6GEO3 Unit 3 Contested Planet

Topic 2 Water Conflicts

 What is this topic
about?
• Water Conflicts is the
second of the
‘resources’ topics
• It examines the range of
conflicts associated with
the supply and demand
patterns of the
fundamental resource of
water.
• Water supplies and
quality vary globally,
and actual and potential
conflicts arise from the
gap between growing
demands and Mega technological fixes for mega problems
diminishing supplies. (Hoover Dam, USA) versus Low tech
• There are also growing solutions (Taanka storage of India)
pressures resulting from
climate change
 CONTENTS
1.The geography of water supply
2. The risks of water insecurity
3. Water conflicts and the future

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 2. The risks of water
insecurity
• What are the potential implications of an increasingly ‘water
insecure’ world?
Water conflicts
Water supply Where demand exceeds
problems supply and no effective
Increasing water management operates, then
shortages may be more there will be conflicts
important than energy between the various players
shortages- because Water geopolitics
involved
there is no alternative! The conflicts between nation
states, despite the
international agreement
called the Helsinki Rules
designed to create more
equitable use of water
extending across boundaries

Water transfers
Of this precious resource by
either diverting the actual river,
or using canals . Long carried
out at a small scale but
increasingly over larger
distances, and even
transboundary
 1.The geography of water supply and
demand Climate
•Climatic zones are critical in determining water
•River systems availability
transport this •Equatorial / tropical areas have higher rainfall
water, often at than temperate / arctic areas.
continental scale. •High altitude areas have snowpack water Physical
•Flows increase reserves released in late spring. influences
downstream as •Monsoon areas have one main peak, equatorial
tributaries enter. on water supply
areas two peaks.
•Seasonal • Some tropical areas experience recurring and scarcity
changes in drought
temperature can
create distinctive
river regimes.
•The relationship
between water
inputs and
outputs is water
balance

97.2%
Geology
•Surface drainage occurs
Ocean &
on rocks which are saltwater
impermeable such as
granite and clay.
•Permeable rocks like
limestone, chalk and some
sandstones store water,
called aquifers.
 Human influences on water
supply and scarcity
• Humans affect the hydrological cycle • Blue water flow is the visible part
of the hydrological system: surface
at many points of flows and storage: flows and then recharging aquifers
• Green water flow is water
intercepted, stores and released by
vegetation by evaporation and
transpiration
• Grey water is polluted water
Supply can be from:
 Surface sources
 groundwater sources
 In the UK 2/3 of supply is from
surface and 1/3 from groundwater,
with regional variations.
• Freshwater is effectively a finite
resource since only about 1% of
freshwater is easily available for
human use.
• The water footprint indicates how
much is required by consumers-
and in an increasingly globalised
world, the footprint of someone in a
country like the UK will not be just
local as so many products using
water will have been produced
elsewhere!
 Some key definitions
•
Water low level of water measured by annual renewable flows (in cubic metres) per head of
shortag supply relative to population, or the number of people dependent on each unit of
basic needs. water
e

Water often taken as less •growing conflict between users and competition for water
stress than 1700m3 per • declining standards of reliability and service
person per year • harvest failures and food insecurity.
supply of water per
Domestic
•an imbalance of supply and demand
Water
scarcity person falls below •a high rate of use compared to available supply, especially if the
1000m3/year remaining supply is difficult or costly to tap.
Physica reached when 60% Physical water scarcity is shown by:
l of river flows are • Severe environmental degradation
diverted for •Declining groundwater and water allocation which favours some
water
agricultural, groups over others.
scarcity industrial & municipal •Arid and semi-arid areas are most at risk
purposes; globally
over 75% is now used
Econom when less than 25% This is often due to political reasons and conflict: easiest to solve
ic of rivers are used, by low technology solutions: small dams, water harvesting from
and there is roof tops etc. It is targeted by NGOs like Water Aid
water
abundant supply
scarcity potential: water does
not reach the poorest
people
 Water scarcity hotspots
According to the International Water
Management Institute environmental research
organisation global water stress is increasing,
Aral Sea faces environmental
and 1/3 rd of all people face some sort of water catastrophe, although recent
scarcity. Agricultural uses dominate in the attempts to reduce impacts of river
growing need for food. diversions for especially cotton
production Severe water scarcity N
China, leading to South
Egypt imports > 50% of its food
North transfer scheme-see
because of physical scarcity
later slide

