Water Wars Research Articles

Indus Water Treaty in the Doldrums Due to Water–Power Nexus

Hydropower dams on rivers in the Indus Basin are becoming new elements in power geopolitics due to the threat of “aqua bombs” to downstream regions. Water law may limit such perceived water wars. The transboundary river water sharing agreements that bind bordering states are overstretched, particularly between Pakistan and India. Meanwhile, factors such as the expansion in industry and population, global warming, and reduction in oil and gas resources diminish scarce natural water resources. In addition, due to water pumping at levels above natural recharge rates, the underground water table has reached a state of continual free fall in the Indian and Pakistani Punjab. This work points out the dire need to reform international law to address such transboundary river conflicts, as water conflicts may become fully fledged armed conflicts with the current approach. The concurrence of power, energy, food, and water crises may wreak havoc on international river agreements if not addressed in international law. However, the laws that define rights among developed states may not be suitable for developing countries, and water and food security are critical issues for sovereign nations. Water sustains life, effectively determining all other geopolitical issues. The aim of this work is to investigate how international law could be adjusted with regard to international water sharing in order to resolve issues such as the energy crisis, economic collapse, global warming, and climate change.

‘Social Control’ and the Politics of Public Participation in Water Remunicipalization, Cochabamba, Bolivia

During the Water War in 2000, residents of Cochabamba, Bolivia, famously mobilized against water privatization and gained back public control of the city’s water utility. Nearly two decades later, the water movement’s vision of democratic water provision under the participatory management of ‘social control’ remains largely unfulfilled. This paper points to the difficulties in rebuilding a strong public water service in Cochabamba, focusing on the different—and often incompatible—understandings and interpretations of public participation. Addressing the concept’s malleability to a spectrum of ideologies, this paper builds a typology of different kinds of participation according to their intentionality, outcomes, tools, and practices. Applying this framework to the water politics in Bolivia serves to untangle competing perspectives of participation, uncover whose interests are served, and which groups are included or excluded from access to water and decision-making. This analysis reveals how transformative participation has failed to take hold within the municipal service provider in Cochabamba.

Touching with Light, or, How Texture Recasts the Sensing of Underground Water

This paper is an ethnographic examination of the early social life of a project to map Costa Rica’s aquifers using LandSat imagery and a specialized algorithm. The project aims to make subterranean formations accessible for public agencies mediating recent environmental conflicts over underground water, which have been diagnosed as the country’s first “water war.” I analyze the presentation to the public of this project and the technology it uses to show how vision and touch are conceptual resources that people use to describe the technicalities of satellite imagery. Attending to the semiotic and technical power of vision and touch requires a nonessentialist understanding of the senses. It requires moving away from a narrow understanding of sensing as embodied, phenomenological practice. Focusing on the role of texture as that which operates in the interstices of vision and touch, I propose going beyond panoptic imaginaries in order to grasp the diverse social lives that technologies such as satellite imaging have.

In (Not so) Deep Water: The Texas–New Mexico Water War and the Unworkable Provisions of the Rio Grande Compact

In the 2018 Supreme Court case, Texas v. New Mexico, Texas claimed that New Mexico breached its obligations under the Rio Grande Compact of 1938 by allowing groundwater pumping in New Mexico south of Elephant Butte Reservoir. The Rio Grande Compact is one of many interstate water compacts in the western United States. The Compact requires Colorado and New Mexico to pay river water to the respective downstream states based on 1929 river conditions. The Supreme Court jurisprudence over interstate water disputes has wavered between concepts of equity (through the Court’s power of equitable apportionment) and contract law, which makes it difficult to predict how the Court will eventually hold in the Texas–New Mexico dispute. Regardless of how the Court holds, the underlying problem of unworkable provisions of the Rio Grande Compact will continue to present problems. Interstate water compacts have a common flaw of failing to consider changing factors that affect water availability such as decreased precipitation and snowcap runoff as well as increased temperatures, evaporation and population growth, which all result in lower river flows. The Rio Grande Compact must be amended and restructured to provide for considerations of climatic factors and changes that affect river flows and water availability. The Rio Grande Compact should borrow some concepts from the Utton Transboundary Resource Center’s Model Interstate Water Compact, but the Model Compact fails to address the important climatic factors. Without the consideration of these factors, the sustainability of interstate water resources will diminish entirely. The Rio Grande Compact and its Commission must be structured to consider these climatic factors and provide for the best interest of the Rio Grande itself as a vital and diminishing natural resource.

