IX.+Water+Conflicts

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__** Water Conflicts **__ ==

=Introduction (by Jennifer C. and Kaylie S.)= Water has always been a necessary part of all life on Earth. It has also been a source of conflict between the beings of Earth as it is always in limited supply. Water conflicts between humans result in everything from arguments to full on wars between nations. Usable water is rapidly growing more scarce as humans take advantage of it as it is becoming more of a commodity.

=The Crisis= (1)

Water covers nearly 71% of Earth's surface, and there is more above and below ground. However, out of all of this water, only about 0.3% of all of what is available is able to be used by humans. The rest is in icecaps, oceans, the ground, and in the atmosphere. (2)

While concerting the size of the planet, that is quite a lot of water, but seeing as how humans use water, the supply is diminished drastically. Humans, with technology and greed, pollute the water sources with factories, cars, cleaning solutions, even human waste. Because of this, people all around the world are suffering due to lack of clean, usable water. Only about 62% of the human population has access to clean water, leaving 38% of the population to make due with polluted and parasite infested water. Dioherea, which can be caused by the use of unsanitary water, is one of the leading causes of deaths to children in the world as well. In order to get much of their water, people around the world have to go to public wells and streams, neither of which are exactly sanitary. Those who are in the 38% that don't have ready access to water are also forced to pay high amounts of money to have the water they do get. (3)

[[image:rhswaterconflicts:Paul_Farley.jpg width="233" height="107" align="left" caption="Photo by Paul Farley"]]
=**What Water Conflicts Are (by Jacob C.)**= As living organisms, we require several essential elements in order to survive, including air, nutritional food, and water. Water is one of the most basic elements of life. Every known organism requires water to survive. So what happens to these organisms when water becomes short in supply? These organisms begin to die. What, then, happens when the organism has the ability to something about it? Two outcomes: finding solutions, or survival of the fittest.

In society today, when any group or entity is in conflict with another over water usage,(4) water rights, etc., they are involved in what is referred to as a water conflict. These actions subsequently affect everyone else who relates to a particular, respective side. Water conflicts arise for many reasons, including lack of water supply, privatization of water and pressure to solve water crisis issues.(5)

=**Different Ty**pes of Water Conflict= (by Nephi B.) The definition of "Water War." "This is a term devised by environmentalists for a type of conflict (most probably a form of guerrilla warfare) due to an acute shortage of water for drinking and irrigation. About 40 per cent of the world’s populations are already affected to some degree, but population growth, climate change and rises in living standards will worsen the situation: the [|UN] Environment Agency warns that almost 3 billion people will be severely short of water within 50 years. Possible flash points have been predicted in the Middle East, parts of Africa and in many of the world’s major river basins, including the Danube. The term has been used for some years to describe disputes in the southern and south-western United States over rights to water extraction from rivers and aquifers." --Quinion, World Wide Words, .(6)

(by TJ H.) Countries who have little to no water have reasons to up start conflicts to the surrounding countries. If these countries want water bad enough, they will use forceful and harming ways to what get what they want. "Conflicts over water arise form the fact that under conditions of increasing scarcity, competition levels also increase.” Anthony Turton

Here are some categories that break down water conflicts.
 * Military:** Water systems used a weapon, they are the number one of water pollution after a time of war. With excess chemicals not used.
 * Industrial:** They are wanting water to clean and use water for there products, after they use the water they put it back into the rivers being polluted and warm.
 * Agriculture:** The farmers and ranchers want water so their crops and ranchers for there cattle and farm hands. The chemicals they use in crops and dusting, goes into the ground and seeps though the soil into the ground water.
 * Domestic:** The water that is left is little to none. And have problems with little water.
 * Political:** Wanting to have good water goals. With increasing of urbanization needs a higher demand.(7)

There are many types of water conflicts. Countries who have rivers start in there country will try to retain as much water as possible. Many times, this is peaceful. “Those who have studied water conflicts find almost no conflicts where water triggered the conflict,” says Daniel Zimmer, executive director of the World Water Council. “Water is ultimately a source of collaboration rather than war. It is so vital you cannot afford to have a war over it.”(8)

