
Drought with scaring
effects and major impacts on people's life is another feature of country's
physical environment. Severe droughts interrupted by devastating floods
occur frequently resulting large size starvation and killing thousands of
people and animals. Any sign of drought are received with dread and worry.
Praying and sacrificing to Allah (God) for rain is not therefore only
common but also religious, and the onset of the rains is often viewed as
the single most important event of the year. In Somalia, rain has
therefore moral values, making water as precious as gold.
Islam - Country's
Religion
Somalia is very rich
in terms of cultural values inherited from Islam through forefathers.
Islam, country's religion, was probably brought to Somalia by early
followers of the Prophet Mohamed. Except some very minor elements,
people's culture is largely influenced and dominated by Islam. The basic
teaching of Islam is the Holy Quran.
Water in Islam
Being a profound
importance in Islam, water is considered a blessing and gift from Allah
that gives and sustains life, and more importantly in this context
purifies humankind and the Earth. No life on the Earth can exist without
water. In the Holy Quran, there are almost 500 verses, out of the 6666,
discussing in one way or the other about the water and its role in the
present world as well as the hereafter. Among other verses, water reached
its highest level of importance when Allah say "We made from water every
living things". According to the Holy Quran, water gives life to the Earth
after its death, and Paradise is described as gardens beneath which rivers
flow.
Water - A Resource with Cultural Value
The role of water in
Islamic cultural performance is significant. In Islam, water has a very
strong cultural value. Muslims enjoy special importance for use of water
in ablution (wudu). To establish a prayer and to purify one's self, one
should have to wash his or her body. Ablution needs water, and the benefit
of daily prayers has been itself described by Prophet Mohamed (pbuh) as
the cleansing action. As cleanness is part of the faith, within Islamic
faith one has to use water to purify him or herself from human wastes as
well as after having nightmare or sexual intercourse with his or her
legitimate partner.
In the rural areas,
where people suffer from water scarcity, it sometimes happen that sharing
water among community members creates solidarity and unity, keeping in
mind that this is what Islamic culture encourage. As limited available
amount of water is often used for basic human purposes, water scarcity is
a major obstacle to cultural development in many areas of Somalia.
In Somali's
traditional culture, water is also used to cure diseases.
Water - A Source of Conflict
Despite of that,
water is one of the main traditional sources of social conflict in Somali
society because of its scarcity. In general, it has been observed that
conflict, poverty, injustice and environmental disaster are four
interrelated causes of civil unrest. Natural scarcity of water, regarded
as environmental disaster, lead to competition and conflict within the
community.
Neither clanism
(tribalism) nor hostility within the Somali society is the cause of the
current conflict. The major underlying driving force is the human survival
and search for life, in other word escape from poverty. Using clanism as
tool to achieve its ultimate objectives of getting resources necessary for
sustaining life and human security, poverty together with injustice with
the society, as a pure result of resource scarcity, is the major cause of
the conflict. It is natural that the communities compete or even fight
over scarce resources such as water, particularly during the period when
the wells and rivers are running dry.
Traditionally,
conflicts over water erupt in two different forms in Somalia. (1) When
local supplies are diminishing particularly during dry periods of the year
or droughts. During this period nomadic societies travel for water and
grassland. (2) When new group of consumers comes to settle to a totally
new area which is not their own original. In this case, the two
communities, the original and the new, with their different perceptions of
the life, conflict over the use of the water resources.
Water availability
has to do with life and that is why people immigrate from their home
origins to distant areas with more water resources. In view of the past
and the present, this is evident in southern Somalia, where struggle for
land with water resources could be seen as the major underlying driving
force behind the current civil war. Because of searching for life rather
than previous political hostility within this homogenous society, this
struggle seems to lie at the heart of the ongoing crisis. The process of
search for better life eventually forms the political ideology. This shows
however that water is a political issue, which, like the religion and
ideology, has the power to move millions of people from their original
homelands. It also has a strong cultural power to mediate conflicting
parties in the sense that sharing of scarce resources could lead to unity
and more sympathy to each other.
Conclusion
The paper briefly
presented water from cultural and conflict perspectives in Somalia. In any
society, culture should have to have the ability to resolve existing and
potential conflicts that jeopardize the existence and functionality of the
society. Some cultures able to sort out social conflicts but not political
ones. This is the case of the Horn of African societies.
Considered a
blessing and gift from Allah, water has a significant cultural importance
and value in Islam, and also plays a central role in Islamic culture. In
the Holy Quran, Islam recognized water as the source of all life and a
critical resource.
Being a source of
life, water is scarce in Somalia and has major impacts on the life of the
people as well as on the environment. Water plays a vital role in the
existence and the fragile system of life of communities in Somali. Due to
resource scarcity and unregulated resource use, communities in Somalia
compete and fight over water resources. Water as an indispensable natural
resource for nomadic communities in rural areas in Somalia forms not only
the life system but also socio-political thinking in the society. For this
reason, water has a powerful role in people's life and important position
in the socio-economic and political spheres.
However, it is
important to use water for making peace instead of being the cause of
social conflict, and it can also be proper tool for development the local
culture.
