CASE STUDY - Water Conflicts at a variety of scales

Question 1

PepsiCo Factory - LOCAL CONFLICT

Answer 1

PepsiCo is based in the USA but has factories all over the world including one in the indian state of Kerala, this factory has been the source of a ongoing water confict between PepisCo and the local people.

Question 2

What is the confict at PepsiCo

Answer 2

Droughts have increased water stress in the area and led to shortages of drinking water, the lack of water for irrigation has led to the loss of crops as a result. RICE

Local people claim that the factory is worsening the problem by overexploiting groundwater. PepsiCo deny this, they calim that an indpendant study showed that the effects of this factory were insigificant compared to other water users.

Local authorities have tries to stop the factory from extracting so much groundwater on several occasions, in 2017 they agreed to cut water use by 75% there have also been signifcant protests to shut the factory down.

Question 3

Crisis in Yemen - NATIONAL CONFLICT

Answer 3

Yemen is an arid country in western Asia that has very high levels of water stress, water is a major source of conflict between many different parties in Yemen.

Question 4

What is the confict in Yemen

Answer 4

• There is an anger amongst the people in rural communities about the uneven availability of water between rural and urban areas, this has sometimes led to violent clashes and protests.
• In 2002 the government intrdocued a law requiring landowners to get a licence to drill and maintain wells, and tried to inroduce a register for wells in the country.
• This was met with backlash from farmers who were concerned the government world look to control the amount of water they could extract from wells on their property.
• In 2009 the government tried to restrict cultivation of Qat, a leaf chewed by much of the population because irrigation of this crop uses around 30% of groundwater, farmers again objected to such restirction and thus they were largely ignored.

Question 5

River Nile - INTERNATIONAL CONFLICT

Answer 5

The Nile is a source of water for many countries in NE Africa and as a result there is conflict between downstream countries such as Egypt and Sudan who use the most water and the upstream countries such as Uganda, Rwanda, Ethipia and Tanzania who want greater access.

E.G Egypt rely on its water for irrigation and agriculture.
- 300 million people live within the Nile basin and all rely on its water.
- Sudan relies on 18.5 billion m3 per year of water from the Nile.

Question 6

What is the conflict at the River Nile?

Answer 6

• In 2011, Ethiopia started to build the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam near the border with Sudan to generate HEP and take better control over the rivers flow to prevent drought and flooding.
• Egypt is very concerned that the Dam will lead to billions of cubic meters of water by evaopration from the lak formed by the dam, meaning less water will flow to Egypt.
• This led to dispute and only reached a partial cooperation agreement in 2015.
• Nations such as Uganda and Ethiopia have a relatively large section of the basin in their land, yet under the 1959 treaty they had no allocation.
• 85% of water originates in Ethiopia and Eritrea, yet 94% is used by Sudan and Egypt.
• In 2010 Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda signed a new water treaty with Burundi, DRC and Kenya promising to sign later. This treaty stated that all riparian countries should have equal rights to use the Nile Waters.
• Sudan and Egypt are yet to sign or agree to this treaty. So ambitions to manage this conflict has been successful amongst some, but not amongst the countries that currently have the most control over the Nile.

Question 7

Colorado river - NATIONAL SCALE

Answer 7

• The Colorado river is the most heavily used source of irrgation water in the USA and it serves the water needs of 30 million people.
• American rivers, a Washington based group said ‘There is not enough water in the Colorado RIver to meet all current needs’ and climate change is expected to reduce the rivers flow by up to 30% by 2050.

Question 8

Where is the conflict on the Colorado river

Answer 8

• Farmers need water for agriculture and irrigation practises whereas cities have undergone continuous population growth and therefore their water demand in increasing.
• In August 2021, the federal government declared a water shortage in the basin for the first time ever.
• HOWEVER 40 million people rely on the water for drinking
• Agricluture uses around 80% of the water, wheat, corn and berries.
• 50% is used for livestock feeding.
• Therefore the federal government is under pressure from these different groups to effectively allocate resources when they are scarce.
• Las Vegas relies on the river for 90% of its water supply, Tucson for 82% and San Diego for around 66%.
• The current Colorado River guidelines expire in 2026, and early negotiations are already getting underway for a new framework to determine how to divvy up its water.

Question 9

How is water in colorado currently divided

Answer 9

The upper and lower basin of the river are allocated 7.5 million acre feet per year. Mexico are given 1.5m.

Colorado are allowed 51% of the upper basin, New mexico are only allowed 11%.

California are allowed, 4.4m of the total 7.5m in the lower basin.