Fairness and Sustainability to Address Water Scarcity

Are Water Wars soon to become a reality? How can the numerous causes of water scarcity best be addressed? Do you believe that the privatisation of water will improve the situation or only make it worse? Can our planet’s water supply maintain the current levels of population growth?

“Water scarcity ‘now bigger threat than financial crisis’”, “World heading for ‘water bankruptcy’”: if these dramatic headlines are anything to go by, humankind is facing a looming disaster. Not climate change, not another financial crash, not terrorism but water scarcity will bring us to our knees. Whereas talk of water wars and impending doom may seem exaggerated, water scarcity is at the source of many of the contemporary problems we read about every day.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), “water use has been growing at more than twice the rate of population increase in the last century […] By 2025, 1.800 million people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world population could be under stress conditions.”

For many of us, water scarcity is far removed from our daily realities because we are lucky enough to live in areas with an abundance of freshwater. Apart from occasionally having to restrain from watering our lawns or washing our cars, we are accustomed to turning on the faucet and washing our hands, drinking a glass of clean water or mopping the floors. We are oblivious to the misery the absence of water engenders and to what extent it is the root of an increasing number of violent conflicts and large migrations.

With 71% of the Blue Planet covered by water, the earth seemingly has an abundance of water. However, only a tiny fraction of it – as little as 0.3% – is accessible for use by humans. At any given time, more than 99% of the earth’s water is either unreachable deep underground, locked in icecaps, floating in the atmosphere or simply unusable as seawater.

Source: Matt Rudge via flickr

Add to this the fact that water is unevenly distributed across the globe and that pollution and inefficient use by humans further acerbates the problem of water scarcity in certain regions, and you end up with a potentially explosive situation. Water scarcity leads to failed crops, dying livestock, famine, extreme poverty, poor hygiene, diseases and desperation. These in turn lead to migrations, conflicts and even religious extremism exploiting desperate populations.

Water conflicts arise both at the interstate and intrastate level. On an intrastate level, different communities or interest groups within states vie for access to water. The war in Darfur, for example, can be explained, in part, by the distribution of water ultimately pitting African farmers and Arab pastoralists against each other in the region. The issue became politicised and escalated into open conflict when the Sudanese government intervened in favour of the pastoralists.

On an interstate level, one prominent example of conflict has been taking place in the volatile area around the Jordan Basin bordered by five political entities (Israel, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan). Since water resources in this region are scarce at best, issues of both supply and treatment of the basin waters have been an additional source of conflict.

In light of all these developments, private companies are increasingly seeking to secure a share of the lucrative business water promises to become (and in many ways already is). Where there’s scarcity, there’s a profit to be made. The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights defines access to water as a basic right because of its vital nature. But with large corporations getting their hands on important water reserves, it seems access to a decent water supply will be subject to price mechanisms just like other commodities… possibly exacerbating unequal distribution and supply.

Source: FAO

Causes of water scarcity and water stress include population growth, inefficient food production, climate change, unsustainable land use, pollution, unequal distribution and political conflicts, to name but a few. According to the World Water Assessment Program about 70% of freshwater is used for irrigation, 22% for industry and only 8% for domestic consumption.

Whereas efforts on the individual level can contribute to improving the current situation, it seems that the focus should be on sustainable water use in agriculture. If better use of water resources can be combined with a fairer distribution (which is not an easy task given the earth’s natural distribution of water), it would go a long way toward addressing current problems and prevent some of the doomsday scenarios from materialising.

So what is your view on this?

Are Water Wars soon to become a reality? How can the numerous causes of water scarcity best be addressed? Do you believe that the privatisation of water will improve the situation or only make it worse? Can our planet’s water supply maintain the current levels of population growth?

Background Reading

• Water scarcity ‘now bigger threat than financial crisis’, Geoffrey Lean, 15 March 2009
• World heading for ‘water bankruptcy’, 05 February 2009
• Those who control oil and water will control the world, John Gray, 30 March 2008
• Jordan River Basin, Stefan Deconinck, 15 April 2008
• Israel, War and Water, Jim Miles, 12 April 2010
• The World’s Fresh Water, National Geographic
• A special report on water: For want of a drink, The Economist, May 2010
• Water Wars, Jeffrey D. Sachs, 21 April 2009
• Water at a Glance: The relationship between water, agriculture, food security and poverty, FAO