Lecture 10: Global Connections and Solutions

Question 1

Global water challenges facing the world

Answer 1

Population growth and
changing demographics

Unsustainable water use

Climate Change

Agricultural demand and
changing diets

We live in a connected world

Question 2

Water Scarcity Hotspots

Answer 2

bb

Question 3

The Potential for Water Conflicts

Answer 3

bb

Question 4

Present and Potential Water Conflict Hotspots

Answer 4

bb

• As water supply decreases and demand increases/changes, tensions will
increase as different players try to access common water supplies
• Many conflicts are transboundary in nature, either between or within countries

Question 5

Transboundary Rivers and Water Sharing

Answer 5

• There are 286 known global transboundary river basins.
• They span 151 countries, include more than 2.8 billion people (42% of the world’s
population), cover 62 million km2 (42% of the total land area of the Earth), and
produce around 22 000 km3 of river discharge each year (roughly 54% of the
global river discharge).
• The sharing of waters across boundaries poses difficult challenges. Equitable
use of their waters requires negotiation and agreement.

Question 6

Dependency on Upstream Countries

Answer 6

The dependency ratio is a good indicator of where tension and conflict over watersharing
and use can occur. The map clearly depicts such areas including central
Asia, the Middle East (especially Syria and Iraq), India and Pakistan, and
surprisingly, low land countries such as the Netherlands.

Question 7

International Water Issues and Hydropolitics

Answer 7

There are a number of ways in which water supply may affect international
politics:
• Control of Water Resources:
• Water supplies or access to water at the root of tensions
• Political Tool:
• Water resources, or water systems themselves, used by a nation, state
or non-state actors for a political goal
• Terrorism:
• Water resources, or water systems, as targets or tools of violence or
coercion by non-state actor
• Military Tool:
• Water resources, or water systems themselves, used by a nation or
state as a weapon during military action
• Military Target:
• Water resource systems as targets of military actions by nations or
states
• Development Disputes:
• Water resources or systems as source of contention in the context of
social and economic development

Question 8

The Continuum of Conflict-Cooperation on Water

Answer 8

bb

Question 9

Cooperation is more Frequent than Conflict

Answer 9

bb

Between 1918 and 1994, more than 200 treaties were signed; yet only 37 reported
cases of inter-state violence (mostly related to Israel).

Types of TB River Agreements
• Flow allocation or restrictions
• Water quality improvements or regulations
• Boundary demarcation
• Infrastructure development & use
• Process management: – Data sharing – Technical and financial cooperation – Informing and
prior consent – Joint management

Question 10

International Water Law

Answer 10

• International water law can provide a framework for the
development and implementation of transboundary
agreements and treaties
• Law can be in the form of:
• Customary law
• Bi- or multi-lateral treaties
• General principles and conventions (international)
• 1911 Madrid Declaration
• 1966 Helsinki Rules
• 1991 International Law Commission
• 1992 Dublin Principles
• 1997 UN Convention (not ratified)

Question 11

Helsinki Rules - 1966

Answer 11

The Helsinki Rules on the Uses of the Waters of International Rivers are
guidelines on how to regulate international rivers and groundwater, based on 37
articles:
• Applicable to all international basins, except where other agreements are
already in place between nations.
• The rules assert the rights of all bordering nations to an equitable share in
the water resources, with reasonable consideration of such factors as:
• past customary use
• balancing needs and demands
• …
• Some examples of articles:
• Article 4: Entitlement to a reasonable and equitable share in the
beneficial uses of the waters
• Article 6 precludes the inherent preference of any use over others
• Article 7 prohibits the denial of reasonable use to a basin state on the
basis of future uses of other states
• Note – no enforcement

Question 12

Dublin Principles - 1992

Answer 12

Dublin Statement on Water and Sustainable Development, also known as the
Dublin Principles:
1. Principle No. 1: Fresh water is a finite and vulnerable resource, essential to
sustain life, development and the environment.
2. Principle No. 2: Water development and management should be based on a
participatory approach, involving users, planners and policy-makers at all
levels.
3. Principle No. 3: Women play a central part in the provision, management
and safeguarding of water.
4. Principle No. 4: Water has an economic value in all its competing uses and
should be recognised as an economic good.

Question 13

When Does Conflict Occur?

