The Global Water Crisis: Addressing an Urgent Security - Unu-inweh ...

esources, causing degradation, which in turn exacerbates their vulnerability through the slow destruction of the resource
base upon which they depend. To further complicate the matter, all of these issues are now compounded by the uncertainty
that climate change brings. It will be a significant challenge for countries to balance these growing demands while ensuring
the development and well-being of their people.
3.1. Sustainability
The environmental consequences of agricultural water use over the past decades are apparent in the ecological damage
seen across the world. Sustainability issues have been raised over issues such as, among others: the overuse of groundwater;
the ecological and social damage caused by dams; the loss of habitat and biodiversity around wetlands used for fishing
and agriculture; and, pollution. Despite this, water infrastructure development is still a priority in many regions of the
world, particularly in Africa where there is still a need to invest in dam construction and other water infrastructure to
boost economic development. There is increasing awareness of the need for change around the world. For example, in an
announcement on its new water strategy, China recently pledged to protect water resources and use it more sustainably,
after over five decades of water infrastructure development resulting in the construction of 86,000 reservoirs, 4 million
wells, and the development of 50 million hectares of irrigated land (Yu, 2011). This shift in policy reflects acknowledgment
of the toll that has been taken on the environment, as well as acknowledgement of the management challenge of coping
with pollution, degradation and other environmental consequences from unsustainable practices of water use.
It is often the poorest people who have the greatest dependency on ecosystem services, with their livelihoods intrinsically
linked to the environment. This means that the poorest people are also the most vulnerable to changes in the environment,
and with the anticipated effects of climate change, this will have serious impacts. Climate change affects the reliability of
water, and from the perspective of a farmer, variable rainfall can mean the difference between well-being and poverty. A
recent article in the journal Nature cites studies that show that recent catastrophic rainfall events, such as those witnessed
in Brazil, Australia and Sri Lanka, demonstrate that climate change and temperature variation can be linked to extreme
weather incidences (Schiermeier, 2011). The implications of climate change on poor farming communities is far greater
because of the weak asset base of rural communities and the precariousness of agricultural livelihoods.
3.2. Equity and poverty
Three-quarters of the poorest people on the planet, or about 880 million people, live in rural areas and depend on
agriculture for their livelihoods. The rural poor face many constraints to productivity because of a lack of assets and access
to resources that include land, capital and access to markets; however, despite these already overwhelming constraints,
water can be a strong determinant to livelihood security. In 2006, the Human Development Report focused on water
scarcity and raised the point that “[water] scarcity at the heart of the global water crisis is rooted in power, poverty and
inequality, not in physical availability” (UNDP, 2006). The report draws attention to the issues around the access, control
and ownership of water resources and the implications of weak institutions that are susceptible to coercion by the powerful
over the poor. Access and control of water is determined by a complex system of rules, organizations and processes
that are both formal and informal, that in reality reflect the political economy of resource distribution. Customary or
traditional law often characterizes the way water is shared in rural communities, and the push to formalize governance
of water as a way to address and improve efficiency has disadvantaged poor and marginalized communities who face
issues of under-representation or poor agency. The governance of water is a sensitive issue, not only because of the links
that water has with almost all other sectors of the economy, but also because of the nature of the resource itself, which
can be categorized as public, private or common property. The justification for demand management through supplyside
policies or increasingly popular market-based approaches, such as privatization and water pricing, may help overall
efficiency and may help to recover the costs of managing water, but such policies are not always pro-poor. For instance,
there can be an economic motivation for such policies that favours the production of food or agricultural products for
export rather than for small producers.
In addition to giving consideration to the rural poor on issues of equity, equal consideration must also be given to the
role of women. Women contribute over 60% of agricultural labour, yet their productive contribution is not matched
by equal opportunities to participate in decision-making processes in water management. This point is often raised;
however, the task of raising the skills, capacities and voice of women in water management has been a long and difficult
Water, Food and the Development Challenge
Part 2
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