Water Wars Research Articles

Water Wars in the Southeast

For the past two decades there has been a more heated war between the two states over water supply. Florida, along with Alabama, claims that Georgia ‐ Atlanta in particular ‐ is taking more than its fair share of water from the Chattahoochee, Flint, and Apalachicola River Basins, which is having adverse effects on the economies and the environments of Florida and Alabama. Florida and Alabama point to Atlanta's burgeoning population and the resultant water demands as the root of the problem. It will be interesting to see how Florida's recent lawsuit, in which one state directly sues another, will turn out and what the implications will be for other states in which similar water disputes exist.

Water, peace, and war: confronting the global water crisis

Introduction: Our Most Precious Resource under Threat Chapter 1: The Specter of Water Wars Chapter 2: The Power of Water Chapter 3: The Future of Water Chapter 4: Changing Water Cooperation, Competition, and Conflict Chapter 5: Shaping Water for Peace and Profit Appendix A: Web Links to International Water Norms Appendix B: Genuine Intercountry Water-Sharing Treaties Currently in Effect Glossary

U.S. environmental history: inviting doomsday

Introduction: Border Crossings 1. First Nations 2. The Colonial Gaze 3. The Fur Trade 4. Forging National Landscapes 5. Saving Nature 6. Water Wars 7. North American Doomsdays 8. Environmental Protest 9. Contemporary Boundaries Conclusion: The 49th Parallel.

Bolivia's Next Water War

Bolivian social movements have received considerable international attention for their successful antiprivatization protests in recent years. In particular, residents in the cities of Cochabamba and, later, El Alto successfully mobilized to reverse water concessions that prioritized private profit over water access. These protests represent an important first step in developing a more just means of water governance, but they did not help address many of the issues that led to privatization in the first place including increasing water scarcity due to climate change. In this article, we sketch the history of water concessions in Bolivia and the movements born out of the extreme social and economic costs of water privatization. Next, we discuss the ongoing difficulties that social movement actors face in their efforts to reclaim water rights and build municipal water structures based upon the principles of social justice and conservation. Finally, we examine the possibility of collaboration between ex – “water warriors,” largely from urban and periurban areas, and the largely rural activists focused on managing the effects of global warming.

Water Wars, Talking Water: Art, Activism and the Eco-politics of Whitman’s Walk to the Water

'Babble on, O brook, with that utterance of thine … I will learn from thee, and dwell on thee – receive, copy, print from thee' (Specimen Days 1882). Walt Whitman, in lyrical communion with a mountain stream (Timber Creek, New Jersey), pledges a reverence towards the natural world that is as instructive in the 21st century as it was in late 19th century America. Whitman 'sings' as poet-activist. in listening to the water, he voices a call to human beings to practice what is now referred to as ecological consciousness – or, in Timothy Morton's words, the 'radical openness of ecological thought'. That the waters of the stream 'minister' to the poet is doubly significant; for it is the degradation of rivers and streams worldwide that so graphically marks the despoliation of fresh water supplies globally, and, both geographically and symbolically, maps the battlelines of the looming water wars of our time. In this essay, I will trace connections between Whitman’s Transcendentalist conceptions of the poet (and artist) as prototypical political 'eco-activist' and the later writings of figures such as Rachael Carson (Silent Spring 1962) and Edward Hoagland (Sex and the River Styx 2011). Comparative reference will also be made to the 'wars' over water in Australia and the United States, and the role of rivers in the cultural imagination of both nations.

The Edwards Aquifer Water Wars: The Final Chapter?