Hydraulic society and a “stupid little fish”: toward a historical ontology of endangerment

Endangered species are objects of intense scientific scrutiny and political conflict. This article focuses on the interplay among human-nonhuman relations, knowledge production, and the politics of endangerment. Advancing a historical ontology of endangerment, it highlights the role of transforming the nonhuman world in the coming to be of new objects of environmental knowledge. Such knowledge can provide the basis for credible claims of endangerment, facilitating mobilizations against the very human-nonhuman relations that produced it. An in-depth case study of the delta smelt, an endangered species of fish caught in the center of California’s “water wars,” shows how changes in the instrumentalization of the nonhuman environment can produce new knowledge of nature that allows actors to make claims and form coalitions that would be otherwise inconceivable. Because its sole habitat is the hub of California’s water delivery system, efforts to save the species from extinction have reduced flows to farms and cities, fomenting conflict between environmentalists and water users. This article demonstrates that the taxonomic classification of the delta smelt as a species and evidence of its decline arose directly from the reengineering of California’s rivers for extractive ends. Ironically, the knowledge on which environmental advocates relied was a product of the instrumental relation to nature that they sought to transform.

ДО ПИТАННЯ ДЕРЖАВНОЇ БЕЗПЕКИ І МІЖНАРОДНОЇ СТАБІЛЬНОСТІ В УМОВАХ «ЕКОЛОГІЧНИХ ВІЙН» ХХІ СТОЛІТТЯ

В статті здійснюється спроба, спираючись на прогностично-аналітичні проекти провідних експертів сучасної гуманітаристики (З. Бауман, А. Безгодов, Л. Браун, О. Дженсен, С. Постел, Е. Уілсон, К. Кванг Фун та ін.), визначити локальні та глобальні ризики від наслідків зміни клімату та незворотності екологічних трансформацій ХХІ століття. Акцентовано увагу на тому, що в умовах «надзвичайної кліматично-екологічної ситуації» (масштабні природні катаклізми, стихійні лиха, голод, криза прісної води, масова міграція, епідемії тощо) – основним джерелом соціально-політичної напруги та міжнародної дестабілізації стане боротьба за «базові ресурси» (продовольство, вода, медичне забезпечення, території придатні для життя та ін.). Вочевидь, «Війни за Воду», «Голодні Війни» та «Війни за Життєвий Простір» – стануть потужними генераторами глибокої дестабілізації в окремих регіонах світу, провокуючи суспільно-політичні кризи, військові конфлікти, гуманітарні катастрофи та крупно масштабні міграційні процеси і визначатимуть формат внутрішньої та зовнішньої політики держав в найближчому майбутньому.

Politics and activism in the water and sanitation wars in South Africa

This paper focuses on the ways in which activism is undermined in the water and sanitation wars in South Africa. The paper extends previous work that has focused on the politics of water and sanitation in South Africa and is based on an analysis of talk between activists and stakeholders in a television debate. It attempts to make two arguments. First, activists who disrupt powerful discourses of active citizenship struggle to highlight water and sanitation injustices without their actions being individualised and party politicised. Second, in an attempt to claim a space for new social movements, activists paradoxically draw on common sense accounts of race, class, geography, dignity and democracy that may limit activism. The implications for water and sanitation activism and future research are discussed.

The neglected costs of water peace

Referring to the analytical definition of water wars, several scholars have coherently argued against the “water leads to war thesis.” There are four arguments that have contributed to successfully dispel the myths of water wars: (a) interstate cooperation prevails over conflict; (b) development of new technologies increases freshwater availability; (c) the intrinsic characteristics of water as a resource do not justify interstate military intervention; (d) virtual water trade provides the opportunity to circumvent local water scarcity. These arguments converge demonstrating that rather than water wars in the future, water peace will prevail. While we agree with these arguments on the low likelihood of future water wars, we find that hydropolitical theories have generally neglected the fact that the conditions for interstate water peace come with high socio‐environmental costs. In particular, the central idea that virtual water trade resolve issues of local water scarcity and therefore reduces tensions and escalation of violence among different countries does not fully take into account the fact that dynamics of transnational water appropriation have serious socio‐environmental impacts on the virtual water exporting countries. To conceptualize this phenomenon we introduce the notion of “hidden socio‐environmental costs of virtual water transfer,” which is understood as a specific form of environmental cost‐shifting. The empirical support to our reasoning comes from the study of transnational large‐scale land acquisitions which represent an expanding phenomenon central in the contemporary global agrarian transformation.This article is categorized under: Engineering Water > Planning Water Human Water > Rights to Water Human Water > Water Governance

