Politics of water resources

Water based conflicts and issues have emerged prominently during the last decade and their numbers are most likely to increase in the coming future. This is due to the growing competing demands for water along different users- e.g. industry versus agriculture, urban versus rural, industry and agriculture versus drinking water etc. Apart from being a part of physical environment, water has cultural relevance across all the societies. The different ways in which people interact with water- situation of its presence as well as absence are culturally conditioned. The universal trend of commodification of this prime natural resource reflects the pervasive global culture of conquest and domination of nature in development pursuits by humans.

"El libro explica la historia y la política de la construcción de presas en todo el mundo y muestra por qué las grandes presas se han vuelto tan controvertidas. Detalla los impactos ecológicos y humanos de las grandes represas, y muestra cómo se utiliza el argumento del "interés nacional" para legitimar proyectos no económicos e injustos que benefician a las élites mientras empobrecen a decenas de millones de personas que describen los problemas técnicos, de seguridad y económicos de la tecnología de represas, la estructura de la industria internacional de construcción de represas, y el papel desempeñado por los bancos internacionales y las agencias de ayuda cuenta la historia del rápido crecimiento del movimiento internacional contra las represas, y relata algunas de las campañas contra las represas más importantes en todo el mundo muestra cómo El lobby de las represas y los gobiernos han reaccionado a las críticas con una 'ecologización' cosmética del proceso de construcción de represas, y a través de la represión estatal describe las alternativas a las represas, y argumenta que su reemplazo por alternativas menos destructivas requiere la apertura de las prácticas de la industria al escrutinio público."

ABSTRACT  Aside from the issues peace and stability, one of Afghanistan’s most vital needs is safe and reliable supplies of water. But Afghanistan faces certain economic, political, institutional problems to develop water resources potential. These problems will increase as the years go by. Afghanistan is one of the world’s poorest countries, with an economy largely based on subsistence agriculture. Afghan farmers depend on reliable, year-round sources of surface water and groundwater. Seasonal flows of streams and rivers fed by melting snowpack high in Afghanistan’s mountains recharge alluvial aquifers located in populated valleys and provide city dwellers with drinking water. The current population of Afghanistan is about 31 million and it is projected to  increase by nearly 80 percent by the year 2050 to approximately 56 million. This will raise demand on the country’s already economic stressed water resources. Almost all of the river basins are transboundary in the country. The Country due to the political unrest has not participated in many of the agreements regulating water resources in Central Asia. its current “non-player” and  "outsider" status of the Central Asian Hydropolitics  has to be changed when starting water resources development. This could create an international dispute  in future regional water sharing discussions. In addition, recent research suggests that global climate change could alter precipitation patterns in Afghanistan. In particular, both the amount and the timing of snowfall received at higher elevations could change, impacting the major source of water for many areas in Afghanistan. Development of Afghanistan’s  most transboundary water resources is a vital need for its own national interest, but it is also directly related with a transboundary water management dispute issue in the region. In other words, Afghanistan should find the best way to develop  its  transboundary water resources for national development  as well as peace and stability of    the region. But this development won't be so easy if current amount of  water  use of  riparian states will be same when Afghanistan plans to release smaller amount of water.

Eco-terrorism and environmentalism in Indian mainstream visual media are either eclipsed or serve as ancillary thematic props to the project. The big banners, production houses, mainstream directors, actors, scriptwriters of the industry rarely undertake eco-cinematic projects since these movies tend to fail in box-office collection. However, the beginning of the 21st century has seen a paradigmatic shift with the advent of “green movies.” Interestingly, Nila Madhab Panda’s "Kaun Kitney Paani Mein" (2015) and Aparnaa Singh’s "Irada" (2017) have successfully projected on the silver screen the problem of groundwater contamination and the scarcity of water leading to ecocide. The current chapter explores how eco-cinema has become a critical platform to talk about grim ecological matters like water contamination and depletion to sensitize the audience regarding the need for water conservation.