Ogallala aquifer R Ganges: physical stress

provides 1/3 all US from pollution and over
irrigation water, but abstraction
is seriously depleted:
the water table is
dropping by about
1m/yr. Australia; diversion
As a ‘fossil’ reserve, ¼ of all water away
formed probably from from Murray Darling
past glacial Basin for agriculture
meltwater flows, it is Much of sub Saharan Africa
effectively a finite suffers from economic scarcity
resource from especially poverty but also
lack of infrastructural
development . Some 1 bn people
involved1
Little/no water scarcity
Physical water scarcity- not necessarily dry areas but those where over 75% river flows are used by agriculture,
industry or domestic consumers
Economic water scarcity- less than 25% rivers used, and abundant supply potential but not reaching the poorest
people .
Approaching physical water scarcity – More than 60% river flows allocated, and in the near future these river
basins will have physical scarcity
 Water conflicts
Population growth
Consumer demand Reductions because of:
Industrial growth •Users abstracting/polluting
Agricultural upstream
demand •Deteriorating quality
DEMAND •Impact of climate change
SUPPLY?
S? Diminishing PRESSURE POINT- ie
Rising need for
management.
This is shown spatially
as a ‘hotspot’ of
conflict, see map on
DIFFEREN next slide.
Pressure and hence
T USERS? tension and conflict
Conflicting may be over surface
flow and/or
demands
groundwater supplies
Dams and diversions
and loss of wetlands
•International conflicts i.e. basin are particularly
crosses national boundaries contested.
•Internal conflicts ie within a country
•Conservation versus exploitation
 Present and potential water conflict hotspots
• As water supply decreases, tensions will increase as different players try to access common
water supplies
• Many conflicts are transboundary in nature, either between states or countries
River basins currently in
dispute

Tigris-Euphrates River basins at risk in the future

Iraq + Syria concerns that
Turkey’s GAP project will divert Large International drainage basins
their water Ob
Colorado: disputes
between the 7 US
states and Mexico it The Aral Sea, an inland
flows through. The drainage basin, once
river is so overused, the world’s 4th largest
that it no longer inland lake has shrunk
reaches the sea!. sine the 1950s after
90% abstracted Lake Mekong the 2 rivers feeding it:
before reaches Chad the Amu Dayra and Syr
Mexico Darya were diverted
Ganges
for irrigation.
By 2007 the sea was
10% of original volume
Okavango Zambezi and split into 2 lakes.
La Plata The ex soviet states
Insert FigureOrange
2.11 page 47 are in conflict:
Uzbekistan ,
Note: although there have been rising tensions Turkmenistan and
globally, many areas demonstrate effective Nile hotly disputed
between Ethiopia and Kazakstan.
management to diffuse the situation and create
Sudan ,who control its
more equitable and sustainable demand-supply
headwaters, and Egypt .
balance, such as the Mekong River Committee,&
the Nile River Initiative
 Hydropolitics and geopolitics
Political negotiations centred on conflicts over the shared use of
water sources

History of hydropolitics in •The Nile is the world’s longest river ,

Nile Basin 6,500kms, 2.9km2 catchment,10% of Africa,
•tensions due to the running through 10 countries with 360
dominance of Egypt million people depending on it for survival.
• civil wars in Sudan •Growing issues of desertification &
Ethiopia salination and increased evaporation linked
• tensions from Egypt’s to climate change
treaties dating back to the •About 85 % water originates from Eritrea
1929 and 1959 Nile Water and Ethiopia, but 94 % is used by Sudan
Agreements. and Egypt.
• Upstream states Evidence of more effective co-operation
increasingly challenging • The Nile Basin Initiative, system of
Egypt’s dominance. cooperative management which started
•Ethiopia wants to use the late 1990s
Nile River for HEP plants • All countries except Eritrea working with
and industrial development. The World Bank and bi-lateral aid donors .
• Community level involvement .
• Managers visited Colorado River recently
to see how effectively the 1922 River
Tech Fix ; Water Compact and its ‘law of the river’
The megaprojects of works
dams like Aswan are
famous.
Latest high tech is the • 1996 Helsinki Rules on the Uses
1990sproject called of the Waters of International
‘Tecconile’ a joint GIS Rivers - regulating how
system to help transboundary rivers and groundwater
monitor and plan the are managed
basin • The Nile Basin is an example that
‘Water Wars’ may be averted
 Water transfers- a quick
fix?
Source area Receiving area

