Water Security Brief

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WHAT IS AT STAKE

By 2025 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity. According to the UN-wide World Water Assessment Program (see below), two-thirds of the world population will be faced with a severe imbalance between demand and availability of water. More than 1 billion people are already living without clean drinking water; more than 2.5 billion people lack adequate sanitation; almost 2 million people die every year from diarrheal diseases; according to the World Health Organization almost 1.5 million children die every year from water borne diseases. As the 2009 3rd World Water Development Report states, the world is on track to meet the Millennium Development Goal target on drinking water, but the world will not achieve even half the sanitation target by 2015.

If immediate international action is not taken, the competition over clean fresh water can lead to violent conflict in and between states. Water scarcity is an enormous hurdle to sustainable social and economic development; and an impediment to human health. If not managed properly, tensions over water might rise because of:

  • Perceived unfair distribution of access to water of adequate quantity and quality;
  • Forced migration due to water shortage causing further tensions between local and incoming communities;
  • Mismanagement of available water resources.

At the same time there is little historic evidence that water itself has led to international warfare or that a war over water would make strategic, hydrographic or economic sense. At the international level water appears to provide reasons for trans-boundary cooperation rather than war, often preventing instead of causing escalation. There are more than 400 registered agreements over shared water that provide useful starting points for further preventive efforts.

 

AREAS AT RISK

According to World Water Assessment Program, approximately 40 per cent of the world’s population lives in river and lake basins that comprise two or more countries. Over 90 per cent of the world’s population lives in countries that share river basins. There are 263 trans-boundary lakes and river basins. A total of 145 States include territory within such basins, and 30 countries lie entirely within them. In addition, about 2 billion people worldwide depend on groundwater, which includes approximately 300 trans-boundary aquifer systems. Some of the most pressing areas at risk include:

  • Afghanistan and Southwest Asia: four of the most important regionally available water resources – Amu Darya river, Helmand river, Kabul river, the Harirud and Murghab river – are shared internationally between Afghanistan and its neighbors in Central and Southwest Asia. Concerns over dam and other infrastructure projects in the region, affecting all riparian states, are already rising. Access to fresh water is crucial to all the regional players for social and economic development.
  • La Plata River Basin: although development efforts aim to improve the livelihoods of over 100 million inhabitants living in the fifth-largest basin in the world, increasing poverty and social inequality continue to be the main problems facing the five basin countries. A shared goal of sustainable utilization of water resources has brought the riparian countries together under the framework of the Intergovernmental Coordinating Committee and provides the basis for bilateral and multilateral cooperation.
  • Uganda: rapid population growth coupled with uncontrolled environmental degradation stemming from increased urbanization and industrialization puts considerable stress on the sustainability of natural resources. Debt relief removed a large portion of external debts and enabled the country to allocate its financial resources to fight poverty. However, the water sector in Uganda depends heavily on external donors for its development.

Other well known examples of tensions over water are found across the globe. They include water security issues around the Nile, Darfur, the Mekong, Euphrates, the Aral Sea, the Jordan and the Danube.

 

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE?

Addressing water scarcity requires actions at global and regional level, leading to increased cooperation between nations on shared management of water resources. Members of the Parliamentarians Network are particularly well positioned to address the potential for violent conflict by driving legislative changes and enforcing early action by their governments towards improving preventive diplomatic efforts.

The members of the Network, in order to improve trans-boundary cooperation, to ensure improvement of drinking water supply and to help manage remaining water resources, should call on their governments for immediate:

  • Capacity building and establishment of strong institutions both in effective trans-boundary water management and in preventive hydro-diplomacy;
  • Awareness  raising about the mounting global and regional challenge of water security;
  • Promotion of success stories of trans-boundary water cooperation;
  • Development of basin and aquifer strategies;
  • Improvement of international law to provide a clear framework for trans-boundary water conflict prevention and arbitration; and
  • Increase of the share of development assistance for water issues

 

WHO IS DOING WHAT ALREADY?

There is a wide range of governments, international organizations and civil society organizations that have focused attention to the threat of poor management of scarce fresh water. They include:

  • The World Water Assessment Program (WWAP) is a UN-wide program to develop the tools and skills needed to achieve a better understanding of those basic processes, management practices and policies that will help improve the supply and quality of global freshwater resources. Its goals are to: assess the state of the world's freshwater resources and ecosystems; identify critical issues and problems; develop indicators and measure progress towards achieving sustainable use of water resources; help countries develop their own assessment capacity; document lessons learned and publish a World Water Development Report (WWDR) at regular intervals. For further details click here.
  • The “From Potential Conflict to Co-operation Potential (PCCP)” was launched by the UNESCO as a joint contribution of its International Hydrological Programme and the Green Cross International to the above mentioned WWAP. It addresses the challenge of shared water resource management primarily from the point of view of governments, and develops decision-making and conflict prevention tools for the future. The programme capitalizes on the desire of the concerned parties to successfully manage their shared water resources in order to create a foundation upon which peace and cooperation are consolidated. Through Research and Capacity building/enhancement activities, the programme brings players engaged in transboundary water management together and helps increase the opportunities for actual co-operation and development. PCCP’s ultimate objective is to use Track II initiatives to support and maintain peace-building processes. The goal of PCCP, in accordance with the mandate of WWAP, is to render services to UNESCO's Member States and to foster co-operation between nations. It is also guided by the Organization's paramount mandate: to nurture the idea of peace in human minds. For further details click here.
  • The EU Water Initiative was launched by the EU at the 2002 World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg (WSSD), to contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and WSSD targets for drinking water and sanitation, within the context of an integrated approach to water resources management. The EUWI is based on a participative multi-stakeholder approach. Various strategic partnerships in specific regions draw together government, civil society, private sector and other stakeholders. A number of working groups has been established. Working groups have either a regional/thematic focus (e.g. Water Supply and Sanitation in Africa) or they concentrate on cross-cutting issues (e.g. Research, Finance). An advisory board and a steering group ensure coherence of all EUWI activities. For further details click here.
  • The World Water Council is an international multi-stakeholder platform. It was established in 1996 on the initiative of renowned water specialists and international organizations, in response to an increasing concern about world water issues from the global community. Its mission is "to promote awareness, build political commitment and trigger action on critical water issues at all levels, including the highest decision-making level, to facilitate the efficient conservation, protection, development, planning, management and use of water in all its dimensions on an environmentally sustainable basis for the benefit of all life on earth." By providing a platform to encourage debates and exchanges of experience, the Council aims to reach a common strategic vision on water resources and water services management amongst all stakeholders in the water community. In the process, the Council also catalyses initiatives and activities, whose results converge toward its flagship product, the World Water Forum. For further details click here.
  • The Food and Agricultural Organization’s Water Development and Management Unit is engaged in a programmatic approach to agricultural water management addressing water use efficiency and productivity, and best practices for water use and conservation, throughout the continuum from water sources to final uses. Specific targets are integrated water resources management, water harvesting, groundwater, use of non-conventional water, modernization of irrigation systems, on-farm water management, water-quality management, agriculture-wetlands interactions, drought impact mitigation, institutional capacities, national water strategies and policies, river basin and transboundary waters management. For further details click here.

Other players and initiatives include UNDP, UNEP, UNESCO, UNICEF, OECD, World Bank, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Universities Partnership for Transboundary Waters.

 

KEY DOCUMENTS FOR REFERENCE