Water Security and Armed Conflict

Water has not just been the locus of human cooperation, as seen in our early ancient civilizations arising along the banks of desert rivers. It has also been the geography of our conflicts. Indeed, the role of water in human conflict can be seen even in our languages. For example, the word “rival” comes from the Latin word rivalis, meaning those who share a river. Water has been a strategic target and even a weapon in war. In very rare instances, disputes over water have escalated into violence. Water stress results in instability, rising food prices, and desperation, which are often dry kindling for radicalization. This chapter discusses the history of water and violence, why water is more often a source of cooperation than conflict, and the role international law has, and may, play in continuing the pattern of water as a catalyst for peace.

Conclusion

Bruce Lee, in speaking of his martial arts philosophy, said, “Be formless, shapeless—like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle. You put in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow, or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” This philosophy of martial arts illustrates two broad lessons for water governance. First, water is both a creative and destructive force, and water security requires an awareness of both sides of water. Second, water policies must be as dynamic and adaptive as water itself. Water laws must be more flexible to change with changing water conditions. This chapter discusses improving awareness of both the flow and the crash of water and how to find existing flexibility in water law and improve water law’s adaptive capacity. Finally, water is generous—it enlivens, cleanses, and beautifies. If we are to manage water, we must be water, adaptive and generous. And what better subject of our generosity than water itself. It is essential to life and is perhaps the essential cause and solution to many of life’s problems.

Water Security and Racial Discrimination

Water policies around the world are developed or applied in ways that perpetuate racial or ethnic inequalities and discrimination. From the health crisis in Flint, Michigan, in the United States, to inadequate water provision to Romani communities in Europe, to disparate impacts of water pricing in South Africa, marginalized communities consistently face greater threats of water insecurity. For indigenous peoples, the challenge of water insecurity is often all the more poignant because of the unique cultural relationship these communities often have with their traditional waters. This chapter discusses how water laws and policies can deepen and perpetuate racial and ethnic inequalities, how existing laws can be asserted to promote the water rights and water security of racial and ethnic minorities, and the unique legal tools available to indigenous communities to pursue reforms and advances to achieve water security.

Water Security and Public Health

This chapter discusses the Blue, Green, and Red Agendas of water law and policy. Thousands die every day from diseases related to water. Yet water law largely focuses on two agendas. The first agenda, the Blue Agenda, focuses on water supply and sustainability. The second agenda, the Green Agenda, focuses on water quality in nature and for human use and consumption. These two agendas often ignore, or are implemented in ways inconsistent with, the “Red Agenda.” The Red Agenda focuses on the prevention of waterborne infections, like cholera, and the control of water-related disease vectors, like mosquitoes transmitting malaria. Laws motivated by the Blue Agenda, like building a dam or irrigation system, can interfere with the Red Agenda by bringing mosquito habitat closer to humans. And laws motivated by the Green Agenda, like prohibiting discharges of pesticides into a river, can interfere with the Red Agenda by preventing a response to a malaria outbreak. This chapter describes these agendas, how and why they conflict, and how they can be better reconciled to achieve water security in public health.

Introduction

Virtually every major social challenge—from gender inequality to racial discrimination, terrorism to space exploration, disease epidemics to mass migration—has a significant water component. Sometimes the water component is obvious—such as increased drought and flood cycles due to climate change, as evidenced in the ongoing crises in Cape Town and Puerto Rico, or water contamination and racism in Flint, Michigan. But the water component to the rise of ISIS or the Zika epidemic is less obvious. Each chapter of this book takes a major social problem, illustrates the role water plays in that problem, and proposes reforms to address the water aspect of that problem. My goal in this book is to convince the reader that the answer, or at least one part of the answer, to our most serious problems is the oft-repeated late-night infomercial exhortation: “Just add water.”

Water Security and Technological Innovation

For many, the promise of technological innovation is a source of optimism in the pursuit of water security. Improved technologies allow us to use water more efficiently and conserve our water resources. But some of these technologies face legal obstacles, or else, in the case of smart appliances and meters, cultural opposition. Water augmentation technologies could conceivably increase our water supply, through desalination or cloud seeding. But these technologies have environmental costs and raise complex questions regarding water allocation and equity as wealthy countries and communities augment their water supplies through costly means. Additionally, water represents both our hope and greatest challenge for a future among the stars. This chapter discusses the role of water law in advancing technologies for water conservation, managing technologies for water augmentation, and imagining the future legal regimes associated with water rights on other planets.

Water Security and Mass Migration

The world faces an unprecedented human migration crisis, as hundreds of thousands flee famine, poverty, and violence in many parts of the globe. While the movement of these people from one country to another can appear, on the surface, as a response to current events, these migrations can perhaps be best understood with an ancient explanation. People are doing what they have done for thousands of years: they are moving to find water. While many of these refugees and immigrants would say they are seeking peace or prosperity, peace and prosperity are in part functions of water security. If we examine the movement of immigrants and refugees in recent decades, we will see a mass migration away from water insecure states and toward water secure states. This chapter discusses the role of water in migration, including how large dams both displace people and protect them from displacement, the unexpected role that protecting aquatic ecosystems has on addressing migration in urban coastal communities, and the challenge of water stress in refugee host communities.

Water Security and Gender Inequality

The burden of water insecurity is often disproportionately borne by girls and young women. In many parts of the developing world, girls and young women spend hours every day in water-gathering work for their households, often under dangerous conditions and even more often in ways that effectively prevent them from pursuing an education or other employment. Additionally, cultural taboos surrounding menstruation and inadequate hygiene and sanitation facilities add to the burden of water insecurity borne by women. Advancing water security is one of the most important goals for improving gender equality. While water laws can aggravate gender inequality in the water, sanitation, and hygiene sector, human rights laws can also help address those challenges. Additionally, legal reforms to encourage greater stakeholder participation and broader access to landownership can further improve water security and the vital role women play in its advance.

Water Security and Human Rights

There is a growing movement in both international human rights law and within domestic national constitutions to recognize water as a human right. In this movement, the human right to water is almost exclusively formulated as a positive right—an obligation on the government to provide a minimum quantity and quality of affordable water. However, this formulation can be interpreted and implemented in ways that frustrate goals of water sustainability, because water may be underpriced as a human right. This chapter describes the history and evolution of the human right to water and proposes reforms to encourage its sustainable implementation.

Water Security and Climate Change

Climate change is the dominant paradigm in natural resource policy. It is also obsolete and should be replaced by the water-security paradigm. The climate change paradigm is obsolete because it does not resonate sufficiently with the general public and because it does not adequately integrate sustainability challenges related to population growth and economic development. The water-security paradigm addresses these deficiencies by speaking directly to the reasons climate change ultimately matters to most people—droughts, floods, plagues, and wars. Additionally, water security integrates climate change concerns with economic development and population. The water-security paradigm reorients all natural resource policies toward achieving a sustainable quantity and quality of water at acceptable costs and risks. The water-security paradigm improves upon the climate change paradigm by replacing carbon footprints with water footprints as the metric for sustainability monitoring and reporting, and by restructuring natural resource governance at the watershed level with regional, rather than hierarchical, leadership.