Mark Twain once remarked that “Whisky is for drinking; water is for fighting over.” Fresh water is a very precious and limited natural resource even though water covers about 71 per cent of the earth’s surface. Fresh water makes up a very small fraction of water available on Earth ~ between 2.5 and 3 per cent. The remaining 97.5 per cent is saline and in the oceans and seas. Of the fresh water on earth, 68.7 per cent is locked in ice caps, glaciers and frozen; 29.9 per cent is stored underground; 1.2 per cent is found in rivers, lakes, dam, streams and wetlands; and 0.04 per cent is in the form of water vapour in the atmosphere.

The scarcity of fresh water has been aggravated by a number of factors such as climate change, demographic growth, urbanisation, pollution, poor management of water resources, collapsed infrastructure and outbreak of conflicts over water. Indeed, sources of precious freshwater re sources remain unevenly distributed across Earth. While nations like Brazil, the former Soviet States and Canada have an abundant natural supply of fresh water, Nature seems to be less generous to the arid zones of the Middle East and numerous African nations. As per United Nations Watercourses Convention “260 River Basins are shared by two or more countries and can become sources of tension or cooperation.”

Advertisement

Water resources and water infrastructure are not only triggers of conflict ~ they can be used as weapons as well. Key facts relating to the global availability of fresh water as identified by UNICEF are: one, nearly four billion people ~ almost two thirds of the world’s population ~ experience severe water scarcity for at least one month each year; two, over two million people live in countries where water supply is inadequate; three, around half the world’s population could be living in areas facing water scarcity by as early as 2025; four, some 700 million people could be displaced by intense water scarcity by 2030; and finally, by 2040, roughly one in four children worldwide would live in areas with very limited water, increasing the risk of illness, water poverty, and conflicts. Territorial disputes, competitions for this precious natural resource, and strategic advantages gave birth to water wars.

Advertisement

Indeed, a wide range of water wars have occurred through history. The former VicePresident of World Bank aptly warned three decades ago that “If the wars of this........

© The Statesman