This paper investigates the extent to which entrenched interests of stakeholder groups both maintain water use practice, and may be confronted. The focus is on the agricultural sectors of Yemen and Jordan, where water resource policymakers face resistance in their attempts to reduce water use to environmentally sustainable levels through implementation of water demand management (WDM) activities. Some farmers in both countries that have invested in irrigated production of high-value crops (such as qat and bananas) benefit from a political economy that encourages increased rather than reduced water consumption. The resultant over-exploitation of water resources affects groups in unequal measures. Stakeholder analysis demonstrates that the more ‘powerful’ groups (chiefly the large landowners and the political elites, as well as the ministries of irrigation over which they exert influence) are generally opposed to reform in water use, while the proponents of WDM (e.g. water resource managers, environmental ministries and NGOs, and the international donor community) are found to have minimal influence over water use policy and decisionmaking. Efforts and ideas attempted by this latter group to challenge the status quo are classified here as either (a) influencing or (b) challenging the power asymmetry, and the merits and limits of both approaches are discussed. The interpretation of evidence suggests current practice is likely to endure, but may be more effectively challenged if a long-term approach is taken with an awareness of opportunities generated by windows of opportunity and the participation of ‘overlap groups’.

中文翻译：

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也门和约旦的用水需求管理：解决权力和利益问题

本文调查了利益相关者群体的既得利益在多大程度上维持用水实践，以及可能面临的问题。重点是也门和约旦的农业部门，在这些部门，水资源政策制定者在通过实施用水需求管理 (WDM) 活动将用水量减少到环境可持续水平的尝试中面临阻力。两国一些投资于灌溉生产高价值作物（如卡特和香蕉）的农民受益于鼓励增加而不是减少用水量的政治经济。由此产生的对水资源的过度开发以不平等的方式影响了群体。利益相关者分析表明，更“强大”的群体（主要是大地主和政治精英，以及他们施加影响的灌溉部）普遍反对用水改革，而 WDM 的支持者（例如水资源管理者、环境部委和非政府组织，以及国际捐助界）的影响微乎其微过度用水政策和决策。后一组试图挑战现状的努力和想法在这里分为 (a) 影响或 (b) 挑战权力不对称，并讨论了这两种方法的优点和局限性。对证据的解释表明，当前的做法可能会持续下去，但如果采取长期方法并意识到机会之窗和“重叠群体”的参与所产生的机会，则可能会受到更有效的挑战。