Drought in displacement: inclusive responses to urban drought in Zambia and Jordan

Nearly 60% of people displaced from their homes are living in countries that are most vulnerable to climate change. Yet, attention remains focused on climate-related disasters triggering displacement, and there is comparatively less recognition of how forced migrants are protected from and resilient to climate risks in climate-vulnerable countries that host them.

Drought is one such risk. Water scarcity impacts around 40% of the world’s population and some 700 million people are considered at risk of displacement because of droughts.

But while there is increasing discussion about how drought prompts migration, there is comparatively less research and policy focus on the impacts of droughts in cities that host displaced populations alongside local communities.

Previous IIED research has explored how humanitarian responses to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) provision, designed for camps, can be innovated for cities that host significant numbers of refugee populations and are water insecure, such as Mafraq in Jordan. This project builds on that work by highlighting the importance of responses to urban drought that are inclusive of displaced people.

Objectives

Through research and engagement with displaced communities in Mafraq City in Jordan and Lusaka in Zambia, as well as utilities, municipal authorities and relevant government departments, this project aims to inform local urban drought policy and planning processes and highlight the importance of including displaced communities’ water priorities.

Jordan and Zambia are increasingly experiencing more prolonged and more frequent droughts, and both host urban displaced populations.

This work will advance arguments beyond the current focus on migration being driven by drought, and will outline the importance of a research and policy agenda that recognises the relationship between drought and displacement in cities where displaced people settle. This is particularly important in contexts where access to water resources is increasingly politicised, which impacts on the capacity of displaced people to claim their right to water.

The voices of displaced communities and their water priorities will be amplified and displaced communities will be included in discussions about urban drought response plans. This will lead to agreed ways forward for equitable water access alongside utility, municipal and government stakeholders.

What is IIED doing?

In each country, the project will focus on one urban neighbourhood: Dahiyyat Al-Malik Abdullah (Al-Dahiyyah) in Mafraq City, and the informal settlement of Mazyopa in Lusaka.

Both neighbourhoods fall out of their respective cities’ administrative and zoning plans; Al-Dahiyyah is classified as ‘unorganised’ and Mazyopa as ‘non-regularised and illegal’, but both are densely populated and host significant displaced populations (as high as 42% in Al-Dahiyyah). Both are also experiencing urban drought.

Alongside the People’s Process on Housing and Poverty in Zambia (PPHPZ) and the University of Zambia (UNZA) in Lusaka, and with UN-Habitat Jordan in Mafraq, the partners will:

• Generate evidence using participatory and community methods to map existing WASH infrastructure and community priorities
• Host community-municipal dialogues to share findings with impacted communities, and bring them into dialogue with municipal actors, and
• Support stakeholders in understanding everyday challenges around accessing the right to water and strengthening the processes for making water claims by ensuring they are inclusive and accessible to all residents.