On December 28, 2011, the Edwards Aquifer Authority’s Board of Directors approved the recommendations of the Edwards Aquifer Recovery Implementation Program with respect to a historic Habitat Conservation Plan. The Habitat Conservation Plan could resolve decades of acrimonious rancor and litigation over the use of the Edwards Aquifer. It provides the protection required by the federal Endangered Species Act for 8 listed species stemming from the use of the Edwards Aquifer and associated Comal and San Marcos springs while recognizing the region’s ever-growing need for water. The plan was developed by a diverse group of stakeholders through a consensus-based process and submitted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on January 5, 2012, in support of the Edwards Aquifer Recovery Implementation Program’s application for an Incidental Take Permit. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service noticed the availability of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for public comment and conducted 7 public meetings to receive public comment. The public comment period closed on October 18, 2012. On February 15, 2013, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued its Record of Decision approving the issuance of the Incidental Take Permit and the Habitat Conservation Plan. This paper discusses the history of the dispute over the use of the aquifer, previous attempts to resolve the dispute, the strategic plan for protecting the aquifer, and the decision-making process used to develop the plan. Citation: Gulley RL, Cantwell JB. 2013. The Edwards Aquifer Water Wars: The Final Chapter? Texas Water Journal. 4(1):1-21. Available from: https://doi.org/10.21423/twj.v4i1.6423.

Five centuries of Upper Indus River flow from tree rings

Water wars are a prospect in coming years as nations struggle with the effects of climate change, growing water demand, and declining resources. The Indus River supplies water to the world’s largest contiguous irrigation system generating 90% of the food production in Pakistan as well as 13 gigawatts of hydroelectricity. Because any gap between water supply and demand has major and far-reaching ramifications, an understanding of natural flow variability is vital – especially when only 47 years of instrumental record is available. A network of tree-ring sites from the Upper Indus Basin (UIB) was used to reconstruct river discharge levels covering the period AD 1452–2008. Novel methods tree-ring detrending based on the ‘signal free’ method and estimation of reconstruction uncertainty based on the ‘maximum entropy bootstrap’ are used. This 557-year record displays strong inter-decadal fluctuations that could not have been deduced from the short gauged record. Recent discharge levels are high but not statistically unprecedented and are likely to be associated with increased meltwater from unusually heavy prior winter snowfall. A period of prolonged below-average discharge is indicated during AD 1572–1683. This unprecedented low-flow period may have been a time of persistently below-average winter snowfall and provides a warning for future water resource planning. Our reconstruction thus helps fill the hydrological information vacuum for modeling the Hindu Kush–Karakoram–Himalayan region and is useful for planning future development of UIB water resources in an effort to close Pakistan’s “water gap”. Finally, the river discharge reconstruction provides the basis for comparing past, present, and future hydrologic changes, which will be crucial for detection and attribution of hydroclimate change in the Upper Indus Basin.

Modern irrigation techniques in Najaf Governorate and the available spatial capabilities

In light of the water scarcity experienced by the whole world, and Iraq is among them, it is necessary to study how to preserve the available water wealth, whether surface or underground. Experts say that wars in the future will be water wars, especially since Iraq suffers from the problem of the sources of its rivers, most of which are from outside its borders. This is why it is necessary to study how to preserve every drop of water available and use it optimally. In light of this aspect, it was found that agriculture goes to it from the amount of water 80%, and in line with the development reached by the countries of the world through the use of irrigation techniques suitable for the area of ​​cultivated agricultural crops Taking into account the crops' water requirements.

Water Wars in Mumbai

This essay excavates the complex politics of water in contemporary Mumbai. In the context of a burgeoning water crisis in the city, it explores in detail how the city’s social and political elites demonize the efforts of inhabitants of Mumbai’s slums to hydrate their communities. Such demonization is paralleled by legal crackdowns and the deliberate destruction of improvised water infrastructure. The essay uses the Mumbai case study to reveal the costs of marginalizing the majority urban poor in global megacities: in public health, death rates, and communicable and waterborne diseases; in the burden of waiting for and carrying water (especially for women and children); in the burden of incurring high water expenses; in water extortion against the poor by predatory rackets; and in the problems of systematic dehydration.

