Global Water Governance and International Security (original) (raw)
Related papers
Towards Global Water Security: A Departure from the Status Quo
Chapter of the book ‘Global Water Security’, World Water Council (Editor), 2018, Springer Nature, Singapore, pages 1-19, 2018
Water resources are, and have always been, a multidimensional resource that crosses all social and economic sectors. Globally, growing population and urbanisation have increased the pressure to meet the water, energy, and food demands of larger populations with higher expectations. As a result, both developed and developing countries seem to be racing against the clock to respond to the needs of societies in which inequalities continue to grow. Water resources are scarcer and more polluted; their management, governance, and development increasingly depend on decisions that are made in other sectors, many times without sufficient coordination; and their availability is more than ever threatened by issues, such as climate variability and change, that impose nothing but uncertainty. These factors have led to water resources being seen through the lenses of risk and security. The security of water resources necessitates a departure from the status quo, to an innovative system that is able to understand and appreciate how different natural, policy, and political variables interact and affect each other. This system requires a wholesome perspective that is able to propose alternatives that consider complexity and that are adaptive to an uncertain future. A departure is necessary because the status quo has proven unable to respond to the present needs and expectations, much less to future ones.
2012
There is now a clear recognition by the global community that we are in the midst of a global water crisis. As shifting population dynamics and growing economic activity place an increased demand on finite fresh water resources, governments struggle to secure the needs of their citizens by ensuring access to an adequate amount of food at reasonable cost, a reliable energy supply, a robust water infrastructure and supply system, all while continuing to sustain economic growth. Meeting these challenges is a tall order if we are also to consider that there must be enough water to support essential ecosystem functions and services, and that climate change will have adverse impacts on the global water cycle. Nonetheless, the global community must strive to achieve critical development targets by ensuring adequate access to safe water and sanitation services, alleviating poverty for the world’s ‘bottom billion’, and bridging the gender divide.
Global Water Governance in the Twenty-First Century
The World’s Water, 2014
Growing pressure on the world's water resources is having major impacts on our social and economic well-being. Even as the planet's endowment of water is expected to remain constant, human appropriation of water, already at 50 percent by some measures, is expected to increase further (Postel et al. 1996). Pressures on water resources are likely to worsen in response to population growth, shifts toward more meat-based diets, climate change, and other challenges. Moreover, the world's water is increasingly becoming degraded in quality, raising the cost of treatment and threatening human and ecosystem health (Palaniappan et al. 2010). Furthermore, the physical availability of freshwater resources does not guarantee that a safe, affordable water supply is available to all. At least 780 million people do not have access to clean drinking water, some 2.5 billion people lack access to safe sanitation systems, and 2-5 million people-mainly children-die as a result of preventable water-related diseases every year (Gleick 2002; UN 2009; WHO and UNICEF 2012). There is growing recognition that the scope and complexity of water-related challenges extend beyond national and regional boundaries and therefore cannot be adequately addressed solely by national or regional policies. In a recent report, the United Nations notes that "water has long ceased to be solely a local issue" (UN 2012a, 40). In particular, widespread water scarcity and lack of access to water supply and sanitation threaten socioeconomic development and national security for countries around the world. Additionally, people around the world share and exchange water directly and indirectly through natural hydrologic units and systems and through global trade (i.e., "virtual water," discussed below). Furthermore, climate change and the growing presence of multinational companies within the water sector play a role in globalizing water issues (Hoekstra 2006). Over the past sixty years, a number of efforts have sought to address the many challenges facing the water sector. Early efforts to address these challenges were almost entirely based on developing large-scale physical infrastructure, such as dams and reservoirs, to produce new water supplies. Amid a growing recognition that technology and infrastructure alone were not sufficient to address persistent water management concerns, discourse about water governance began to emerge in the early 1990s. In its first World Water Development Report, the United Nations strongly stated that the "water Global Water Challenges As described below, the scope and complexity of water-related challenges extend beyond traditional national and regional boundaries. Such challenges require broader thinking and more comprehensive solutions. Water Scarcity Water scarcity is a major challenge, affecting every continent around the world. Water scarcity occurs when water demand nears (or exceeds) the available water supply. Several groups, including the World Resources Institute and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), have developed tools to promote a better understanding of where and how water risks are emerging around the world. The IWMI, for example, estimates that 1.2 billion people-nearly 20 percent of the world's population-live in areas of physical water scarcity, where water withdrawals for agriculture, industry, and domestic purposes exceed 75 percent of river flows. An additional 500 million people live in areas approaching physical scarcity. Another 1.6 billion people live in areas of economic water scarcity, where water is available but human capacity or financial resources limit access. In these areas, adequate infrastructure may not be available or, if water is available, its distribution may be inequitable (IWMI 2007). But water scarcity isn't solely a natural phenomenon; it's also a human one. Numerous human activities-such as untimely water use, pollution, insufficient or poorly maintained infrastructure, and inadequate management systems-can result in or exacerbate water scarcity. As noted by the United Nations, there are adequate water resources to meet our needs, but water "is distributed unevenly and too much of it is wasted, polluted and unsustainably managed" (UN 2012b). Widespread declines in groundwater levels are one symptom of water scarcity. Groundwater is an important source of freshwater in many parts of the world. Some areas, however, have become overly dependent on groundwater supplies. In the past two decades, advances in well-drilling techniques have significantly reduced the cost of extracting groundwater. Driven, in part, by these technological advancements, groundwater withdrawals have tripled over the past fifty years (UN 2012a). In some areas, the rate of groundwater extraction now consistently exceeds natural recharge rates, causing widespread depletion and declining groundwater levels. A recent analysis of groundwater extraction by hydrologist Yoshihide Wada and colleagues (2010) finds that depletion rates doubled between 1960 and 2000 and are especially high in parts of China, India, and the United States. Much of the groundwater extracted supports agriculture (67 percent), although it is also used for domestic (22 percent) and industrial (11 percent) purposes.