Examples of existing schemes Proposed schemes

International National: International National:
Lesotho to South Africa: Snowy Mountains- Turkey to Israel South-North transfer- China
Lesotho Highlands Water Australia undersea pipelines Ebro -Spain
Project Melamchi Nepal Austrian Alps to Spain Ob to the Aral Sea
Turkey to Israel by tanker Tagus-Mercia Spain + Greece by pipeline NAWAPA Alaska to California
 Mega Tech Fixes: China’s South–North water
transfer
Demand from industrial centres, high population density and intensive
One of the
agriculture. Low rainfall and over abstracted groundwater: physical scarcity largest
water
transfers
Externalities Central routes globally.
•Industrial 1267 km diversion. May Beijing Aim: to divert
growth along Western have to use some water 45bn m3/year
routeways will Routes from 3 Gorges reservoir Tianjin from the
exacerbate Work starts to help water surplus
existing 2010, at Eastern river basins of
pollution high Yellow
Route the S and E
altitude, River to the water
problems 1,155km
•Changes in very long deficit areas
water balances: difficult diversion of the North,
reduced water 500kms at especially
in Yangtze 3-5000m Beijing and
CHINA Shanghai
means less above sea Tianjin
dilution and level
more pollution
• Displaced
Yangtze River
people
especially from
Dang Jiang Kou 0 mls 250
dam ......

South China
Originally planned 1952, started 2002 ,due to finish 2050. Chief player: Sea
Government sponsored ‘South to North Water Transfer Project Company,
with each province having a local water company. Involves huge civil
engineering works, 3 major canals, pipelines, tunnels, pumping stations
 Water issues in the
In the Northern Middle East
region: Turkey is in The Aral Sea, on the boundary of the Middle • There are
dispute with Syria East and Asia is suffering from over significant
and Iraq over abstraction and pollution disputes over
damming more of access to water
already in this
the Tigris and
area
Euphrates river
• The combination
of a growing
In the Western
population and
Region: Israelis,
low seasonal
Syrians, rainfall are the
Jordanians and main causes.
Lebanese are all
• Is the energy
in dispute over
dependent
shrinking water
technological fix
supplies
of desalination
A contributory
the answer?
factor to the 1967
Arab-Israeli war • Photo of a plant
Water storage is in Dubai
in 3 huge aquifers
under the Israeli
mountains and
coastal strip and
the R Jordan
 3. Water conflicts and the
future
What are the possible conflicts and solutions to increasing demands for water?
This section looks at 4 themes, and the table below summarises three scenarios for the future
1. Trends in water demand globally and locally
2. Water players
3. Responses to need to increasing water supply and the issues these strategies raise
4. The role of technology in water supply

Business The cost of water will increase

as usual Water consumption will increase resulting in declining stores
Food transfers will mitigate shortage of water in areas where agriculture
declines
Water Demand will outstrip supply
Crisis The proportion of the world’s population without access to clean water will
increase
Food insecurity and migration will increase
Conflicts of water supplies (intra and inter state) become more likely
Sustainabl Agricultural and household water prices will double in the developed
e Water world and triple in the developing world
Global water consumption will fall, although the gap between per capita
use will close
Green water flows will increase
Improvements in water harvesting and farming techniques allow food
yields to increase whilst water consumption declines
From: 2002 International Food Policy and Research Institute future models
 World Water Days- trying to be
more sustainable?
• The importance of water in managing global issues
Previous Themes for World
is shown by the profile given to it by the UN: Water Days
• It declared 2005 to 2015 as the International • 2009 Transboundary water
Decade for Action, "Water for Life”. • 2008 Sanitation
• Every year on March 22 the UN gives a theme to
nd • 2007 Coping with water
publicise current issues. 2010 World Water Day: scarcity
dedicated to the theme of water quality. • 2006 Water and Culture
• 2005 Water for Life
• Such global action is rooted in the iconic Earth
• 2004: Water and Disasters
Summit on Environment and Development (UNCED)
• 2003: Water for the Future
in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and the creation of
• 2002: Water for Development
Agenda21 (the Blueprint for planet management at
• 2001: Water and Health
global scale)and Local Agenda 21( global problems,
local action)
UN MDG TARGET set in 2000: Halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without
sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
The world is ahead of schedule in meeting the 2015 drinking water target.
Yet a number of countries face an ‘uphill battle’: 884 million people still rely on unimproved
water sources for their drinking, cooking, bathing and other domestic activities.
Of these, almost 85 % (746 million people) live in rural areas.
1990 to 2006, 1.1 billion people in the developing world received access to toilets, latrines and
other forms of improved sanitation.
But this leaves 1.4 billion people still needing such facilities if the 2015 target is to be met.
 Water Players and decision
makers
• Different players have conflicting views on water insecurity
• One player may have quite complex views; most Governments will have
departments wanting conservation as opposed to development
• You need to identify the ‘stakeholders’ in any particular case study, and then
the role of the ‘gatekeepers’ who wield power. The next slide shows a
classification of players

