Conflict Management of Water Resources

Manas Chatterji, Saul Arlosoroff, Gauri Guha, Manas Chatterji, Saul Arlosoroff, Gauri Guha

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351737982
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Sciences sociales
• Subtopic: Sociologie

This title was first published in 2002: Now that the Cold War is over, ethnic and regional conflicts are emerging over resources and the environment. The management of water, the lifeblood of any country, is becoming a vital issue. This volume offers a study of conflict management of water resources. It includes some selected papers presented at an international meeting, held at the Mahatma Gandhi Center of Conflict Prevention and Management in Ahmedabad, India. Other invited papers have also been included in the collection. Obviously it was not possible to address here all aspects of the vast field of water management. The main focus of this work is the management of water conflict and its implications for peace.

Part I
Implications and Resolutions of Water Resource Management Issues

1 Introduction*

MANAS CHATTERJI

The greatest challenge facing humankind is to bridge the gap between the incomes of the developed and developing world. Although the rate. of global population growth has not yet reached the levels previously feared, the exploding world population will exert an enormous pressure on air, water, energy, land and other resources. Unfortunately, these resources are not equally distributed. Water, for example, is not always contained within the political boundaries of a single state. Usually when it is shared by a number of countries, there is a potential for political conflict between nations.

The importance of water in global economic development is obvious. The vast population of the world is living under subsistence level. Poverty, malnutrition and inadequate food production are pervasive throughout the world. Water is crucial for agricultural development. However, only a small portion of irrigated land is being used, particularly in the developed world. In many situations water development has been focused mainly on hydropower production, domestic drinking and industrial use and not much is left over for irrigation.

Currently, there is a severe shortage of drinking water. A great majority of the world's inhabitants are without safe drinking water. The consumption of highly polluted drinking water is leading to serious health problems. The arsenic poisoning of drinking water from wells is seriously affecting the population of South Asia and elsewhere. The indiscriminate construction of dams has affected both marine and avian lives, as well as destroying age-old agricultural practices. Urbanization and unsupervised industrial development drastically pollute river water (which is used for drinking purposes) with highly toxic chemicals.

This has become a crisis situation, particularly in the arid and semiarid areas where many people in Africa and Asia live. In these areas, the rate of population growth and the pressure on limited resources is highest. It is estimated that by 2000, only three countries Turkey, Iran and Sudan (in the Middle East and Africa) would have per capita incomes above the minimum acceptable level.

In the past century, global water consumption has seen a tenfold increase due to the demands of exploding populations and their material demands. The availability of supplies of finite resources like water and energy has in many areas already been exhausted. The marginal cost of development is quite high and without a change in public environmental consciousness, funds will be scarce. Due to indiscriminate pollution, the quality of extant water is deteriorating and this reduces the overall available supply. The development of water resources has been greatly delayed by the ambivalence and negligence of the public. For all these reasons, the management of water resources will be a key issue for policy makers in the 21^st century.

Generally, when we talk about water resources, we talk about rivers, lakes and aquifers. Although it may appear that it is easy to identify international rivers and basins, in practice this is not the case. The most comprehensive attempt to list all international river and lake basins was made by the Center for National Resources, Energy and Transport (CNRET) a former U.N. body which does not exist now. In 1978, it identified 214 international rivers and lake basins (Africa-57, Asia-40, Europe-48, North and Central America-33, South America-36). This is 30 per cent higher than the earlier estimate. A river basin area was defined as an area where natural resources of water (rain, general water flow, melting snow, etc.) feed a river which flows to the oceans, closed inland seas or lakes.

International basins cover about 50 per cent of the world's surface. Africa leads the list of continents with the highest percentage of international basins, followed by Asia. The CNRET report however, is incomplete since it is not based on field studies but on maps. It is also based on topographical divides that do not necessarily coincide with groundwater flow boundaries. The maps are not accurate and can use different scales. They are also based on first order basins which can overlook second, third, etc., order basin interiors and their water flow and other divergent characteristics. We need to have more updated material, particularly during this time of rapidly expanding information technology. Unfortunately, this work has not even been begun.

Consequently, nations are facing and will continue to face serious conflicts, which have been examined in detail by the essays in this volume. A new scientific registration for international basins is a prerequisite for stipulating legal guidelines. Biswas (1994) cites the work of H.A. Smith, his book, The Economic Uses of International Rivers (1931) was the first comprehensive study devoted to the legal and conflicting aspects of managing river water resources.

Although Smith did not recommend universal guidelines to manage all conflicts, he did affirm the rights of the lower riparian states to river water. He also suggested the concept of the equitable sharing of resources. His recommendations prefaced the International Law Association (1956) and the UN resolution no 1401 (XIV) of November 21, 1959. The ILA worked toward adopting the so-called Helsinki rules in 1996. However, these resolutions were defeated primarily because some countries were in favor of channel based initiatives rather than a drainage based approach. Subsequently the International Law Commission in 1976 decided to avoid the contentious scope of the term "international" and recommended the formulation of general principles based purely on legal aspects.

The scope of the term "international watercourses" was finally addressed in 1991. It took several years (1974-1991) for the draft report of the committee to be presented because of the high membership turnover rate. With the exception of Indus River Treaty, (an agreement between India and Pakistan, which was written under the auspices of the past World Bank President Eugene Black and Action Plan on Zambizi River under the leadership of M.K. Tolba, the former UNEP director), the period was inactive. The draft of the ILC provided in the appendix has been divided into the following sections:

Part I	Introduction
Part II	General principles about equitable and reasonable utilization
Part III	Planned guidelines on the obligations of states to provide prior notifications, etc.
Part IV	Protection and prevention
Part V	Harmful conditions
Part VI	Miscellaneous

Although the draft is a step in the right direction, further action is needed to resolve such pressing ethical issues concerning the equitable utilization of water resources while balancing the categorical imperative of nations to avoiding causing harm.

The importance of water and the enormous potential of conflict can easily be seen after looking at the dynamics in the Middle East. Although oil initially appears to be the most decisive factor in this region, water will quickly supercede it well into the 21^st century. In most of the Middle East, the rainfall varies between 250-400 mm per year except in some areas of Lebanon, Turkey and Iran where the average sometimes exceeds 1000 mm.

Of course, in the desert, where there is no rainfall, agriculture requires at least 400 mm, while grazing requires a minimum of 250 mm. Although the total amount is small, the consequences of its absence are high. In one year there may be a serious draught and in another there may be excessive rainfall. Under such capricious circumstances, water resource planning is difficult. This area also has a moderately high degree of population growth and serious political problems. Water boundaries do not coincide with political boundaries.

Except for the Nile River, most rivers in the Middle East are above 30°N latitude. Most of the rivers have one dam and the opportunities for barge construction are limited. Multipurpose dams have considerable impact downstream. For example, the Ataturk Dam on the Turkish side of Euphrates River has had a great impact on Syria and Iraq. Most of the dams in this area are intended to store surplus seasonal water and recharge aquifers.

Groundwater springs, (abundant in Oman) are major sources of water. The overuse of these natural sources often leads to force migration and increases the preciousness of water. Another source used in Libya is fossil water aquifers that can at best, only be a temporary solution. Much of the world's desalination capacity is in the Middle East and great efforts and technological advances like saline solar panels, reprocessing sewage and importing of water have been seriously considered.

In the Middle East there are three major river basins which cross over international boundaries. The Nile River Basin covers a number of countries. However, from a hydrological standpoint, only four countries; Egypt, Sudan, Uganda and Ethiopia can ...