ABSTRACT

After completion of the water pipeline project to Cyprus in 2017,  bulk water transfer projects to the Middle East has drown some more attention than before.Although implementation of the Red-Dead Sea Project hasn’t progressed well,  the Project has been considered as an alternative  for  bulk water transfer in the region
About 32 years ago in 1986 ,late Turkish President Turgut Özal had proposed a “Peace Water Pipeline Project” for the Midddle East water problems. The Project has drawn considerable attention and caused both negative and positive reactions.Political Feasibility and financing of the project had been argued more than it’s technical feasibility.
Preliminary studies on the project were initiated in 1986 .The ultimate aim of the Project was much beyond of the supplying  some water to the countries. The Project proposal mainly  aimed to create a process of confidence building and a cooperation environment on water that will help to contrubute to the stability and security of the region
During past  32 years after the Peace Water Pipeline Project proposed  ,  water demand has increased ,while the water management has been worse under the political and climatological effects in the region.
As many areas in the Middle East, Jordan is struggling with scarcity of rainfall, diminishing of water resources and increase in population . It is not ceratin yet if  the current water management  strategies and the suggested Red Sea- Dead Sea project will be enough to solve this problem.Therefore among the other new water resources alternatives , Turkey’s  Peace Pipeline Project proposal can be worthwile to be considered  again with different lenght and  route . 
The Original Project would divert  the water from Seyhan and Ceyhan Rivers ,both national rivers of Turkey ,to the Arab Countries in the Middle East. Daily water transfer capacity of the Project was 6 MCM  that is only a small part of mean  total daily flows of the rivers after Turkey’s use .

The water would deliver through the peace pipeline is not intented to replace,but rather supplement current water supplies in the countries served.The Project had an estimated cost of US $ 20 billion about three decades ago.
In this article ,focusing on Jordan water problems, what risks and challenges associated in the region  any alternative water transfer option  and regional innovative hydro diplomacy  is investigated.


Keywords: Peace Pipeline Project,Middle East,

The ―Arab Spring‖—a wave of pro-democracy demonstrations that began in Tunisia in late 2010 and swept across Libya and Egypt—finally reached Syria in early March 2011. The unrest resulted from a combination of socio-economic and political problems that had been building for years and that affect especially Syria‘s large rural population. One of the things that preceded the failure of the nation-state of Syria and the rise of ISIS have been considered the effect of climate change and the mega-drought that affected that region. However, four years after the conflict began, it has degenerated into a civil war with more than 200,000 deaths and about 4 million registered refugees. And it has put Syria at the center of nasty geopolitical struggles. In most evaluations of the Syrian civil war an future, the most neglected analysis is: How water resources will affect the ongoing civil war and how changing situation will affect hydropolitics relations between countries after the war. A far m...

Water flows through and informs the socio-spatial geography of the Indus waterscape in Pakistan in myriad ways. This paper argues that state-led water development has historically attempted to bypass political conflict by invoking techno-scientific authority to render water development as a purely techno-managerial pursuit. By invoking the scientifically objective, depoliticized knowledge of water resources, the state shifts the politics of water to the domain of politics of knowledge to disarm communities with cultural and political claims to water. These attempts to "depoliticize" are always accompanied by attempts to repoliticize water-both from within the state apparatus and from society more generally. The paper stages an engagement between the historical geography of the Indus and the field of critical water geography to develop an understanding of politicization as inter-scalar and relatively insensitive to changes in the ruling political regime. We present a novel periodization of the hydrosocial relations in the Indus Basin that highlight periods of relative continuity and coherence in terms of the political regime in the water sector. Despite the significance of these shifts for political history, we argue that the historical geography of water reveals a techno-managerial knowledge/value structure with a deep and structural continuity. Using a scale-sensitive understanding of politicization to analyze the historical and contemporary geography of the Indus allows us to go behind shifts in political regime to identify the deeper structures at play. These are the epistemological and ideological structures that produce a dynamic of attempted depoliticization and repoliticization in the Indus Basin.