Answer 13

• Factors that increase CONFLICT
• Water and border disputes coincide
• Disruptions of anthropogenic origin
• Scarcity & variability in availability
• Rate of change in the basin exceeds
adaptive capacity

• Factors that increase COOPERATION
• Scarcity & variability in availability
• Linkages
• Collective action problem

• Factors posited as important, but relation to
conflict undetermined
• Population density
• Overall GDP
• Government type (democracy)
• Overall relations between countries

Question 14

Example of Hydropolitics: Nile River Basin

Answer 14

bb

Question 15

Example of Hydropolitics: Water Issues in the

Middle East

Answer 15

bb

Question 16

Water and Human Rights

Answer 16

• On 30 September 2010, the 15th Session of the UN Human Rights Council
passed Resolution A/HRC/15/L.14, recognizing the right to safe and clean
drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full
enjoyment of life and all human rights.
• The idea of water being a human right is being gradually incorporated into
national laws and constitutional amendments
• S. Africa for example, legislated for households to receive a set volume of
water free of charge.
• In the UK it is illegal to cut off water supply because of non-payment – an
embedded right to water

However, due to the investment required to
meet a comprehensive right to water, let alone
sanitation, it has not been possible to gain
universal recognition of these human rights.

Question 17

water and development

Answer 17

bb

Question 18

The Challenges of Solving Water Insecurity

Answer 18

Despite its status as a vital resources to which everybody has a right, water is
now seen as a commodity for which a realistic price should be paid.

But what should the price be and who should pay for it?
Some history:
• The idea of conserving water through pricing and market forces took on in
the 1980-1990s
• This led to the beginning of privatization of water utilities assuming that this
would lead to conserve water, improve efficiencies, and increase service
spread.
• All consumers would be charged for water at the price it cost to capture,
treat and deliver it – cost recovery
• The UK led the way in the late 1980s, and other countries followed with
privatization of utilities in developing countries becoming a condition of
WB/IMF debt repayments and loans.

In some places it worked, in others it did not. Water services could not easily be
treated as other businesses – the primary reason is political

Question 19

Integrated Water Resources Management

IWRM

Answer 19

• IWRM is intended to solve water conflict and insecurity through sustainable
development and management of water resources
• Emphasizes the river basin as the logical geographical unit for strategic
planning – making cooperation between basin partners even more critical
• Encompasses other components of
• sustainable development,
• environmental protection,
• food security, especially for the poor,
• appropriate choices regarding water use in economic productivity,
• good governance, including decentralization of decision making,
• reform of water managing institutions,
• effective regulation,
• cost recovery,
• investment and
• equitable pricing

Question 20

Problematic at international level

Answer 20

• Integrated usage cuts across vested interests
• Requires an approach that recognizes that water is a limited resources and
that all withdrawals and pollution affect the well being of others
• Many political, admin, legal and jurisdictional barriers
• And varying physical social and economic conditions
• Corruption complicates things and can add to the problem and cost

Question 21

IWRM and the Scale of Management

Answer 21

• IWRM is often best implemented at
small/community scale rather than national or
international
• Water issues are felt in common locally where
everyone has a stake in conservation and efficiency
• Women are a key part of local water management:
• Women’s role in drinking water and sanitation
services, including carrying out equipment
maintenance and minor repairs can be
important
• Village women normally have to collect water
and deal with sanitation and waste disposal so
they have a vested interest in service
performance than men. And frequently take
the lead in local water and sanitation
committees
• The introduction of sound water management
practices in low income areas should therefore
include women’s participation

Question 22

IWRM at the International Level

– River Basin Authorities

Answer 22

The Niger Basin Authority defines its purpose as the promotion of cooperation
among member countries to ensure integrated development of resources,
particularly for water and hydroelectric resources. The NBA nations also use the
organisation to harmonise development of energy, agriculture, forestry, transport,
communications, and industrial resources of the member nations. Environmental
protection from the threats of desertification, deforestation and pollution of the rivers
by agriculture and industry have become a major theme of their work.
Many others around the
world:
Rhine
Mekong
Mosel
Danube
Elbe
Zambezi
Lake Chad
Often have no authority over
resources or management

Question 23

Water Management in the UK

Answer 23

• Water and sewerage industry was privatised in
1989
• This evolved from 1000 individual suppliers in
1945 to Regional Water Authorities (1973) to
private water companies (1989)
• Regulatory framework (Ofwat) has been in
place to ensure that consumers receive high
standards of service at a fair price.
• Investments of > £108 billion in maintaining
and improving assets and services.
• The industry must also comply with national
and European legislation.
• Regulatory Framework includes DEFRA,
Welsh Govt, EU, Ofwat (Economic regulator),
Natural Resources Wales, EA, Drinking Water
Inspectorate, Consumer Council for Water

Question 24

Who Owns the Water?