The Giant and the Waterbaby

This paper uses Owens Valley Paiute oral traditions to tell and interpret the Owens Valley Water Wars. Paiute oral traditions detail their identity, historical consciousness, and offer an Indigenous interpretation of the Water Wars. They reframe the time period of the Water Wars, identify new antagonists and considers how the Water Wars affected Paiute women. In the end, this paper demonstrates the importance of using Indigenous systems of knowledge to understand California's history.

Water wars

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Water Wars by Other Means: Virtual Water and Global Economic Restructuring

In the mid-1990s, Tony Allan coined the term “virtual water” to describe international grain shipments, arguing that for purposes of economic efficiency and political legitimacy, governments in water-scarce nations would be better served by importing grain and diverting limited domestic water supplies to higher-value purposes than by producing grain. This concept has gained considerable traction in explaining the absence of “water wars,” particularly in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). As a prescriptive policy measure, I argue first that the exemplarity of the MENA serves an ideological function, premised on a market environmentalist approach, and framing “water crisis” as a problem of physical scarcity rather than underdevelopment. Historical trends in virtual water imports, as well as the problem of American primacy in virtual water exports, are then used to develop an account of virtual water trade that situates it within the political and economic restructuring associated with US-led globalization.

Conflicts Associated with Exempt Wells: A Spaghetti Western Water War

Abstract:The saga over exempt wells in the western United States and Canada epitomizes a new type of water conflict – a spaghetti‐western water war. The political melodrama stars local governments to serve as sheriff of water‐supply planning duties. Exempt wells number in the millions, and herding the growing numbers is testing the mettle of the states and provinces responsible for the management, allocation, and protection of natural resources. The separation of laws governing ground water and surface water, coupled with changes in geography and geology within a jurisdiction, compound the administrative riddle and give rise to a broad spectrum of conflicts, from differing interpretations of hydrogeologic data, economic impacts associated with increasing the herd, to differing identities associated with the use of ground water from the exempt wells. Despite the political melodrama of exempt wells, there is room and willingness for other trails and paths to keep the herd intact. This paper describes the different breeds of conflicts associated with exempt wells and gives examples of how the mysterious stranger of collaborative decision making processes and water governance systems can ride into town and lead to successful water management and conflict resolution.

Digging into “Resource War” Beliefs

Water wars, oil conflicts and blood diamonds. Three terms reflecting a widespread belief that people fight over resources. Is this belief backed by evidence? What power relations does such a belief reflect and shape? If natural resources have a conspicuous presence in accounts of armed conflicts, the term ‘resource wars’ represents a gross oversimplification. Strategically deployed to prepare for ‘the wars of the future’ or to shame belligerents by exposing their ‘greedy’ motives, ‘resource war’ narratives often overlook the multiple causes of conflict and alternative options to militarized resource control. A main threat from ‘resource wars’ narratives is that they become self-fulfilling prophecies. As such, ‘resource wars’ studies should first be self-reflexive, and then strive to encompass the broad causes, specific historical contexts, and wide variety of effects that resource sectors have on the environment and social relations.