As Precious as Blood: The Western Slope in Colorado’s Water Wars, 1900–1970

As Precious as Blood: The Western Slope in Colorado’s Water Wars, 1900–1970

Taking liberties with democracy? On the origins, meaning and implications of the Irish water wars

This paper offers a reading of anti-austerity protests in the Irish Republic, placing under scrutiny in particular the origins, meaning, and implications of the country's water wars. It notes the proclivity of some post-crash anti-austerity populisms to fall prey to a politics of retrenchment and exclusion and even to degenerate into nationalist spasms or what Jean Paul Sartre would term fraternity terrorisms. It contributes conceptual novelty to existing human geographical scholarship on protest movements by convening Jean Paul Sartre and Judith Butler in conversation; registering therein the political potential of the fused group, performing popular sovereignty through public assembly. What makes the Irish case fascinating and worthy of scrutiny is the fact that protest never ossified and totalised into an oppressive or regressive form of political populism. Our central argument is that Ireland's water protest movement was effective because it was constituted from outside mainstream politics; from molecular and atomised struggles which scaled and agglomerated into large public assemblies which, whilst ultimately inchoate and indeterminate, signified that popular sovereignty had usurped the centre-right representative regime and challenged the latter's right to custody over democracy.

Towards a New Paradigm in Water Management: Cochabamba’s Water Agenda from an Ethical Approach

The Cochabamba Water War (2000) is well renowned for being a part of the civil society versus water service delivery debate. From a situation of service privatization, limited access, and an inexistent institutional framework in 2000, the current situation in the Cochabamba Valley faces increasing water scarcity within a weak institutional set up. To alleviate the situation, the government of Evo Morales has been actively funding projects considering an Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) but confronting customary water rights in rural communities and thus increasing the level of conflict between water uses. Amid these two water management practices appears the Agenda del Agua Cochabamba (AdA)—the Cochabamba Water Agenda—claiming water as part of the commons and not a resource. This paper explains the paradigm’s values behind the conflicting IWRM and water rights’ water management practices and analyses the AdA under a governability framework identifying the barriers and drivers for its implementation.

An ecologist's guide to careers in science policy advising

An ecologist's guide to careers in science policy advising

Water Wars? Tension in the Nile River Basin

With an ever-growing world population, rising living standards, pollution, and climate change's uncertain weather patterns, it became almost a platitude that “the previous war was about oil, the next war will be about water.” Of all water-related situations that might lead to war, the Nile basin tension was probably most likely to escalate. In the early 2000s, Ethiopia conceived a plan to build the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam across the Blue Nile, close to its border with Sudan, straining relations with downstream Egypt and Sudan. Could such smoldering tensions over water in a region with a history of conflict lead to war? This case is part of the “Global Economics of Water” course, a second-year elective for MBA students at the Darden School of Business. The case would also fit in any class that focuses on natural resources or international relations. It is used as an introduction to the water topic, as it touches upon some key aspects of water stress and the world's current water challenges. Excerpt UVA-GEM-0162 Rev. Dec. 18, 2018 Water Wars? Tension in the Nile River Basin With an ever-growing world population, rising living standards, pollution, and climate change's uncertain weather patterns, water stress began to receive more attention at the beginning of the 21st century. While freshwater resources were very unevenly distributed (see Exhibit1), water use had reached sustainable limits in many regions. Agriculture in particular was responsible for over 70% of human water use (see Exhibit2). With heightened competition for such an essential resource, analysts predicted rising security risks, especially among countries sharing a river basin. Since Joyce R. Starr's 1991 article, “Water Wars,” a common concern among intelligence services and in public debates was that these heightened water security risks might trigger war. It became almost a platitude that “the previous war was about oil, the next war will be about water.” United Nations (UN) Secretary Generals warned of water wars, with Ban Ki Moon pronouncing in 2007 that “water scarcity threatens economic and social gains and is potential fuel for wars and conflict,” and Kofi Annan before him stating that “fierce competition for freshwater may well become a source of conflict and wars in the future.” Even though rivers were an essential source of water, and increasingly subject to water withdrawal, many experts in hydropolitics who studied conflicts over transboundary water resources were skeptical about water war predictions. Professors Nils Gleditsch and Aaron Wolf were among the first to study water wars without focusing on singular cases. They assessed the likelihood of water wars in large samples of occurrences of conflict and war. They found very few instances of wars primarily motivated by water. Gleditsch and Wolf's view became the consensus opinion. Large event studies that defined conflicts much more broadly showed, however, that water issues did contribute to tensions among riparian neighbors. Water could also be a tool of war. In particular, the Nile basin with its 11 riparian neighbors attracted attention, as threats of a water war were often explicit in this region (see Exhibit 3). . . .

