Water and Communal Conflict: A Review of the Literature

Abstract

Climate change increasingly shapes how groups share—or fight over—water-dependent resources. Synthesizing 235 peer-reviewed studies published between 1980 and 2022, this article clarifies when water scarcity fuels communal conflict and when it sparks cooperation. Rather than treating water scarcity as a purely physical condition, the review conceptualizes it as a socially and politically mediated process that shapes, and is shaped by, access, governance, and inequality. Evidence is concentrated in farmer–herder settings across 30 countries, yet more than half of all work focuses on five African nations and relies on single-case designs. The analysis shows that water scarcity alone rarely drives violence. Instead, outcomes depend on how water and water-dependent resources are accessed, governed, and contested across social and institutional settings. Water governance thus emerges as a central arena of power and social justice, shaping whether environmental stress produces conflict or cooperation. The same shocks foster negotiation over water resources when customary rules remain legitimate and include marginalized users. For practitioners and policymakers, strategies like conflict-sensitive adaptation, fostering institutional pluralism, and implementing early-warning systems that integrate climate forecasts with social indicators may transform water stress into opportunities for collaboration rather than sources of confrontation. This article is categorized under: Human Water > Water Governance Human Water > Methods Water and Life > Conservation, Management, and Awareness.