Geopolitics of Water: Sustaining Environmental and Human Rights Implications

Water is an imperative element for life and an indispensable resource for a nation. Its abundance or scarcity significantly affects the national power. It widely contributes to the core sectors such as health, agriculture, industry etc. which makes it immensely important for socio-economic welfare and development of a nation. Its indispensability and usefulness often makes it a subject of dispute among countries and in some cases also within a country. Desperation and apprehension of water shortages have fueled a number of conflicts in many regions around the world. ‘Water Wars’ as they are called have become one of the vital issues of the contemporary international as well as national affairs. The economic importance of water escalates such clashes. The conflicts revolve around who has the power to own and control water so as to enhance its economy. Seldom are such disputes resolved by negotiations and arbitrations, and most often, the parties to the dispute resort to the use of force to gain their control over the disputed water. A lot of environmental issues and violation of human rights have aggravated such water wars. This paper examines how water disputes impact the environment and human rights and how they aggravate such disputes. The wastes produced by the use of military forces, the chemicals and leftovers of the weapons used during the wars affect the supply of water. The wastes discharged by the industries and agricultural activities if not disposed properly tamper with the ground water and thereby causes difficulties in water supply. The river projects like constructing dams and commissioning barrages may deter the silt from being flown into the river which would otherwise fertilize the land and make it apt for agriculture, erode the banks which would otherwise be replenished by the silt carried down by the river and such erosions even sweep the deltas into the seas. Urbanization in the name of developing the societies and the increase in population tend to use more resources like water and thereby increase its demand, but the uneven distribution of water cannot satisfy such demand and hence breaks out the conflict. The tensions between the countries involved in the water dispute often lead to armed conflicts and such skirmishes violate the human rights. Moreover, when more than one country share the same source of water, the one having an upper hand often dominates and controls the water supply thereby making others having little access to it which also amounts to the violation of human rights. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the historical evolution of the conflicts, identify the political and economic factors that impact such conflicts, critically examine the causes of the environmental problems and the resulting environmental security and human rights issues, investigate the effectiveness of the cooperation between the countries or states within the countries as the case may be and the multilateral and bilateral bargaining to resolve such disputes. In this respect the paper examines the Nile river dispute, Indo-Bangladesh water dispute and a few other water disputes persisting among the Middle East countries. The paper concludes by throwing some light on certain aspects that may not be clear at this point of time, propose strategies to study and address the problems, apply the available data for making policies and recommend certain solutions so as to resolve the ongoing problems.

Exploring the Textured Landscape of Water Insecurity and the Human Right to Water

he last decade has seen historic advances in the formal establishment of the human right to water and global agreements on development goals that target improved access to water and sanitation. How...

Water wars in 21st century: speculation or reality?

Whether, the world will have to deal with 'water war(s)' in 21st century or beyond for competition over shared international freshwater resources? Nothing is one sided - each and every time - there is other side of the story. This is so true for the two schools of thoughts - that exists in current academic debate - for and against the possibility of water wars. This introductory paper argues that perceived fears of losing control over shared water might contribute towards a constant preparedness to go to war among riparian nations. It emphasises that while this kind of academic debate - for and against water wars - is healthy, it is also important that instead of outright dismissal of any school of thought as a myth, water professionals should equip themselves with the tools to uproot the root causes of the fears behind the water wars debate. This urgent need is the essence behind the idea of this special issue, not to put an end to this debate.

Three lenses on water war, peace and hegemonic struggle on the Nile

The present contribution will argue that ‘water wars’ and ‘water peace’ are not objective ‘facts’ but narratives reflecting competing world views. The two narratives are lenses shedding different lights on the same phenomenon. In addition to the narratives underlying the water-peace debate a third narrative can be adduced, that has a different, critical perspective on water wars, that has a very different interpretation of water conflict, looking at how local forces express global hegemonic struggles. Each of these has a different and credible account on why there has been no violence between states, and the role of hegemons and regimes in this. This paper pays special attention to regime formation. While the neo-realist and liberal-institutionalist schools have seen a gradual approximation since the 1980s (the neo-neo-consensus) they have different views of international regime cooperation and its drivers, notably the stabilising role of hegemons. The third, critical narrative again revives a different, underexposed strand in regimes analysis. Since ‘regimes begin at home’ (Waterbury, 2002), this paper also looks at the internal dynamics in Egypt.

Drinking Water and Exclusion: A Case Study from California's Central Valley

The American West is notorious for its water wars, and California’s complex water allocation and governance challenges serve as a bellwether for contemporary water governance across western states. Policy makers and environmental advocates typically represent California’s water woes as a regulatory problem—a failure to balance the needs of growing urban populations with ecological preservation and agricultural irrigation. These debates, however, often elide the issue of water deprivation, and they do not adequately address the concerns of an important constituency: low-income, rural communities.

U.S. Energy Security and Water: The Challenges We Face

U.S. Energy Security and Water: The Challenges We Face