=Central America's Past Water Use (by Jeff M.)= ==__Water Technologies in Ancient Mexico__  Long before the water crisis was concerned with who had who’s water rights and how much they charged for water. People of the ancient America’s simply had to find ways to use the enormous amounts of water at their disposal. And they did so in immaculately inspired ways.(9) __Aztecs__ The Aztec empire began in a small village on Lake Texcoco. The greatest Aztec city, the Aztecs used amazing aqueduct systems from mainland springs to bring clean drinking water into Tenochtitlán rather than use the lake water surrounding the city, which was quite a feat considering the population of the city was over 85,000. On the other hand, the Aztecs of Tenochtitlán had no city-wide drainage system. They did however utilize hygiene when dealing with human waste. Most public places sported public “bathrooms” where waste could be collected. This waste was then applied to the chinampas as fertilizer or sold for tanning purposes. Furthermore, urine was collected via pottery and used as dye. Clearly, the ingenuity of the Aztecs is ingenious and compelling. This is especially true in comparison to Europe’s “civilizations”. For example, in London water for drinking etc. was drawn from the Thames where waste was siphoned to, making for a severely fouled water supply. The Aztec answer for clean water was exceptional adding to an already amazing use of technology through water (chinampas). Their system really was phenomenal.(10) ==

=When will the Conflicts Stop? (by Leah M. and Ivan V.)=  Water conflicts will never stop because as time goes on there is less water in the world. Everyone thought that the water cycle would save us all because we would never run out, but things aren’t always what they seem and we are running out of water. There is a lot of ways that we can recycle our water, but the problem is there is no money. Foreign countries that are starting to develop are in need of so much capital that they sell their water sources to giant corporations that provide water to the people but now instead of it being free, it is sold to them.

 That creates a number of issues around the world. Exporting or importing your water source is a very unstable thing to do. For example if a country was to stop exporting their water and the country that imports it doesn’t like that. There is a very big chance that a conflict will start up. So for these few reason I conclude that water issues will never come to an end, unless we take better care of the water we already have and recycle it for our generations to come.

Due to the high demand of clean water throughout the nations, water conflict will never stop. The only way it would stop is if there was actually world peace.No matter how all the nations try, world peace will never happen because of the different aspects of the world by different nations.(11) Countries often argue about certain ways to use water. For example there was countries fighting over the right usage of the Nile River’s water.There will always be conflict and nothing will ever be resolved.(12)

= = ==

=Government (by Steven G., Spencer M., and Lindsey P.)=

Citizens [[image:OscarOlivera.jpg align="right" caption="People protesting"]](16)
In one instance of people taking upon themselves to liberate their water supply is in Bolivia. This started when the Bolivian Congress passed the Drinking Water and Sanitation Law in October 1999. Thus allowing the privatizing of water and ending government control over it. Soon after this Law was passed an city in Cochabamba found that their monthly water bill went to $20 a month. It may not seem much but to the people that are living there their monthly income was about $100 a month. What it has made them do was literally choose to have food or water. In response to this the residents of Cochabamba formed an alliance called La Coordinadora de Defensa del Agua y de la Vida (The Coalition in Defense of Water and Life) in January 2000. The organizers of this organization started a peaceful march that demanded to repeal of the Drinking Water and Sanitation Law, all water contracts, the citizens to be in participation on laws about water resources, and ordinances allowing privatization. This peaceful demonstration was not liked by the government. So what the government did was declare martial law. Three protesters were killed during martial law and also 30 people were injured. The leaders were jailed and some were taken to remote regions of the Bolivia Jungle. Soon after when Aguas del Tunari and Bechtel left Bolivia in 10 April 2000 the government was forced to revoke its water privatization laws. What happened afterward was that all the debts of Servico Municipal del Aqua Potable y Alcantarillade (SEMAPO) was handed over to the workers and the people. When La Coordinadora had hearings to find a democratic way in which to solve the problem the Bolivian government and Bechtel harassed and threatened activists.(13) Some people have a hard time to finding other sources of water and accessing them. There are people that would have to walk long distances just to a cup of clean water.