UN Secretary-General Ban ki-Mun pointed out extremely important and extraordinary points in his remark at Opening of the 7th World Water Forum held in Daegu, Gyeongbuk, The Republic of Korea in 12 April 2015. He said that; “Instead of seeing scarce water as a reason for competition or conflict, we have to treat it as a challenge to collaborate, a challenge to engage in innovative hydrodiplomacy. In today‟s world, we must be more aware of the risks of water conflict.” It is important to note the emphasis on “collaboration and innovative hydro-diplomacy” in his remarks. While speaking on the occasion of World Water Day 2013, the Secretary General had also said, “Water scarcity threatens economic and social gains ... And it is a potent fuel for wars and conflict.” Secretary General Ban Ki-moon‟s warnings were reflected in the offcial definition of water security provided by the United Nations UniversityIWEH, which says. “The capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to a...

This presentation considers the new water geography of too little water in some regions and too much in others and reviews current state policies and private initiatives. With a focus on the Great Lakes, the talk maps the social dimension of access to clean water and distribution to toxins. It then presents models of community building and integration around water management and engages the audience in a discussion of the emerging politics of water.

El artículo efectúa un análisis histórico de la política pública con incidencia en la gestión del agua subterránea en Mendoza. Para ello indaga las principales regulaciones hídricas e identifica distintas fases o etapas homogéneas que permiten interpretar la evolución del sistema jurídico y las herramientas de planificación hacia una gestión integrada de los recursos  hídricos. Las conclusiones revelan, en primer lugar, que diversos factores técnicos, ambientales y económicos influyen en la gestión del agua subterránea. En segundo lugar, la inclusión de dicho recurso en la política pública se inició formalmente en el año 1974, con la sanción de las Leyes Provinciales 4.035 y 4.036 como respuesta al aumento exponencial de perforaciones en un periodo de gran sequía de precipitaciones nivales, las que afectaron dichas aguas al dominio público y regularon su administración por el Departamento General de Irrigación (DGI); sin embargo, recién a partir de la década de los noventa emergieron acciones concretas en consonancia con el progresivo aumento de su escasez cuantitativa, aunque con deficiencias regulatorias que concentraron el acceso al agua en los agentes de mayor capacidad económica. La actual etapa, ha buscado subsanar dichas deficiencias y brindar una gestión estratégica al recurso, aunque subsisten múltiples desafíos a futuro.

Aside from the issues peace and stability, one of Afghanistan’s most vital needs is safe and reliable supplies of water. But Afghanistan faces certain economic, political, institutional problems to develop water resources potential. These problems will increase as the years go by. Afghanistan is one of the world’s poorest countries, with an economy largely based on subsistence agriculture. Afghan farmers depend on reliable, year-round sources of surface water and groundwater. Seasonal flows of streams and rivers fed by melting snowpack high in Afghanistan’s mountains recharge alluvial aquifers located in populated valleys and provide city dwellers with drinking water. The current population of Afghanistan is about 31 million and it is projected to increase by nearly 80 percent by the year 2050 to approximately 56 million. This will raise demand on the country’s already economic stressed water resources. Almost all of the river basins are transboundary in the country. The Country due...

Aside from the issues peace and stability, one of Afghanistan’s most vital needs is safe and reliable supplies of water. But Afghanistan faces certain economic, political, institutional problems to develop water resources potential. These problems will increase as the years go by. Afghanistan is one of the world’s poorest countries, with an economy largely based on subsistence agriculture. Afghan farmers depend on reliable, year-round sources of surface water and groundwater. Seasonal flows of streams and rivers fed by melting snowpack high in Afghanistan’s mountains recharge alluvial aquifers located in populated valleys and provide city dwellers with drinking water. The current population of Afghanistan is about 31 million and it is projected to increase by nearly 80 percent by the year 2050 to approximately 56 million. This will raise demand on the country’s already economic stressed water resources. Almost all of the river basins are transboundary in the country. The Country due...

