Readings on Water ======================= Managing a finite resource for an exploding population

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1 Readings on Water Managing a finite resource for an exploding population The Earth is a closed system. All the water on the planet in the oceans, seas, lakes, rivers and even the snow and rain is all the water there ever was or ever will be.{9} A tiny 2.5 percent of the Earth's water is fresh water, just 0.4 percent of which occurs on the surface, in the forms of freshwater lakes, rivers and moisture in the atmosphere. (Most surface fresh water is locked up in glaciers.) Considering the skyrocketing human population of a staggering 9.6 billion people by 2050, compared to just 3 billion people as recently as 1960 managing a finite water supply is a difficult and complex task. "By 2050, the demand for water could approach 100 percent of the available supply, producing intense competition for this essential substance in all but a few wellwatered areas of the planet," writes Michael T. Klare, author of Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict.{10} Moreover, we cannot forget that humans aren't the only species that rely on water: Every single living thing must have it to survive. And while water is generally not a primary concern for most people living in the West, where accessing clean water simply means turning on a faucet, Â the same is not true in the developing world.{11} Around 1.2 billion people, almost a fifth of the world's population, live where water is scarce, with an additional 500 million approaching similar circumstances. And another 1.6 billion people, almost a quarter of the world's population, live in parts of the world with ample groundwater, but no infrastructure to move it from rivers and aquifers.{12} The United Nations offers a stark prediction: "By 2025, 1800 million people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world population could be under stress conditions."{13} Worldwide, one out of every five deaths of children under five years of age is due to a water-related disease.{14}â By 2050, fresh water availability in the Middle East and North Africa will drop by 50 percent.{15} In sub-saharan Africa, where droughts are frequent and severe, water scarcity is a defining characteristic of daily life: Two out of three people there do not have access to a toilet. The region has the lowest percentage of sanitation coverage in the world and the highest concentration of water-stressed countries.{16}{17} Of the world's population without access to clean and safe water, 37 percent live in sub-saharan Africa.{18} Managing the world's finite water supply and addressing declining access to clean water (not even to mention the steadily increasing demand on critical commodities like iron, copper and a host of precious metals) must be top-level societal concerns, not just in water-stressed regions, but also in the West. ======================= Identifying areas of potential conflict over natural resources is also becoming increasingly important as the pressure on these fault lines grows. The pressure derives from a number of sources, beginning with the basic mechanics of supply and demand. As populations increase and economic activity expands in many parts of the world, the appetite for vital materials will swell more quickly than nature (and the world's resource firms) can accommodate. The result will be recurring shortages of key materials, becoming chronic in some cases. Technologies that

2 introduce alternative materials and production techniques will help overcome some of these scarcities but can also present problems of their own -- as shown, for example, by the soaring demand for electricity in Silicon Valley and other centers of digital technology. As shortages of critical materials rise in frequency and severity, the competition for access to the remaining supplies of these commodities will grow more intense. The global water situation is similarly fraught. Water is considered a renewable resource since we regularly receive fresh supplies from rain and snowfalls. But the amount of replaceable water that is available for human use in any given year is actually quite limited. At present, we use about half this amount -- for drinking, bathing, food production, manufacturing, navigation, and waste treatment -- and the need for additional supplies is growing all the time. Already, many areas of the Middle East and Asia suffer from persistent water scarcity, and the number of countries experiencing such conditions is expected to double over the next 25 years as the world population rises and more people settle in urban areas. By 2050, the demand for water could approach 100 percent of the available supply, producing intense competition for this essential substance in all but a few well-watered areas of the planet. Environmental trends such as global warming will also affect the worldwide availability of many resources, including water and arable land. Although higher temperatures will produce increased rainfall in areas located near oceans and other large bodies of water, inland regions will generally experience drier conditions, with prolonged drought a recurring phenomenon. Higher temperatures will also increase the rate of evaporation from rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. It is likely, therefore, that many important farming areas will be lost, either to drought and encroaching desert inland, or to coastal flooding and the rise of global sea levels in maritime regions. Market mechanisms can alleviate most of the increased pressures on the world's existing supply of vital materials. Rising demand, coupled with higher prices, will stimulate the development of new materials and processes that allow resource firms to search for new deposits and bring those that were once considered inaccessible within reach. But technology cannot completely reverse demographic and environmental pressures, and some countries and regions will be unable to afford the higher costs of alternative technologies. In these circumstances, global supply and demand will become increasingly unbalanced. ============================ The following essay is by Aletta Brady, Member of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO Youth Working Group. The majority of research on transnational cooperation in the Nile River basin (and elsewhere) has failed to note the distinct perspective of mid-river states. Most academic literature on transboundary river basins classifies states solely as upriver or downriver states, even in instances where countries, geographically and behaviorally, are mid-river states. Mid-river states have an important position and role to play in transboundary river basins as they intimately understand the needs and concerns of both their upriver and downriver neighbors. Mid-river

