Water and poverty linkages: case studies from Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Project report 1

Abstract

The case studies reported here highlight important concepts and information on the linkages between water and poverty that may not be available elsewhere. The overall objective of the studies is to draw generic lessons and identify interventions that can help policy makers, planners and other stakeholders to develop actions that are effective in water resources management for the poor. All case studies focus on poor in South Asia, but all with differing geographic contexts or thematic focci. The first two papers are based on field surveys supplemented by literature reviews. The first focusses on the impact of water on poverty in a mountainous region in Nepal, while the second focusses on the impact of drought on water availability, and hence poverty, in a district in Pakistan's Baluchistan province. The final two papers both took Sri Lanka as their area of study. The first Sri Lanka paper explores the linkages between water, health and poverty and presents a conceptual framework which was used to analyze the results of previous studies. Sri Lanka's dry zone is the geographic focus of the second paper, which focusses primarily on the linkages between irrigation and poverty.