Week 6: Water wars, water peace, and water grabbing

Question 1

What is a common characteristic of formal definitons of a war? And what are some other quantitative indicators ?

Answer 1

• At least 1 sovereign state to be involved.
• causalities
• legislative processes
• typology of actors involved.

Question 2

The term water wars often refers to..

Answer 2

.. military conflicts driven by water scarcity.

Question 3

what are the four arguments, that hydrological scholars use to refute the ‘water will lead to war’ thesis

Answer 3

1: Interstate cooperation prevails over conflict;
2: Development of new technologies increases fresh-
water availability
3: The intrinsic characteristics of water as a resource do not
justify interstate military intervention;
4: Virtual water trade provides the opportu-
nity to circumvent local water scarcity.

Question 4

Explain: 1: Interstate cooperation prevails over conflict;

Answer 4

• based on historical data, that shows that no war so far has broken out over water (only one 2’500 bc)
• Majority of water-related interstate conflicts have
  been resolved in a cooperative way

Question 5

Explain: 2: Development of new technologies increases fresh-
water availability

Answer 5

example:
- new crops cultivated that need less water
- or crops that are more resistant to the climate crisis
- but also; technologies that have helped from wide scale desalinization or water purification

Question 6

Explain 3: 3: The intrinsic characteristics of water as a resource do not justify interstate military intervention;

Answer 6

1) Oil is used for industrial processes, water for biological processes
2) oil is **unevenly **distributed, water is evenly distributed
3) oil is highly profitable, water is not.
4) oil is oligopolistically organized, water is public or common pool resource.

Question 7

Explain 4: 4: Virtual water trade provides the opportu-
nity to circumvent local water scarcity.

Answer 7

• Water resources can be appropriated through the transnational trade of agricultural commodi-
  ties.
• it is much more logical and convenient to trade with foreign countries and import virtual water from them rather than going at war with them

Question 8

What is water grabbing?

Answer 8

Appropriation of water resource, by powerful actors, at the expense of local users.

Question 9

Why are water grabbing and land grabbing often connected?

Answer 9

often land is not grabbed for the land itself, but because it lies above valuable aquifiers (blue water source) and through irriation the land can be used for agriculture.

Question 10

What is the criteria of assessing whether a Large scale land aquisition constitutes to a a blue water grab simultaneously, based on Dell’Angelo et al. (2017)’s framework?

Answer 10

Step 1: assess blue vs
green water appropriation
of LSLAs
Biophysical Conditions:
The land is associated with significant blue water resources (e.g., aquifers, rivers) or potential for irrigation development.
Green water (rainwater) is appropriated with the land for rainfed agriculture.
Step 2: assess water
scarcity (elaboration of
Brauman et al. 2016)
The region experiences biophysical water scarcity or inadequate water availability for local agricultural needs.
*
Step 3: assess
undernourishment
(elaboration of FAO
2016) The target country has high levels of malnutrition or insufficient water resources to meet local food production needs.*

Question 11

According to Dell’Angelo et. al (2017) what is a blue water grabbing ?

Answer 11

Blue water grabs = appropriations of irrigation (i.e blue ) water in regions affected by undernourishment and where agricultural production is contrained by blue water availability.

Question 12

How does virtual water trade potentially cause issues in exporting countries?

Answer 12

• Increases competition over limited water resources.
• Displaces local access to water, escalating tensions.
• Leads to environmental and social cost-shifting.