World Water Outlook Grim

The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that by the year 2025 roughly two-thirds of the world’s population will live in “water distress.” “Water distress . . . is associated with famine, disease and water conflicts.”

This news is likely not shocking to some since, currently, more than 1 billion people do not have access to safe water, and according Diana Ionescu’s article for the International Relations and Security Network (ISN) Security Watch, up to four million people die yearly from water-related diseases. Additionally, “one-third of the world’s population has to get by on just 10 percent of total freshwater reserves.” To reverse the current trend towards more fresh-water insecurity, steps to combat desertification, pollution, and climate change may be necessary.

Many domestic and international tensions are due to water access. In the United States, for instance, the Georgia state government has undertaken an effort to redraw the state border with Tennessee in order to give Georgia residents access to water from the Tennessee River. Additionally, access and use of the Colorado River has long been an issue for western states.

Internationally, disagreements exist between Israel, Syria, and Palestine over access and use of the Jordan River. Further, Ionescu reports that, “[i]n South Asia, India and Pakistan have been at odds over the Indus, and in Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan have been considered to be at high risk of war over shared water resources in the Nile River basin. Water shortages in those countries necessitate the import of food, since domestic production is not sufficient.” Aaron Wolf of Oregon State University notes that violence over water has been the heart of many cross-border tensions, though there has not been an actual war over water specifically since 2500 B.C.

However, 13 people died in 1999 during a conflict at the border of Mauritania and Mali along the Senegal watershed. Another international example is Turkey’s Great Anatolian Project, which began in the 1980s and placed dams and irrigation plants along the Euphrates-Tigris basin has angered downstream neighbors Syria and Iraq. These nations fear the dams would give Turkey the power to cut off their own water access.

Other countries have experienced domestic violence over water issues too. For instance, Ionescu reports that a state of emergency had to be declared in 1999 in Cochabamba, Bolivia following the privatization of the local water systems led to riots. A lack of infrastructure also contributes to water scarcity in addition to resource availability. Ionescu writes that the World Water Council has estimated the investment in water infrastructure needs to double to $180 billion per year to meet the current and future water needs.

Robert Collins is an agri-environmental expert from the European Environment Agency. He told the ISN Security watch that two major factors causing water scarcity in Europe are drought and excessive use for agricultural purposes. To combat the problem Collins believes that ‘“the implementation of a more sustainable management of water is crucial across all sectors, including agriculture, industry and household use, and can help to cope with periods of drought.”’


This will take international and national agreements on how water is to be used. Since 1948 there have been approximately 295 international and bilateral water agreements, so there is a positive history of cooperation between nations on this issue. If the FAO report is correct, such cooperation will have to continue.

To read the International Relations and Security Network article click here.

Posted: 09/09/09