Increased river flows and sea level rise in a changing climate are of great concern in deltas and makes sustainability particularly important for delta societies. This article reviews current approaches to assess delta sustainability, results of these assessments and what they mean for policies regarding deltas. We particularly ask whether deltas need transformations in order for delta living to be feasible in the future. The reviewed literature is mostly based on socio-ecological systems theory with small contributions from socio-technical systems theory, and struggles to take account of all relevant interrelationships. The technological interventions that shape the relationships between societies and delta environments should be highlighted by considering deltas as complex socio-ecological-cum-technical systems, in part because technological interventions are the most feasible societal response to secure delta living in the short term. The reviewed research suggests that most deltas are locked-in to an irreversible path towards unsustainability. We examine the pathways for transformation offered by socio-ecological systems and socio-technical systems research, and we assess whether they are technically and politically sufficient, feasible and acceptable to achieve the required transformations. We conclude that while the experimentation advocated in research may support local adjustments, their up-scaling to delta level is challenged by political disagreement and societal resistance.

Transboundary river basins of the World provide vital resources for nearly half of the world’s population. This assessment shows existing and increasing risks in the majority of these basins. But there are still many controversies about ideal policies to balance water allocation or sharing benefit. Therefore, it is still an important issue that transforming potential tensions into partnerships for regional development in potential water conflicted regions. The UN Security Council recently turned its attention to the relationship between water risks and conflict within and between countries4. The pressure on the resource is increasing, many transboundary streams are still left without frameworks for joint management. Climate variability also adds a new, complicating, dimension to these dynamics.
Past experiences showed that there is a significant paradigm shift need in transboundary rivers management from classical hydro diplomacy to an innovative one.
In this article, we aim to clarify that why we need a new strategy with new language to share, new approaches, methods, new mechanisms and innovative tools to apply? To put innovative water diplomacy into action.
Keywords: Water,Diplomacy,Innovation

This paper investigates how a network of water pipelines reflects the political engagements that the communities they supply have with states, local governance systems, and with people's senses of time and belonging.
The paper takes as its ethnographic focus the context of north Cyprus and the recently built water pipeline running underneath the Mediterranean and connecting the Turkish mainland's freshwater resources to the Turkish-occupied territories of the island of Cyprus. I understand this incoming, supposedly clean and drinkable water not just as an object of political contention, but also as something that accentuates northern Cypriots' present conditions of dependency and inability to 'act upon' governing themselves, and reflects their imaginations and anticipations of an uncertain future.
Water infrastructure and its governance have been at the center of everyday political discussions in north Cyprus when it comes to interrogating notions of willpower, sovereignty, and taking matters into their own hands. These discussions among locals oscillate between expressions of incapability and incapacity—what I call the lethargic present—to govern the pipeline infrastructure, and aspirations of reclaiming their willpower in an uncertain future. Relying on ethnographic data, I present people's articulations of time, specifically impermanence, and uncertainty regarding water infrastructure. The temporality of infrastructure constitute the analytical focus for this paper; I interrogate how the Turkish state-funded water pipeline system encapsulates the conjunction between Cypriots' past appreciations, present grievances, and future expectations for themselves vis-à-vis the Turkish state. As such, I discuss how infrastructures invested with clear ambitions for the future can become material manifestations of contested pasts and presents. I contend that the incoming water and the network of pipelines engender new questionings of their lethargic present and uncertain future.

ABSTRACT
UN Secretary-General  Ban ki-Mun pointed out  extremely important and extraordinary  points  in his remark  at Opening of the 7th World Water Forum  held in Daegu, Gyeongbuk, The Republic of Korea in 12 April 2015. He said that; “Instead of seeing scarce water as a reason for competition or conflict, we have to treat it as a challenge to collaborate, a challenge to engage in innovative hydro- diplomacy.  In today‟s world, we must be more aware of the risks of water conflict.” It is important to note the emphasis on “collaboration  and innovative hydro-diplomacy” in his remarks. While speaking on the occasion of World Water Day 2013, the Secretary General had also  said, “Water scarcity threatens economic and social gains … And it is a potent fuel for wars and conflict.”