=Corporations= (contributed by Kaylie S.) “Our indispensable water resources have proven themselves to be greatly resilient, but they are increasingly vulnerable and threatened. Our growing population’s need for water, for  food, raw materials and energy is increasingly competing with nature’s own demands for water to sustain already in peril ecosystems and the services on which we depend. Day after  day, we pour millions of tons of untreated sewage and industrial and agricultural wastes into the world’s water systems. Clean water has become scarce and will become even scarcer  with the onset of climate change. And the poor continue to suffer first and most from pollution, water shortages and the lack of adequate sanitation.” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Excerpt from a statement by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on World Water Day, March 22, 2010. (14)

(by Steven G.) As was talked about in the "Citizens" section of this wiki, Aguas del Tunari, the company involved with the Bolivian people has tried to raise the price of the water. In doing so the people became outraged and formed an organization called La Coordinadora de Defensa del Agua y de la Vida. In about three to four months of protesting for the repeal of the new water laws and the further involvement in future laws about water. Most of the conflicts that has arose because of the company is because of <span class="wiki_link_ext">Privatization and what it entails. (15) The World Bank has also classified water as a good, which can be sold and bought. What they have pushed for is that the poor countries should have a company privatize their water. In that reasoning it is so that the poorer countries can pay off their debts.

(by Kaylie S.) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hundreds of millions of people’s lives are affected every day in the growing epidemic resulting in our most important resourse running out. The contributes of this have risen from pollution, over use, and changes in the climate have seriously impacted the hydrological cycle.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> The question remains who is in charge of having a say in how the world’s water is used? Who has the say so on who gets water and who does not. Most agree that is should be left up to the people and their elected governments. Capital markets should have no say, for all they are concerned about is making a profit.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Part of the problem is that even the governments who are opposed to water corruption are also making agreements and create partnerships with the same corporate companies and the efforts to correct problems go undermined and eventually forgotten <span class="wiki_link_ext">.(14)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">“Currently there is a rush to privatize water services around the world. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) are pushing for the privatization of water services by European and U.S.-based companies. They are pushing privatization through stipulations in trade agreements and loan conditions to developing countries. These privatization programs started in the early 1990’s and have since emerged in India, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Nigeria, Mexico, Malaysia, Australia, and the Philippines, to name a few. In Chile, the World Bank imposed a loan condition to guarantee a 33 percent profit margin to the French company Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux while the company insisted on a margin of 35 percent.”(16)

=Solutions (by Steven G.)= Ways in which we can stop corporations from taking over what water we supply to ourselves is to adamantly and thoroughly be active in preventing any kind of corporation from coming in. Yes there will be incentives of getting more revenue from a company controlling the water or to take that off the bills. What it means is that it is one less thing that the state government has to fund and deal with. But is it in the people's best interest? When a company is in charge they are looking for profits and not the welfare of the people. Profit is the bottom line when it comes to how a company works. = = ==

References: 1. “Save water sign.” Water. //FreeAusieStock.com// (n.d.) 8 Dec 2010 2. Mullen, Kimberly (n.d.) “//Information on Earth’s Water-general//” December 3, 2010 [] 3.Water (2010) “//Water Facts//” Retrieved on December 2, 2010: [] 4.VanOverbeke, Dustin. (n.d.) "Water Privatization Conflicts." 10 December 2010. http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/vanovedr/ 5. 6.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> //Quinion// <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">//Michael// <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. ( <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">//1996-2006// <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.) “ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">//Protecting the Essence of Life on Earth from Abuse & Exploitation// <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.” Retrieved on 12/8 from <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://worldwaterwars.com_] 7. 8. 9. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">J.E. Becerril and B. Jiménez, <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://www.iwaponline.com/ws/00701/ws007010147.htm__] 10. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">L.W. Mays and Y.Gorokhovich, Ancient Water Technologies, Springer Science+Business Media B. V. 2010 11. 12. 13.

>
 * 1) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #0000ff; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_conflict__]
 * 1) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #0000ff; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_crisis__]
 * 2) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/OFORIAA/
 * 3) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[]
 * 4) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://www.africanagricultureblog.com/2010/05/countries-disagree-on-nile-river-water.html__]

14 .<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">World Water Wars. ( <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1998-2008). <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">‘’ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Protecting the Essence of Life on Earth from Abuse & Exploitation.‘’ Retrieved on December 1, 2010 from the World Water Wars: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://worldwaterwars.com/__] 15. 16.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">[| __http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/VANOVEDR/__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Shiva, Vandana. 2002. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">//Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit.// <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> South End Press. 158 pgs

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