Answer 24

• Traditionally, water has been treated as a ‘commons’ good like air or fisheries in
international waters.
• However, this breaks down when there is excess demand for the resource -
‘tragedy of the commons’.
• In most legal systems, including English law, the ownership of the water to which
the abstraction licences apply depends on whether it is river water or underground
water.
• For flowing water (e.g., rivers), nobody owns the water — it is a commons
resource. Riparian rights (reasonable use rights) apply. These are typically
associated with landownership on the river bank and were developed as a
legal framework for fishing rights management, water use on the land
bordering the river, and similar.
• Conversely, for an underground water source on a single property, the water is
owned by the landowner. Abstraction rights are grafted onto these more
fundamental water ownership rights, for example, by ‘grandfathering’

Question 25

US Water Law: A complex issue

Answer 25

• Water ownership in the eastern
US is based on riparian rights
• Water law in the west is a
complex system of “prior
appropriation”.
• The two major concepts are:
1. a water right is a right to
the use of the water; the
right is acquired by
appropriation; and
2. an appropriation is the act
of diverting water from its
source and applying it to a
beneficial use.
US Water Law: A complex issue
• The earliest water users have priority over later appropriators during times of water
shortage.
• Public waters are to be used for a useful or beneficial purpose.
• The appropriator can use only the amount of water presently needed, allowing
excess water to remain in the stream.
• Once the water has served its beneficial use, any waste or return flow must be
returned to the stream.

Question 26

How Much Should We Pay for Water?

Answer 26

• If a realistic price should be paid for water, what should that price be, and who
should pay it?
• Advocates of water management through pricing assume that water demand is
responsive to price changes.
• However, others argue that water demand functions are so inelastic that price
rises will only increase bills and that only direct rationing or promoting the adoption
of water-saving devices can affect consumption.
• The responsiveness of demand to a change in
price is measured by the price elasticity of
demand, which is defined as the percentage
change in demand divided by the percentage
change in price.
• The price elasticity of drinking water demand
by urban households is typically low. In
European countries it ranges between -0.1 and
-0.25. In Australia and the United States price
elasticity is higher: -0.1 and -0.4.

Question 27

Understanding Water Use

Answer 27

• A clear understanding of water use patterns and the factors that affect
water consumption is critical to the effective management of water
supply and effective design of related public policies, including pricing
• Water use patterns are highly complex processes that are influenced
by many factors, including
• seasonal variability and water availability
• water supply restrictions
• tariff structure and pricing
• household characteristics
• attitudes and intentions regarding water conservation.
• Most studies have focused on water demand in urban regions.
• Demand in rural households of developing countries, where traditional
and cultural influence on water consumption is expected, is not well
understood.

Question 28

Pricing Structures

Answer 28

• Prices signal value to consumers and help determine whether consumers use
water efficiently. If prices are too low, consumers will use too much water.
• It is also essential that the pricing of water services covers the costs of providing
service, for both operations and maintenance and capital expenses.
• Full cost pricing factors all costs into prices, including past and future, operations,
maintenance, and capital costs.
• Some pricing structures encourage conservation, and some do the opposite

Question 29

Affordability Considerations

Answer 29

• Pricing decisions involve considerations of equity as well as
efficiency and conservation – links back to human rights
• Low-income households, especially those served by highcost
systems, may face affordability problems if prices are
raised.
• To alleviate these hardships, communities can offer pricing
structures that mitigate impacts on low-income households.
• The most common example is “lifeline rates,” where lowincome
households are charged lower rates on nondiscretionary
water consumption (the minimum sanitary
requirement), and higher rates on water consumed beyond
that amount

Question 30

Prevalence of Price Structures

Answer 30

• OECD countries – about half use linear rates, and half use
increasing block tariffs
• Some countries/cities still use decreasing block tariffs,
particularly in the US
• Developing/transitioning economies use a similar mix but the
prevalence of increasing block tariffs in places like subSaharan
Africa is probably underestimated

Question 31

Solving Water Insecurity in Developing Regions

Answer 31

bb

Question 32

Water Players and Decision Makers

Answer 32

Solving water insecurity is a political issue (and social, economic and env. Issue)
• Different players have conflicting views on water security
• One player may have quite complex views; most Governments will have
departments wanting conservation as opposed to development
• Identifying the ‘stakeholders’ in any particular case study is vital, and then the role
of the ‘gatekeepers’ who wield power.

Political:	water	is	a	
human	need
• International	
organisations	
e.g.	UN
• Government	
• Regional	&	local	
councils
• Lobbyists	&	
pressure	groups

Economic
• International:	
World	Bank	&	
IMF	
• TNCs	and	
developers
• Businesses	and	
users

Social:	water	is	a	human	right
• Individuals
• Residents
• Consumers	land	owners,	health	
officials,	NGOs	like	Water	Aid

