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

More documents

Recommendations

Info

1.1 Will the Next Wars Be Fought Over Water? Bob Sandford EPCOR Chair, Canadian Partnership Initiative, United Nations ‘Water for Life’ Decade, Canada
Introduction Since the serious state of the global freshwater situation became alarmingly apparent in the 1990s, there has been much debate in academic circles and in the popular media about whether global supply pressures will reach a tipping point that will result in a greater number of wars being fought over regional water security. Following Oregon State University’s Professor Aaron Wolf’s 1999 pronouncement that since the 1940s, cooperation over water has prevailed two to one over conflict (Wolf, 1999), it has become conventional wisdom in policy circles that the prospect of war over water remains distinctly less likely than it might be for other resources such as oil. “People are willing to do horrible things to one another,” Wolf observed, “[w]hat they seem not willing to do is turn off each other’s water” (Prud’homme, 2011: 199). While observers such as Aaron Wolf and others (e.g. Dinar, 2004) have clearly demonstrated that collaboration over regional water issues has typically been a unifying experience as opposed to a divisive force in matters of regional political stability, rapidly growing human populations in combination with changing hydrological circumstances in many parts of the world are likely to exacerbate existing tensions over water security and create new sources of potential conflict in regions that are relatively stable today. Though it is not possible to predict the future, emerging hydrological trends suggest that tensions and conflicts over water of the kind that have typically occurred in the past will soon represent only one of many emerging explosive hydro-climatic issues that are likely to bring sovereign nations into internal and external discord that could erupt in violent conflict or warfare. 1. Civilizations and Water: To Be Human is to Be Hydraulic As Steven Solomon observed in Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power and Civilization (Solomon 2010), the long record of the rise and fall of hydraulic societies throughout history demonstrates that an abundance of water is necessary for the development of a strong, independent sovereign state. It does not, however, by any means assure it. Ours, Solomon points out, has become the greatest of all hydraulic civilizations. By the year 2000, humans had constructed some 45,000 large dams that in combination with the hundreds of thousands of smaller structures, quadrupled water storage for human purposes in only 40 years. Depending upon the time of the year, three to six times the water that exists at any given time in all the world’s rivers is now stored behind giant dams. As Solomon points out, however, no one examined or was able to predict the cumulative, global-scale effects that uncoordinated dam building, irrigation diversions and the related impacts of deforestation would have on the timing and extent of water availability and water quality. It has now become clear that human activity has begun to affect the earth’s hydrology. Our presence and our actions and their consequences have altered the very composition of the atmosphere in which precipitation forms and from which rain falls. Humans have altered how much land cover exists to capture, store, purify and release water from the sky. Human behaviour is affecting rain and snowfall patterns, how much water flows in rivers, and whether the rivers even make it to the sea. Add to this the serious groundwater overdraft, accelerating soil loss in many of the world’s most important food production areas, the widespread contamination of water, and rapidly expanding desertification globally, and the causes and dimensions of the global water crisis suddenly become apparent. Thus, it becomes apparent that the same ecosystem depletions and limitations that contributed to the downfall of previous empires all over the world are now occurring on a global scale (Solomon, 2010). The question that needs to be asked is whether the widespread appearance of these depletions and limitations will lead to more wars, and whether existing and emerging mechanisms of diplomacy and collaboration can reduce this risk for these conflicts. 2. A Water War Defined Of course, much depends upon how a water war is defined. Classic water wars are characterized, in the public imagination at least, as pitched battles over limited surface water supplies. This, however, is a simplification of the wide range of ways in which conflict can emerge from differences of opinion over water supply. The Pacific Institute’s Peter Gleick has identified a broad range of conflict categories, which include: the control of water resources at their source; preventing or ensuring Will the Next Wars Be Fought Over Water? Part 1 11
