1. 6GEO3 Unit 3 Contested Planet
Topic 2 Water Conflicts

2. 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
diminishing supplies. Mega technological fixes for mega problems
• There are also growing (Hoover Dam, USA) versus Low tech
pressures resulting from solutions (Taanka storage of India)
climate change

3. CONTENTS
1.The geography of water supply
2. The risks of water insecurity
3. Water conflicts and the future
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4. 2. The risks of water insecurity
• What are the potential implications of an increasingly ‘water
insecure’ world?
Water conflicts
Water supply problems Where demand exceeds supply
Increasing water shortages and no effective management
may be more important operates, then there will be
than energy shortages- conflicts between the various
because there is no players involved
alternative! Water geopolitics
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

5. 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 than
water, often at temperate / arctic areas. Physical
continental scale. •High altitude areas have snowpack water reserves
released in late spring.
influences
•Flows increase
downstream as •Monsoon areas have one main peak, equatorial areas on water supply
tributaries enter. two peaks. and scarcity
•Seasonal changes • Some tropical areas experience recurring drought
in temperature can
create distinctive
river regimes.
•The relationship
between water
inputs and outputs
is water balance
97.2%
Geology Ocean &
•Surface drainage occurs on saltwater
rocks which are impermeable
such as granite and clay.
•Permeable rocks like
limestone, chalk and some
sandstones store water, called
aquifers.

6. Human influences on water supply
and scarcity
• Humans affect the hydrological cycle at • Blue water flow is the visible part of
the hydrological system: surface flows
many points of flows and storage: 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!

7. Some key definitions
low level of water •
measured by annual renewable flows (in cubic metres) per head of
Water
shortage supply relative to basic population, or the number of people dependent on each unit of water
needs.
Water often taken as less than •growing conflict between users and competition for water
stress 1700m3 per person per • declining standards of reliability and service
year • harvest failures and food insecurity.
Water supply of water per •an imbalance of supply and demand
Domestic
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.
Physical reached when 60% of Physical water scarcity is shown by:
water river flows are diverted • Severe environmental degradation
for agricultural, •Declining groundwater and water allocation which favours some groups
scarcity
industrial & municipal over others.
purposes; globally over •Arid and semi-arid areas are most at risk
75% is now used
Economic when less than 25% of This is often due to political reasons and conflict: easiest to solve by low
water rivers are used, and technology solutions: small dams, water harvesting from roof tops etc. It is
there is abundant targeted by NGOs like Water Aid
scarcity
supply potential: water
does not reach the
poorest people

8. Water scarcity hotspots
According to the International Water Management
Institute environmental research organisation global
water stress is increasing, and 1/3 rd of all people
Aral Sea faces environmental
face some sort of water scarcity. Agricultural uses catastrophe, although recent attempts
dominate in the growing need for food. to reduce impacts of river diversions for
especially cotton production
Severe water scarcity N China,
Egypt imports > 50% of its food because leading to South North transfer
of physical scarcity scheme-see later slide
R Ganges: physical stress from
Ogallala aquifer pollution and over abstraction
provides 1/3 all US
irrigation water, but is
seriously depleted: the
water table is dropping
by about 1m/yr. Australia; diversion ¼
As a ‘fossil’ reserve, of all water away
formed probably from from Murray Darling
past glacial meltwater Basin for agriculture
flows, it is effectively a
Much of sub Saharan Africa suffers
finite resource
from economic scarcity 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

9. Water conflicts
Population growth
Consumer demand Reductions because of:
Industrial growth •Users abstracting/polluting
Agricultural demand upstream
•Deteriorating quality
•Impact of climate change
DEMANDS? SUPPLY?
Rising Diminishing
PRESSURE POINT- ie
need for management.
This is shown spatially as
a ‘hotspot’ of conflict,
see map on next slide.
DIFFERENT Pressure and hence
USERS? tension and conflict may
be over surface flow
Conflicting and/or groundwater
demands supplies
Dams and diversions and
loss of wetlands are
particularly contested.
•International conflicts i.e. basin crosses
national boundaries
•Internal conflicts ie within a country
•Conservation versus exploitation