Political: water
is a human need Economic
•International •International:
organisations World Bank &
e.g. UN IMF
•Government •TNCs and
•Regional & local developers
councils •Businesses and
•Lobbyists & users
pressure groups
Photograph of Aral Sea
with grounded tanker

Social: water is a human

right Environmental
•Individuals •Conservationists
•Residents •Scientists &
•Consumers land owners, planners
health officials, NGOs like
Water Aid
 Classifying the water players

Political Economic Social Environment

al
Global World Bank funds megaprojects to improve supply. Has become more
environmentally conscious. This group also has businesses and TNCs
UN Millenium Development Goal called The Water Target:"Halve, by 2015, the
proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic
sanitation "
World Health Organisation
G8 Summits : 2002 Evian action Plan, focus The role of NGOs WWF and
on water, and 2009 L’Aquila summit such as Water Friends of the
increased aid to poorer countries to help Aid or GLOWS Earth campaign
MDGs, + highlighted need for more has been crucial for full
integrated management in managing Environmental
water supplies Impact
Countries such as Assessments of
National Government owned TNCs (Viendi
India, have major projects
water companies, eg and Suez RWE
mounted likely to damage
China which owns
successful the environment
Thames Water,
massive This group will
American Water
Local community-led include many
Works
campaigns on scientists and
Companies
things like researchers
providing
elimination of At a local scale
technological
open defecation NIMBY groups
fixes
Government will campaign
Health
Agencies from
national to local
scale
 Responses: Management
• Water conflicts can strategies
be managed in a range of different ways
• There is a spectrum of different management strategies
• Some are sustainable as they balance ecological and human needs

Strategies rely on technology?

What is Present Obstacles to sustainable Future policies?
Sustainability? policies management Longer term?
Millennium Driven by •Climate change uncertainty and Need more
Ecosystem short term effects research,
Assessment economic + •Natural variability of water information and
definition: political •Pressures caused by human monitoring
A characteristic or concerns activities and rapid growth of especially on
state whereby the Often do not transition economies towards a aquifers in
needs of the present include consumerist society developing
and local population science and •Increased water demands countries
can be met without effective •Gross inefficiencies in use More
compromising the technology •Poor existing quality of supply partnerships?
ability of future across huge areas of world More community
generations or •Funding involvement?
populations in other •Access to appropriate technology More
locations to meet accountable?
their needs.
 Low tech solutions to water :
a case study
The problem: The River WAKAL area of Rajasthan in NW India is one of
• Water the driest and poorest areas in India. Subsistence agriculture dominates.
management 96% of rainfall is from the 3-4 month monsoon (late June through
often focuses
September.) and the traditional methods of using groundwater and
on large scale,
technologically conserving surface water are falling short of demands
advanced A solution? Basic technology and
mega-projects information is channelled through the NGO:
• These often GLOWS( global water for sustainability
have complex project) a partnership between World Vision
costs and India and Florida International University.
benefits Methods:
• Water 1. Increasing simple low tech appropriate
conservation and intermediate solutions to increase
and restoration storage:
of supply have a •Increased rainwater harvesting
role •Improved storage system at a family scale:
Taankas: 3 m in diameter , 3-4 m deep,
• Small scale,
most below land level with a side opening to
bottom-up
allow surface flow in. They store about
schemes are
20,000litres, and once full provide water for Changes: Traditional low tech
likely to be methods of water conservation.:
a family until next monsoon.
important in the
developing
2. Using colourful drama performed by stone dams, Persian water
trained locals to villagers to illustrate the
world
advantages of working cooperatively with wheels and tube wells- but
• However, unless other families and villages to reduce cannot cope with increased
duplicated on
large scale may
desertification and pollution of ground water demand and increased droughts
by since aquifers are shared-if an unseen
be ineffective resource! (see photgraph)
for longer term
economic
growth
 Hard and soft management
How to meet the challenge of the need for more water?

