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161. Water Wars: Obscuring Opportunities

Author:
Geoffrey D. Dabelko and Karin R. Bencala
Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of International Affairs
Institution:
School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
Abstract:
Speaking at the 2008 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon weighed in on water conflict: The challenge of securing safe and plentiful water for all is one of the most daunting challenges faced by the world today...Too often, where we need water, we find guns instead. Population growth will make the problem worse. So will climate change. As the global economy grows, so will its thirst. Many more conflicts lie just over the horizon.
Topic:
Environment
Political Geography:
United Nations and Switzerland

162. Climate Change and Water Resources: The Challenges Ahead

Author:
Kathleen A. Miller
Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of International Affairs
Institution:
School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
Abstract:
Changes in water resource availability, water quality and the destructive potential of storms and floods will play a central role in determining how climate change will affect human well-being and the functioning of the natural systems on which we depend. The critical role of water may appear obvious given its importance for agricultural productivity, human health and the functioning of ecosystems. It is perhaps less widely understood that water also plays a key role in the functioning of the climate system. In fact, global warming and changes in the water cycle are intricately linked.
Topic:
Environment

163. Healing the Enlightenment Rift: Rationality, Spirituality and Shared Waters

Author:
Aaron T. Wolf
Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of International Affairs
Institution:
School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
Abstract:
Water management, by definition, is conflict management. Water, unlike other scarce, consumable resources, is used to fuel all facets of society, from biologies to economies to aesthetics to spiritual practice. Moreover, it fluctuates wildly in space and time, its management is usually fragmented and it is often subject to vague, arcane and/or contradictory legal principles. As such, there is no such thing as managing water for a single purpose—all water management is multi-objective and based on navigating competing interests. Within a nation, these interests include domestic users, agriculturalists, hydropower generators, recreators and environmentalists. Any two of the interests are regularly at odds, and the complexity of finding mutually acceptable solutions increases exponentially as more stakeholders are involved. Add international boundaries, and the difficulty grows substantially yet again.
Topic:
Health and International Law
Political Geography:
Pakistan, India, and Israel

164. The Forgotten Infrastructure: Safeguarding Freshwater Ecosystems

Author:
Sandra L. Postel
Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of International Affairs
Institution:
School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
Abstract:
The water strategies of the 20th century helped to supply drinking water, food, flood control and electricity to a large portion of the human population. These strategies largely focused on engineering projects to store, extract and control water for human benefit. Indeed, it is hard to fathom today's world of 6.6 billion people and more than $65 trillion in annual economic output without the vast network of dams, reservoirs, pumps, canals and other water infrastructure now in place. These projects, however, have often failed to distribute benefits equitably and have resulted in the degradation, or outright destruction, of natural freshwater ecosystems that in their healthy state provide valuable goods and services to society.
Topic:
Environment
Political Geography:
Europe and South Africa

165. The Potential and Promise of Water Pricing

Author:
Collins A. Ayoo and Theodore M. Horbulyk
Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of International Affairs
Institution:
School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
Abstract:
The claim is often made that more effective use of pricing and various water charges can remedy or completely solve problems of water scarcity, shortage or overuse. A common view is that users pay too little for water and, as a result, they use too much. The public or private agencies that supply water to users could levy higher prices willingly, or the regulatory agencies that manage and oversee water resources could enforce higher rates. Implementing these approaches in developing countries may present special challenges due to the high costs involved or due to inadequate resources to assign, monitor and enforce diverse rights to water use. However, are there reasons that other countries, not so constrained, have not implemented effective water pricing strategies? Is this pricing prescription really so straightforward?
Political Geography:
Canada

166. Water and Gender: The Unexpected Connection That Really Matters

Author:
Vivienne Bennett, Sonia Davila-Poblete, and Maria Nieves Rico
Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of International Affairs
Institution:
School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
Abstract:
Since the mid-1990s, worldwide focus on water scarcity has exploded. Attention has moved beyond the technical dimensions of water provision to the political and social contexts in which water management occurs. In many places, especially where water is scarce, control over water confers power. The political analysis of water is then an analysis of power relations. As social scientists have entered the water world, and more and more case studies are carried out in Latin America, Africa and Asia, another facet of the politics of water that has been brought to light is gender differentiation in water usage and water management. In our 2005 book, Opposing Currents: The Politics of Water and Gender in Latin America, we provided a framework for understanding the connection between water and gender and a review of the development of global water policy and gender policy since the early 1990s, using case studies from six Latin American countries to highlight the role of women in water management. We found that substantial change is still needed to overcome pernicious gender bias and imbalances that distort water management and lead to ineffective planning in the water sector.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
Africa, Asia, and Latin America