Page 1: The Global Water Crisis: Addressing
Page 4 and 5: About the InterAction Council Estab
Page 6 and 7: Acknowledgements
Page 8: Foreword
Page 11 and 12: The undeniable seriousness of the g
Page 13: Foreword xiii
Page 16 and 17: The Global Water Crisis: Framing th
Page 18 and 19: Ethical considerations also need to
Page 20 and 21: 3. Support Ratification of the UN W
Page 23: 1 Water and Global Security
Page 27 and 28: Jury and Vaux project that the numb
Page 29 and 30: 5. The Potential for Conflict and t
Page 31 and 32: References Cullen, H., 2010. The We
Page 33 and 34: Introduction Water is an integral p
Page 35 and 36: shortage Statewide Regional Local N
Page 37 and 38: summer months. To alleviate the con
Page 39 and 40: References Department of Energy, 20
Page 41 and 42: Introduction Water, economic and en
Page 43 and 44: Economic analyses of ecosystem good
Page 45 and 46: • Managing for sustainability. De
Page 47 and 48: Richter, B.D., M.M. Davis, C. Apse
Page 49 and 50: Introduction Water is an essential
Page 51 and 52: early post-Cold War period, from a
Page 53 and 54: 2.4. Water, conflicts, and institut
Page 55 and 56: Renaud et al. (2011) proposed a pre
Page 57 and 58: Carius, A., D. Tänzler and A. Maas
Page 59 and 60: Turton, A.R., 2004. “The Evolutio
Page 61 and 62: Introduction In the West Asia and N
Page 63 and 64: 2. Water in the WANA Region 2.1. De
Page 65 and 66: Following on this, during a persona
Page 67 and 68: Below are some suggestions for how
Page 69 and 70: plants through evapo-transpiration)
Page 71 and 72: WANA Forum, 2010b. Toward Supra-nat
Page 73 and 74: Introduction “The trouble with wa
Page 75 and 76:
• Upgrading current water infrast
Page 77 and 78:
60,000 ventilation improved pit lat
Page 79 and 80:
5. The Bottom Line It is widely ack
Page 81:
The Blue Economy: Risks and Opportu
Page 84 and 85:
2.1 A Human Development Approach to
Page 86 and 87:
apparatus assists nation-states in
Page 88 and 89:
By ensuring that the international
Page 90 and 91:
2.2 Water and Health Security Ganes
Page 92 and 93:
1.1. Human-induced Pollutants Domes
Page 94 and 95:
Table.1. Water pollutants and human
Page 96 and 97:
In many urban and semi-urban areas,
Page 98 and 99:
2.3 Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and
Page 100 and 101:
1. The Impacts of Poor Water, Sanit
Page 102 and 103:
77 64 2015 MDG target Coverage (%)
Page 104 and 105:
3. The Neglect of the WASH Sector a
Page 106 and 107:
References Checkley, W., G. Buckley
Page 108 and 109:
2.4 Water, Food and the Development
Page 110 and 111:
2. Keeping Pace with Change Since t
Page 112 and 113:
one and has yet to attain widesprea
Page 114 and 115:
2.5 Investing in Women’s Particip
Page 116 and 117:
of agriculture resulting mainly fro
Page 118 and 119:
their substantial contribution is p
Page 120 and 121:
Although cultural constraints still
Page 122 and 123:
UNEP, 2009. Water Security and Ecos
Page 124 and 125:
2.6 Water Governance Reform in Afgh
Page 126 and 127:
1.2. The Extreme risk of food secur
Page 128 and 129:
Furthermore, within each basin, lan
Page 130 and 131:
3.2. Early doubts vis-à-vis progre
Page 132 and 133:
transboundary water management conc
Page 135 and 136:
3 Will the Right to Water Alleviate
Page 137 and 138:
Introduction A growing number of ar
Page 139 and 140:
2. Ethical Perspectives on State Ob
Page 141 and 142:
References Barlow, Maude, 2007. Blu
Page 143 and 144:
Introduction It is widely recognize
Page 145 and 146:
Later in 2010, the UN Human Rights
Page 147 and 148:
3.2. Legislative Recognition Dozens
Page 149 and 150:
Mandela, M., 2002. No Water, No Fut
Page 151 and 152:
Introduction South Africans have a
Page 153 and 154:
water per person per day. The appli
Page 155 and 156:
References Bluemel, E. B., 2004.
Page 157 and 158:
Introduction Water conflicts are nu
Page 159 and 160:
4. Water Policies and Their Impact
Page 161 and 162:
y its interconnection to encompass
Page 163 and 164:
Access to Water and Conflict: An In
Page 166 and 167:
Response from the InterAction Counc
Page 168 and 169:
As former U.S. President Mr. Bill C
Page 170 and 171:
The InterAction Council Québec Dec
Page 172:
List of Participants
Page 175 and 176:
List of Participants: 29 th Annual
show all

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

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?