Traditional ‘hard’ engineering

Softer more environmentally
• Dams; currently 845000 of which 5000 classed as and ethically responsible
megadams. The aim is to increase natural storage
capacity by artificial reservoirs. Rivers most at risk at
approaches
present: Yangtze, Amazon, Danube and many in the • Water conservation eg targeted
Himalayas drip irrigation on plants in
• Ethiopia, includes water harvesting
Channels, seen in most arid/semi arid countries
whatever their economic status, eg Jonglei Canal on • Water restoration eg Northern Aral
Nile Sea, and on smaller scale river
• Colne in UK
Pipelines eg Australia and California Aqueduct and
snowy Mountains scheme Australia • Integrated drainage basin
• management , especially if bottom
Desalination plants eg in Middle East
up and community involved.
• Recharging schemes for depleted aquifers, eg North
• The 4 Rs: ie an attitudinal fix:
London Artificial recharge Scheme and Long Island
Reduce, Respect, Reuse, Renew.....
New York
Newer hard technologies
•Tankers to transport water eg turkey to israel Specific Technologies seen as
•Osmosis membranes filtering salt from appropriate /intermediate with less
brackish water eg Israel (the Ashkelon plant negative externalities
•Water harvesting of grey water eg Belize
produces 15% of domestic demand). Also in •Micro dams serving villages eg Nepal
California, Spain and China •Water meters to reduce use eg UK
•Fertigation: fertilser and water drip feeding of •Composting latrines – seen in National Trust
properties in UK to Mumbai slums!
crops, as in Israel
 Water Conflicts overview
Water Resources
• Water like energy is a fundamental need Water Conflict
but not evenly distributed • Potential conflicts=high both local &
• Factors influencing geography of supply: international
 Physical-surface, groundwater, desalinisation • Resource use often exceeds recharge
 Human: demand, management, capacity leading to long term degradation
mismanagement • Future is in doubt because of unsustainable
• Increasing demand not matched by supply= use+ climate change
WATER GAP • Vulnerable populations most at risk
• Implications for human well being- which is • Management strategies to ensure supply require
why it is named in the MDGs cooperation of many different players =
• Demand from various users changes in way water is valued & used
• Water resources are often transboundary

Water Futures
Water stress and scarcity are projected to increase
because: Therefore, there are alternative futures –
•Climate change will make some areas more arid It all depends on the decisions the players make....
and rainfall more unreliable
•Glacial water sources will reduce due to climate
change and climate change, population trends, energy
•Unsustainable use of some supplies will decrease security, superpower politics, bridging the
their quality and quantity
•Demand will rise due to population and economic
development gap etc…
growth
•Water wars will lead to winners and losers in water
supply
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 Synopticity-Water-Energy
• Energy and Water: Solving Both Crises Together:
• Water and energy are the two most fundamental ingredients of
modern civilization
• We consume massive quantities of water to generate energy, and
we consume massive quantities of energy to deliver clean water
• Peak Oil is topical. Peak Water or ‘Blue Gold’ is less
thought about. There are tensions between the two:
water restrictions energy problems,
are hampering particularly rising
solutions for prices, are curtailing
generating more efforts to supply
energy more clean water.

• An issue in energy rich states ,which are semi arid/arid: to

sell cheap oil or keep to power desalinisation plants
• Water is needed to generate energy. Energy is needed to
deliver water. Both resources are limiting the other—and
both may be running short. Is there a way out?

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