Environmental
• Conservationists
• Scientists &
planners

Question 33

Classifying the Water Players

Answer 33

bb

Question 34

Transitioning to Sustainable Management

Strategies

Answer 34

• Water insecurity and conflicts can be managed in a range of different ways
• There is a spectrum of different management strategies
• Some are sustainable as they balance ecological and human needs

bb

Question 35

Hard and Soft Management

Answer 35

Traditional ‘hard’ engineering
• Dams; currently 845000 of which 5000 classed as
megadams. The aim is to increase natural storage
capacity by artificial reservoirs. Rivers most at risk
at present: Yangtze, Amazon, Danube and many in
the Himalayas
• Channels, seen in most arid/semi arid countries
whatever their economic status, e.g. Jonglei Canal
on the Nile
• Pipelines e.g. Australia and California Aqueduct
and snowy Mountains scheme Australia
• Desalination plants e.g. in Middle East
• Recharging schemes for depleted aquifers, e.g.
North London Artificial recharge Scheme and Long
Island New York

Softer more environmentally and
ethically responsible approaches
• Water conservation e.g. targeted drip irrigation
on plants in Ethiopia, includes water harvesting
• Water restoration e.g. Northern Aral Sea, and
on smaller scale river Colne in UK
• Integrated WR basin management, especially if
bottom up and community involved.
• The 4 Rs: i.e. an attitudinal fix: Reduce,
Respect, Reuse, Renew…..

Newer hard technologies
• Tankers to transport water e.g. Turkey to Israel
• Osmosis membranes filtering salt from brackish
water e.g. Israel (the Ashkelon plant produces
15% of domestic demand). Also in California,
Spain and China
• Fertigation: fertiliser and water drip feeding of
crops, as in Israel

Specific Technologies seen as
appropriate / intermediate with less
negative externalities
• Water harvesting of grey water e.g. Belize
• Micro dams serving villages e.g. Nepal
• Water meters to reduce use e.g. UK
• Composting latrines – seen in National Trust
properties in UK to Mumbai slums

Question 36

Low tech solutions to water: a case study in India

Answer 36

• Water
management often
focuses on large
scale,
technologically
advanced megaprojects
• These often have
complex costs and
benefits
• Water conservation
and restoration of
supply have a role
• Small scale,
bottom-up
schemes are
likely to be
important in the
developing world
• However, unless
duplicated on
large scale may
be ineffective for
longer term
economic growth

A solution? Basic technology and
information is channelled through an
NGO (GLOWS global water for
sustainability project)
Methods:
1. Increasing simple low tech,
appropriate and intermediate solutions
to increase storage:
• Increased rainwater harvesting
• Improved storage system at a family
scale: Taankas: 3 m in diameter, 3-4
m deep, 20,000 litres
2. Using colourful drama performed by
trained locals to villagers to illustrate the
advantages of working cooperatively
with other families and villages to reduce
desertification and pollution of ground
water since aquifers are a shared - if an
unseen resource (see photograph)

The problem: The River Wakal area of Rajasthan in NW India is one of the driest
and poorest areas in India. Subsistence agriculture dominates.
96% of rainfall is from the 3-4 month monsoon (late June through September.)
and the traditional methods of using groundwater and conserving surface water
are falling short of demands

Question 37

Mega Tech Fixes:

China’s South–North water transfer

Answer 37

bb

Question 38

Water Transfers/Trading - a Quick Fix?

Answer 38

bb

Question 39

Virtual Water Trade as a Fix

Answer 39

• The concept of virtual, or embedded, water was first developed as a way of
understanding how water scarce countries could provide food, clothing and other
water intensive goods to their inhabitants.
• The global trade in goods has allowed countries with limited water resources to
rely on the water resources in other countries to meet the needs of their
inhabitants.
• The drawback is that national policy makers in water-scarce countries have to
look at trade offs in the economic benefits and food security risks of exporting
low water use, high-value crops versus producing high water use, low value
cereals for feeding the population.

Question 40

Overview

Answer 40

Water Resources
• Water is a fundamental need but not evenly distributed
• Factors influencing geography of supply:
• Physical: surface, groundwater, desalinisation
• Human: demand, management, mismanagement
• Increasing demand not matched by supply = Water Gap
• Implications for human well being - which is why it is
named in the SDGs
• Demand from various users – Nexus issues
• Water resources are often transboundary

Water Futures
Water stress and scarcity are projected to increase because:
• Climate change will make some areas more arid and
rainfall more unreliable
• Glacial water sources will reduce due to climate change
• Unsustainable use of some supplies will decrease their
quality and quantity
• Demand will rise due to population and economic growth
• Water wars will lead to winners and losers in water supp

Water Conflict
• Potential conflicts = high both local & international
• Resource use often exceeds recharge capacity
leading to long term degradation
• Future is in doubt because of unsustainable use +
climate change
• Vulnerable populations most at risk
• Management strategies to ensure supply require
cooperation of many different players = changes in
way water is valued & used

Therefore, there are alternative
futures –
It all depends on the decisions the
players make ....
and climate change, population
trends, energy security, politics,
bridging the development gap etc …