10. 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
River basins at risk in the future
Tigris-Euphrates
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
flows through. The inland drainage basin,
river is so overused, once the world’s 4th
that it no longer largest inland lake has
reaches the sea!. shrunk sine the 1950s
90% abstracted Lake Mekong after the 2 rivers
before reaches Chad feeding it: the Amu
Mexico Dayra and Syr Darya
Ganges
were diverted for
irrigation.
By 2007 the sea was
Okavango Zambezi 10% of original volume
and split into 2 lakes.
La Plata
Insert Figure 2.11 page 47
Orange The ex soviet states
are in conflict:
Note: although there have been rising tensions Uzbekistan ,
globally, many areas demonstrate effective Nile hotly disputed
between Ethiopia and Turkmenistan and
management to diffuse the situation and create Kazakstan.
Sudan ,who control its
more equitable and sustainable demand-supply
headwaters, and Egypt .
balance, such as the Mekong River Committee,&
the Nile River Initiative

11. 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 , 6,500kms,
Nile Basin 2.9km2 catchment,10% of Africa, running through
•tensions due to the 10 countries with 360 million people depending
dominance of Egypt on it for survival.
• civil wars in Sudan •Growing issues of desertification & salination and
Ethiopia increased evaporation linked to climate change
• tensions from Egypt’s •About 85 % water originates from Eritrea and
treaties dating back to the Ethiopia, but 94 % is used by Sudan and Egypt.
1929 and 1959 Nile Water
Agreements.
• 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. • 1996 Helsinki Rules on the Uses of the
Latest high tech is the Waters of International Rivers -
1990sproject called regulating how transboundary rivers and
‘Tecconile’ a joint GIS groundwater are managed
system to help monitor
• The Nile Basin is an example that ‘Water
and plan the basin
Wars’ may be averted

12. 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-Australia Turkey to Israel undersea South-North transfer- China
Lesotho Highlands Water Melamchi Nepal pipelines Ebro -Spain
Project Tagus-Mercia Spain Austrian Alps to Spain + Ob to the Aral Sea
Turkey to Israel by tanker Greece by pipeline NAWAPA Alaska to California

13. Mega Tech Fixes: China’s South–North water transfer
One of the
Demand from industrial centres, high population density and intensive agriculture.
Low rainfall and over abstracted groundwater: physical scarcity largest
water
transfers
Central routes globally.
1267 km diversion. May Beijing Aim: to divert
Externalities Western have to use some water 45bn m3/year
•Industrial growth Routes from 3 Gorges reservoir Tianjin from the
along routeways Work starts to help water surplus
will exacerbate 2010, at Eastern river basins of
existing pollution high Yellow
Route the S and E
altitude, River to the water
problems 1,155km
•Changes in water very long deficit areas
balances: difficult diversion of the North,
reduced water in 500kms at 3- especially
Yangtze means 5000m Beijing and
CHINA Shanghai
less dilution and above sea Tianjin
more pollution level
• Displaced
people especially
Yangtze River
from Dang Jiang
Kou dam ......
0 mls 250
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

14. Water issues in the Middle East
In the Northern
region: Turkey is in The Aral Sea, on the boundary of the Middle East • There are
dispute with Syria and Asia is suffering from over abstraction and significant
and Iraq over pollution disputes over
access to water
damming more of the
already in this area
Tigris and Euphrates
river • The combination
of a growing
population and low
In the Western seasonal rainfall
Region: Israelis, are the main
Syrians, causes.
Jordanians and • Is the energy
Lebanese are all in dependent
dispute over technological fix of
shrinking water desalination the
supplies answer?
A contributory • Photo of a plant in
factor to the 1967 Dubai
Arab-Israeli war
Water storage is in 3
huge aquifers under
the Israeli mountains
and coastal strip and
the R Jordan

15. 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 as The cost of water will increase
usual Water consumption will increase resulting in declining stores
Food transfers will mitigate shortage of water in areas where agriculture declines
Water Crisis Demand will outstrip supply
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
Sustainable Agricultural and household water prices will double in the developed world and
Water 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

16. World Water Days- trying to be more
sustainable?
• The importance of water in managing global issues is
Previous Themes for World Water
shown by the profile given to it by the UN: Days
• It declared 2005 to 2015 as the International Decade for • 2009 Transboundary water
Action, "Water for Life”. • 2008 Sanitation
• Every year on March 22nd the UN gives a theme to • 2007 Coping with water
publicise current issues. 2010 World Water Day: scarcity
dedicated to the theme of water quality. • 2006 Water and Culture
• Such global action is rooted in the iconic Earth Summit • 2005 Water for Life
on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de • 2004: Water and Disasters
Janeiro in 1992, and the creation of Agenda21 (the • 2003: Water for the Future
Blueprint for planet management at global scale)and • 2002: Water for Development
Local Agenda 21( global problems, local action) • 2001: Water and Health
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.