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon‟s warnings were reflected in the offcial definition of water security provided by the United Nations University- IWEH, which says. “The capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of and acceptable quality water for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being, and socio-economic development, for ensuring protection against water-borne pollution and water-related disasters, and for preserving ecosystems in a climate of peace and political stability.” It is important to note the emphasis on “in a climate of peace and political stability” in this definition. The concerns of the United Nations are justified as the world faces an era of depleting water resources.

The World Water Development Report of UNESCO, released in March 2015 warns us of serious depletion of water supplies by 2050, while at the same time, significant increase in demand due to population growth, economic development and urbanisation, among other factors. Different effects of climate change are today contributing to even more water scarcity and greater security risks. It shows us that we need an effective and mutually beneficial solution of water resources-related problems.

At the global scale, the effective and mutually beneficial solution of water  resources-related problems underlie peace, security and stability. But this can become a reality only if we change our conceptual approaches to domestic and  transboundary water management. 

Keywords: Transboundary Water; New Water Paradigm; Water Conceptional Change; New Hydro Diplomacy; Traditional Water Cooperation; New Hydropolitcs; Shared vision; Shared goal

หลังสงครามเย็นในภูมิภาคยุติลงในต้นทศวรรษ 1990 ประเทศลุ่มน้ำโขงตอนล่างต่างต้องการที่จะหลีกเลี่ยงความขัดแย้งอันเนื่องจากการใช้ประโยชน์ทรัพยากรน้ำของลำน้ำโขง จึงตกลงที่จะประสานนโยบาย ด้วยการจัดกรอบการอภิบาลแม่น้ำอันเป็นที่ยอมรับร่วมกัน แม้กระนั้น ประเทศเหนือน้ำกับปลายน้ำมีผลประโยชน์แตกต่างกัน ประเทศเหนือน้ำมีข้อวิตกในเรื่องอำนาจอธิปไตย ประเทศปลายน้ำมีข้อวิตกในเรื่องความไม่แน่นอน ในการจัดทำความตกลงแม่น้ำโขง ซึ่งอาศัยหลักการจัดการน้ำระหว่างประเทศเป็น "ตัวตั้ง" ในการเจรจาต่อรองกฎกติกา ประเทศภาคีจึงต้องประนีประนอมกัน เพื่อให้ทุกฝ่ายสมประโยชน์ การประนีประนอมส่งผลให้กรอบการอภิบาลแม่น้ำโขงมีแบบลักษณะเป็น Soft Law

Since the end of the Cold War, classical “regional cooperation” has been the most mentioned approach to resolve transboundary water conflicts between riparian states, yet this approach faces new challenges, such as the devastating impacts of prolonged drought as well as ongoing instability and conflicts, thus requiring a new paradigm to water cooperation.Approximately 40% of the global population live in transboundary water basins and growing threats such as climate change emphasise the urgent need for coordinated management of transboundary water bodies. The reality of global change calls for innovative “hydro-diplomacy” aimed at strengthening international collaboration for climate change adaptation under the framework of regional security and win-win politics.
The classical nature of international relations needs to change from a zero-sum game based on resource appropriation to a platform of mutually beneficial and supportive interrelations. This change needs more than intention, and requires a new paradigm. It requires us to identify the most effective mechanisms for governments to engage in regional collaboration that would be effective in managing a shared watercourse.
There is a paradox in that although the vital importance of transboundary water management is continuously emphasised, there has been little advancement in the development of applicable and effective frameworks for realistic international water cooperation in the past decades. This article presents a new paradigm for more realistic international water cooperation and collaboration.