167. From Universal Prescriptions to Living Rights: Local and Indigenous Water Rights Confront Public-Private Partnerships in the Andes

Author:
Rutgerd Boelens
Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of International Affairs
Institution:
School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
Abstract:
With growing water scarcity and conflicts in many regions of the world, water rights and property relations have become a pivotal issue in water legislation efforts, policy debates and rural development programs. Still, there appears to be an enormous lack of understanding of what these water rights and property relations are in actual practice. For the most part, policymakers, intervening agencies and rural development institutions typically approach water rights as globally applicable, entitlement recipes. Water rights are portrayed as universally defined procedures that prescribe rational water-use claims and authorize corresponding user licenses. For peasant communities and indigenous water user organizations in the Andean region—as with many parts of the world—the right to water has many components that go beyond universal reasoning and policies. Water rights involve access to resources, context-defined privileges and agreements on system operations. Water rights also include decision making powers over control, issues of belonging (i.e., hydraulic identities —water's role in a particular culture) and agreements that closely intertwine the normative, infrastructural and organizational domains of water control. All these components are created, reconfirmed and then re-created in location-specific historical processes within particular cultural and political contexts.

168. Challenges and Realities of Water Management of Megacities: The Case of Mexico City Metropolitan Area

Author:
Cecilia Tortajada
Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of International Affairs
Institution:
School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
Abstract:
Megacities—characterized as metropolitan areas of 10 million or more inhabitants—have become an important focus in terms of water provisions, sanitation services and the related impact of urban development on natural resources. While basic needs of residents of smaller cities are very similar, the emphasis placed on mega cities lies in the fact that these massive urban conglomerates have grown to almost unmanageable dimensions. This, in turn, has made water provision and sanitation services to the entire population a bleak, if not unachievable, task. In most megacities of the developing world, clean water is both scarce and expensive to produce. Large sectors of the population in such densely populated urban areas do not have access to potable water, and even larger sectors of the population do not have access to sanitation. Non-revenue water—water that is produced and enters the distribution system but that is never billed to consumers because it is lost due to leakages or illegal connections—is up to 30 to 40 percent. Infrastructure is either scarce, becoming complex or deteriorating. In addition, water supplies are largely underpriced and necessary investments are estimated to reach billions of dollars. However, as complex as these matters are, the real challenges in terms of water provision point in another direction. The main problem in urban concentrations, which is further heightened in megacities, is the lack of appropriate management, adequate institutions and sustainable planning to address these challenges beyond short-term approaches.
Topic:
Water
Political Geography:
Mexico

169. The Role of Epistemic Communities in Offering New Cooperation Frameworks in the Euphrates-Tigris Rivers System

Author:
Aysegul Kibaroglu
Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of International Affairs
Institution:
School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
Abstract:
The Euphrates-Tigris region has faced significant political changes since the late 1990s. These changes can be attributed to improvements in bilateral relations, mainly in the security domain, between two of its major riparians, Turkey and Syria. In the meantime, another major riparian, Iraq, has lived through devastating war and occupation, which has had implications for regional water issues. These changes have brought new actors, involved or interested in the hydropolitics of the two-river basin, to the region.
Topic:
Security
Political Geography:
Iraq, Turkey, and Syria

170. Mission Not Yet Accomplished: Managing Water Resources in the Nile River Basin

Author:
Ashok Swain
Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of International Affairs
Institution:
School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
Abstract:
River runoff is widely accepted as one of the most important sources of avaiable fresh water for human consumption. Worldwide, there are 263 major river systems that cross national boundaries and are responsible for 85 percent of the earth's runoff. When two or more countries are dependent on the same river system, upstream withdrawal, pollution or management can lead not only to upstream-downstream conflict but also to cooperation. In recent years, policymaking and research communities have been engaged in exploring various means to transform conflict into riparian cooperation in these international river basins. The following analysis explores this notion through a closer look at the Nile River, which has long been considered the longest international river in the world. Many analysts have considered that the Nile River has a high potential to induce interstate conflict. At least for the greater part of the 20th century, the Nile River has been the source of political tension among three of its major riparian countries—Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia. In the face of potential armed conflict and regional instability, the Nile basin countries, in cooperation with the international community, have recently begun working for basin-wide cooperative solutions. The main aim of this paper is to suggest policy measures that riparian countries, as well as the international community, might be in a position to adopt, which could further reduce tension over scarce water resources and facilitating effective and lasting cooperation in the Nile basin. It is crucial not only for the region, but also for global peace and development, to achieve success in bringing the countries together in the basin for efficient benefit sharing of resources of this important river.
Topic:
Population
Political Geography:
Central Asia, Ethiopia, and Egypt