17. 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 e.g. World Bank & IMF
UN •TNCs and
•Government developers
•Regional & local •Businesses and
councils users
•Lobbyists &
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

18. Classifying the water players
Political Economic Social Environmental
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 on The role of NGOs WWF and
water, and 2009 L’Aquila summit increased aid to such as Water Aid Friends of the
poorer countries to help MDGs, + highlighted need or GLOWS has been Earth campaign for
for more integrated management crucial in managing full Environmental
water supplies Impact Assessments
Countries such as of major projects
National Government owned water TNCs (Viendi and India, have likely to damage
companies, eg China Suez RWE which mounted successful the environment
owns Thames massive This group will
Water, American community-led include many
Local Water Works campaigns on things scientists and
Companies like elimination of researchers
providing open defecation At a local scale
technological fixes Government NIMBY groups will
Health Agencies campaign
from national to
local scale
Individual 6.9 billion consumers

19. Responses: Management strategies
• Water conflicts can 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.

20. 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 on
September.) and the traditional methods of using groundwater and
large scale,
technologically conserving surface water are falling short of demands
advanced mega- A solution? Basic technology and
projects information is channelled through the NGO:
• These often have GLOWS( global water for sustainability
complex costs and project) a partnership between World Vision
benefits India and Florida International University.
• Water Methods:
conservation and 1. Increasing simple low tech appropriate
restoration of and intermediate solutions to increase
supply have a role storage:
•Increased rainwater harvesting
• Small scale,
•Improved storage system at a family scale:
bottom-up
Taankas: 3 m in diameter , 3-4 m deep,
schemes are
most below land level with a side opening to
likely to be
allow surface flow in. They store about
important in the
20,000litres, and once full provide water for Changes: Traditional low tech
developing world methods of water conservation.:
a family until next monsoon.
• However, unless
duplicated on
2. Using colourful drama performed by stone dams, Persian water
trained locals to villagers to illustrate the
large scale may advantages of working cooperatively with wheels and tube wells- but
be ineffective for other families and villages to reduce cannot cope with increased
longer term
economic growth
desertification and pollution of ground water demand and increased droughts
by since aquifers are shared-if an unseen
resource! (see photgraph)

21. Hard and soft management
How to meet the challenge of the need for more water?
Traditional ‘hard’ engineering
Softer more environmentally and
• Dams; currently 845000 of which 5000 classed as
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 drip
Himalayas irrigation on plants in Ethiopia,
• Channels, seen in most arid/semi arid countries includes water harvesting
whatever their economic status, eg Jonglei Canal on • Water restoration eg Northern Aral
Nile Sea, and on smaller scale river
• Pipelines eg Australia and California Aqueduct and Colne in UK
snowy Mountains scheme Australia • Integrated drainage basin
• Desalination plants eg in Middle East management , especially if bottom
up and community involved.
• Recharging schemes for depleted aquifers, eg North
London Artificial recharge Scheme and Long Island New • The 4 Rs: ie an attitudinal fix:
York Reduce, Respect, Reuse, Renew.....
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

22. Water Conflicts overview
Water Resources
• Water like energy is a fundamental need but not Water Conflict
evenly distributed • Potential conflicts=high both local & international
• Factors influencing geography of supply: • Resource use often exceeds recharge capacity
 Physical-surface, groundwater, desalinisation leading to long term degradation
 Human: demand, management, mismanagement • Future is in doubt because of unsustainable use+
• Increasing demand not matched by supply= WATER climate change
GAP • Vulnerable populations most at risk
• Implications for human well being- which is why it • Management strategies to ensure supply require
is named in the MDGs cooperation of many different players = changes in
• Demand from various users 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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23. 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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