The centrality of Water to human existence on our planet is a proven fact. Among the major issues confronting humanity related to water are: health of the world's population, conflicts arising from multiple use/needs of water, the loss of forest cover, desertification, and persistent suffering among humanity, to mention a few. This article attempts to answer the question why it is that a World Conference, involving representatives from over 105 countries on this planet, has repeatedly failed to secure a more reliable water future for its inhabitants today. The main reason why Water has not been given the urgency that the UN has achieved with regards to the Environment, lies in the fact that the latter is finally being treated as a "Shared Resource". The article explains that, were the 2023 UN Water Conference to declare Water, "a shared resource", this would have been the game-changer for bold action, that would not repeat of the history of 45 years, since the last World Water Conference in 1977.
Global Water Crises and Challenges for Water Security
How humans have used and misused water is the story of civilization itself. Water is paradoxical-it is ever-renewable but often scarce-and humanity's relationship to it is often contradictory. Although water is essential and non-substitutable it is often taken for granted. While it is finite and fugitive, humans flock to cities and expand agricultural enterprises as if the water will always be there in abundance. The challenges for water security are many and varied, and go to the heart of social organization. The chapter argues that seeing 'security' through different lenses reveals different sets of threats and vulnerabilities. Changing the referent object-the state, individuals, the environment-changes the context for action. Given water's central role in building political and economic power, 'water security' is generally tied to the security of the sovereign state. Actions taken in support of securing water for the state generally involve a confluence of political, economic and technical power. Over the last several decades, numerous attempts have been made to structure action in support of the greater social and environmental good. A variety of discursive framings have emerged to drive collective action. Yet, the legal and institutional frameworks for action remain state-centric, not only in terms of the primary beneficiary of water security, but in terms of the ontological framework for seeing security and insecurity. As shown in the chapter, limited formal space has been created for civil society participation, and for alternative perspectives and approaches to water security to emerge. The chapter concludes that despite numerous attempts to draw the world toward new ways of seeing water, deeply embedded interests, practices and processes ensure that efforts in support of "water security" will continue to yield highly uneven outcomes: security for some, insecurity for many.
Water Security and the Global Water Agenda. UN-Water Analytical Brief
2013
"In a report released today to mark World Water Day and 2013 as the International Year of Water Cooperation, UN-Water is proposing a common definition of water security. UN-Water, which coordinates water programs within the United Nations system, claims that a single description of the problem will help global collaboration around water, one of the world’s most vital needs. world water day 2013 united nations un-water water security paper report analytical brief Image courtesy of UN-Water ‘Water Security and the Global Agenda’ is the title of an analytical brief published by the United Nations for World Water Day 2013. Click image to enlarge. The authors define water security as: “The capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of acceptable quality water for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being, and socio-economic development; for ensuring protection against water-borne pollution and water-related disasters; and for preserving ecosystems in a climate of peace and political stability.” This work builds on the UN High Level Expert Panel convened at the UN in New York (Sept 2012) where I was invited as a panellist. (see my earlier post on this). I was invited to peer review this Analytical Brief.
The 'Nexus' As a Step Back towards a More Coherent Water Resource Management Paradigm
The interrelationships between water resources, food production and energy security have influenced policy for many decades so the emergence of the water-food-energy 'nexus' as a proposed new focus for water resource management is surprising. It is suggested that this focus can be understood as a consequence of the decision by developed countries to ignore agreements reached at the 1992 Rio Summit on Sustainable Development and promote instead a 'Dublin IWRM', their original lobbying platform. That approach has not helped developing countries to address food, energy and water security nor assisted global businesses to expand or to manage the risks posed to their operations by poor water management. The nexus approach begins to address these concerns by focusing on a specific 'problem-shed'. While this may disintegrate the original robust concept of integrated water management, its emphasis on what water may do for society rather than what society should do for water is a step back toward a more coherent and useful paradigm.
Water Crisis: Current Perception and Future Realities
Water crisis was not considered seriously at the Dublin and Rio conferences. It was put on the world agenda primarily by the Stockholm Water Symposia. Water management is likely to change more during the next twenty years compared to the past 2, 000 years. The paper reviews the global water situation based on the latest data available. In terms of water availability, it concludes that one can now be cautiously optimistic of the global water future. If there is to be a crisis, it is likely to be for two reasons, water quality and lack of investments. Neither of these two issues is receiving adequate attention at present. The roles IWRA can play in the future are briefly outlined.