When States Go Thirsty: A Critical Analysis of Water War Thesis

This paper discusses water war thesis. It argues that water war thesis is loosely based on the arguments by different world leaders, and writers which state that the new fault lines between states will be drawn on waters. The basic premise of the water war thesis rests on the argument of water crisis; the demand-supply gap will make states thirsty for water. It asserts that as climate changes unfold and population of the world increases, the thirsty states of the world will vie for water resources which will result in water wars. However, there are different writers who challenge the thesis by arguing that instead of generating conflict, water scarcity will induce cooperation amongst riparian states. This paper mainly focuses on this question of whether water scarcity results in conflict or cooperation. In other words, it offers a critical analysis of the water war thesis

As Precious as Blood: The Western Slope in Colorado's Water Wars, 1900–1970

As Precious as Blood: The Western Slope in Colorado's Water Wars, 1900–1970

As Precious as Blood: The Western Slope in Colorado’s Water Wars, 1900–1970. By Steven C. Schulte. Boulder: University of Colorado Press, 2016. xv + 286 pp. Illustrations, map, bibliography, notes, and index. Cloth $41.00, e-book $33.00.

<i>As Precious as Blood: The Western Slope in Colorado’s Water Wars, 1900–1970</i>. By Steven C. Schulte. Boulder: University of Colorado Press, 2016. xv + 286 pp. Illustrations, map, bibliography, notes, and index. Cloth $41.00, e-book $33.00.

As Precious as Blood: The Western Slope in Colorado’s Water Wars, 1900–1970. By Steven C. Schulte

As Precious as Blood: The Western Slope in Colorado’s Water Wars, 1900–1970. By Steven C. Schulte

Savages and saviours in Icíar Bollaín’s También la lluvia/Even the Rain

Abstract Acclaimed Spanish director Icíar Bollaín’s También la lluvia/Even the Rain (2010) is a fictionalized account of the Cochabamba Water Wars of 2000, whose title alludes to local protestors’ claim that the US-based corporation Bechtel sought to control and tax even the rain water that peasants collected. While También la lluvia may be a thoughtful attempt to denounce the oppression of native peoples, it in fact epitomizes the white saviour trope that has been prevalent in American and British cinema for years. In this study, I argue that the film adheres to what sociologist Joe Feagin calls a ‘white racial frame’ that perpetuates the perceived universality of the white European gaze by depicting fictional filmmakers Costa and Sebastián as ‘white saviour’ figures and indigenous community leader Daniel as a ‘noble savage’. The result is a film made by and for white westerners that replicates traditional western ways of portraying racial and cultural difference.

Remote Sensing Satellites as a Solution Towards Anticipating Food and Water Wars

No abstract available

Framing and blaming in the Cochabamba water agenda: local, municipal and regional perspectives

We present framings of water issues at three administrative levels in Cochabamba, Bolivia to increase insight of how actors’ perspectives facilitate, obstruct or strengthen suggested actions or solutions. Participatory vulnerability assessments were conducted with leaders in one peri-urban community and municipal and regional officials in water-related sectors. Actors framed water problems and potential solutions differently, placing blame most often at other levels of responsibility. While all pointed to the municipality as responsible for solving the most acute water problems, it was acknowledged that the municipality consistently underperforms in its responsibilities. All actors promoted concrete and detailed technical measures as solutions to many problems while governance-related ones such as training and increased cooperation between different levels were only discussed at an abstract level. While fiscal federalism would fit some of the suggested management solutions, issues such as ecosystem protection and flooding with cross-border externalities might require shared yet clearly defined responsibilities between different levels. We suggest that the water war of 2000 and the framings that emerged from it have so strongly impacted the current water management situation that alternative management models and solutions are rarely discussed.