Global Virtual Water, Water Grabbing, Water War & Peace Flashcards
What is the alternative hypothesis posed by Dell’Angelo (2018) on Large-Scale Acquisitions (LSLAs) in developing countries
The fundamental driver of the global land rush is due to water. (Water Grabbing) Concept of Virtual Water and Water Footprint in transnational land investments show that globalisation dynamics may involve and effect water resources of developing countries in a hidden way. On the surface it doesn’t seem directed on water.
Water Grabbing
The appropriation of water resources associated with large scale land acquisitions (LSLAs).
- Normative Concept
- Difficult to quantify
- Politically charged
- has no legal definitions
Mehta et al (2012):
a situation where powerful actors are able to take control of, or reallocate for their own benefits, water resources already used by local communities or feeding aquatic ecosystems on which their livelihoods are based
The common denominator of the definition “Water Grabbing” = Situation of power unbalance in the appropriation of water resources, often in disregard of local users and their customary rights (Dell’Angelo)
“Blue Water Grabbing” : Dell’Angelo (2018) proposition on a formal definition
Based on biophysical conditions (Water Scarcity) + Ethical implications (human right to food)
Social Metabolis
Flow of energy, materials, information within a society
What is the difference between consumptive and non-consumptive water use?
- Consumptive: water is returned to the atmosphere in the form of water vapor through the process of evaporation or plant transpiration, and is not (immediately) available for other uses
- Jampel uses this typology of water use as it excludes other actors from the use of the same water resource
- Non-Consumptive Water Use:
Water is used and then returned to downstream water bodies where it remains available for other environmental, industrial or societal uses
Wat are typologies of water appropriation? (Give an example)
…
Water Grab Syndrome
Phenomenon where there is an increasing tred of large-scale acquisitions or control of water resources by powerful entities, at expense of local communities or small-scale users. This syndrome is characterised by the privatisation, commodification, or monopolisation of water sources, which can lead to social, economic, and environmental consequences
Why is the malnutrition dimension in a form of ethical indicator crucial in the water grab framework to assess water grabbing, developed by Jampel?
1) It accounts for the normative/justice aspects of the term “grabbing” and is directly related to water. In fact, blue and green water acquisitions are here defined as “water grabs” if they take place in countries affected by malnourishment, where land and water resources could be used to address local food needs and the associated deficits in the right to food.
Example: t has al- ready been stressed by some international organizations that when na- tional food security is at risk as in cases of acute droughts, national trade policies should limit the rights of foreign investors to export food commodities. In particular, blue water appropriations in regions where water resources are already heavily de- pleted are likely to compete with irrigation water needs of local populations or their ability to develop irrigation in the future.
Thus, the combination of a hydrological indicator of water scarcity with an in- dicator of malnutrition is motivated by the nexus existing in these re- gions between blue water and food production.
Why is addressing the water dimension of transnational land investments complex?
1) biophysical perspective = understanding hydrological dynamics is more complicated than understanding land issues.
- Water is both a renewable and non-renewable source and its availability changes both in space and time (Brauman et al., 2016).
- Water resources are often shared by different countries in a relationship of inter- dependence (Wolf, 2007).
2) Institutional point of view
- Water rights are complicated, often tied to land, but rarely able to fully govern the necessary dynamics of access and competition.
- Water, in many cases such as in the case of groundwater basins, has the characterizing features of common-pool resources (i.e. high levels of exclud- ability and high levels of subtractability) (Ostrom et al., 2002) but often water resources are appropriated under what de facto are open access conditions leading then to potential resource degradation and/or conflicts (Ostrom et al., 1999).
What is the Neglected Cost of Water, according to Dell’Angelo (2018)?
Hidden socio-environmental costs which are associated with virtual water trade:
In the globalized dynamics of virtual water trade where some countries benefit from importing water intensive commodities while the exporting countries suffer from different types of socio-environmental costs.
- a specific from of socio-environmental cost-shifting
- Example that appropriations impact vulnerable populations in developing countries is LSLAs onderzoek van Jampel.
Cost-shifting (Kapp, 1963)
- Private production socializes costs and privatizes benefits.
- This is seen as an intrinsic feature of markets exploited by capitalistic production rather than a failure
Environmental cost-shifting
Environmental degradation and waste production associated with extractive processes shifted to exporting countries while the importing countries and companies benefit from these ecological and material flows (Muradian & Martinez-alier, 2001)
Give 2 examples of cooperation > conflict in water allocation
1) The Nile Basin Initiative 1999
- encompasses nine nations, an example of wider geopolitical and economic factors that shows balancing of water allocation
2) Indus Waters treaty 1960 - has helped diffuse tension between Pakistan and India
What argument does Barnaby (2009) give anti water wars in the future?
He used Allans notion of virtual water. Areas seemingly desperate for water arrive at sustainable solutions thanks to the import of food, reducing the demand for water and giving an invisible boost to domestic supplies. Political leaders can threaten hostile action if their visible water supplies are threatened (a potentially useful political bluff ), while not needing to wage war thanks to the benefits of trade.
What is the formal definition of water war?
Involvement of at least one Sovereign State (Dell’Angelo, 2018). In a hydropolitical perspective a water war is associated with state level violence, an interstate military confrontation