3 states also have a more complex perspective of their rights based on their combined upstream/downstream interests. This aspect is being ignored under contemporary analyses. An upriver state is a country out of which water in a river flows. Such states generally advocate for their right to the equitable and reasonable utilization of the waters of a transboundary river. A downriver state is a country into which a river flows. Downriver states tend to advocate for the principle of no significant harm, desiring water flow upriver to be preserved in its near-natural state until it reaches their downriver territory. A mid-river state refers to a country that has water from a discrete river flowing both into and out of its territory. Mid-river states can espouse the desires of both upriver and downriver states, depending on whom they are dealing with. Irrigation During the Green Revolution of the 1940s to 1970s, billions of dollars had been spent building large-scale irrigation systems. These contributed, along with new fertilizers, pesticides and highyielding varieties of seeds, to helping many countries produce greater quantities of food crops. By the mid-1980s, however, these irrigation systems were no longer performing efficiently; International Irrigation Management Institute s job was to find out why. IIMI's researchers discovered that problems affecting irrigation were often more institutional than technical. It advocated Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM) as the solution, an approach that sought to involve farmers in water management decisions. In 1992, the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit gave credence to this approach by recommending that water management be decentralized, with farmers and other stakeholders playing a more important role in managing natural resources. Initially met with resistance, PIM went on to become the status quo for governments and major lending agencies. IIMI became a member of the CGIAR system in By the mid-1990s, competition for water resources was rising, thanks to a larger global population, expanding cities and increasing industrial applications. Viewing irrigation in isolation was no longer relevant to the global situation. A new approach was needed that would consider it within a river basin context, encompassing competing users and the environment. IIMI began developing new fields of research, on topics such as open and closed basins, water accounting, multiple-use systems, basin institutions, remote sensing analysis and environmental flows. In 1998, its name changed to the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), reflecting this new wider approach. Although it was becoming evident that water could no longer be considered an infinite resource, as had been the case in the 1950s when there were fewer people on the planet, no one knew just how scarce the resource was. This prompted IWMI to try to find out. Its research culminated in publication of Water for food, Water for life: A comprehensive assessment of water management in agriculture. A map within the report showed that a third of the world s population already suffered from water scarcity. The report defined physical water scarcity, as being where there are insufficient water resources to meet the demands of the population, and economic water scarcity as where water requirements are not satisfied because of a lack of investment in water or human capacity.

4 Causes of Water Conflict According to the 1992 International Conference on Water and the Environment, [ water is a vital element for human life, and human activities are closely connected to availability and quality of water. Unfortunately, water is a limited resource and in the future access "might get worse with climate change, although scientists' projections of future rainfall are notoriously cloudy" writes Roger Harrabin. [ Moreover, "it is now commonly said that future wars in the Middle East are more likely to be fought over water than over oil," said Lester R. Brown at a previous Stockholm Water Conference. Water conflicts occur because the demand for water resources and potable water can exceed supply, or because control over access and allocation of water may be disputed. Elements of a water crisis may put pressures on affected parties to obtain more of a shared water resource, causing diplomatic tension or outright conflict. 11% of the global population, or 783 million people, are still without access to improved sources of drinking water which provides the catalyst for potential for water disputes. Besides life, water is necessary for proper sanitation, commercial services, and the production of commercial goods. Thus numerous types of parties can become implicated in a water dispute. For example, corporate entities may pollute water resources shared by a community, or governments may argue over who gets access to a river used as an international or inter-state boundary. The broad spectrum of water disputes makes them difficult to address. Locale, local and international law, commercial interests, environmental concerns, and human rights questions make water disputes complicated to solve combined with the sheer number of potential parties, a single dispute can leave a large list of demands to be met by courts and lawmakers. Economic and trade issues Water s viability as a commercial resource, which includes fishing, agriculture, manufacturing, recreation and tourism, among other possibilities, can create dispute even when access to potable water is not necessarily an issue. As a resource, some consider water to be as valuable as oil, needed by nearly every industry, and needed nearly every day. Water shortages can completely cripple an industry just as it can cripple a population, and affect developed countries just as they affect countries with less-developed water infrastructure. Water-based industries are more visible in water disputes, but commerce at all levels can be damaged by a lack of water. International commercial disputes between nations can be addressed through the World Trade Organization, which has water-specific groups like a Fisheries Center that provide a unified judicial protocol for commercial conflict resolution. Still, water conflict occurring domestically, as well as conflict that may not be entirely commercial in nature may not be suitable for arbitration by the WTO. Fishing Historically, like fisheries have been the main sources of question, as nations expanded and claimed portions of oceans and seas as territory for domestic commercial fishing. Certain lucrative areas, such as the Bering Sea, have a history of dispute; in 1886 Great Britain and the

5 United States clashed over sealing fisheries, and today Russia surrounds a pocket of international water known as the Bering Sea Donut Hole. Conflict over fishing routes and access to the hole was resolved in 1995 by a convention referred to colloquially as the Donut Hole Agreement. Pollution Corporate interest often crosses opposing commercial interest, as well as environmental concerns, leading to another form of dispute. In the 1960s, Lake Erie, and to a lesser extent, the other Great Lakes were polluted to the point of massive fish death. Local communities suffered greatly from dismal water quality until the United States Congress passed the Clean Water Act in Water pollution poses a significant health risk, especially in heavily industrialized, heavily populated areas like China. In response to a worsening situation in which entire cities lacked safe drinking water, China passed a revised Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law. [20] The possibility of polluted water making it way across international boundaries, as well as unrecognized water pollution within a poorer country brings up questions of human rights, allowing for international input on water pollution. There is no single framework for dealing with pollution disputes local to a nation. Water Wars and International Conflict Abigail Ofori-Amoah For centuries war and conflict has been tied to the protection of water resources. With the risk of water shortages around the world becoming more and more of an issue, water has become the fuel of certain conflicts in many regions around the world. Water Wars are becoming inevitable in the world's future as the misuse of water resources continues among countries that share the same water source. International law has proven itself inadequate in defending the equal use of shared water supplies in some parts of the world (Darwish, Middle East Water Wars). The rapid population increase has greatly affected the amount of water readily available to many people. Water as a resource is very comparable to oil; it is essential to all daily human activities. Water is becoming a very valuable commodity, yet freshwater resources are unevenly distributed among developing countries. This scarcity in water has triggered desperation in countries that already have little access to water, let alone reliable water supplies. This desperation usually cannot be resolved by negotiations. If governments or rebels want water badly enough, they resort to force to obtain it. Water has very rarely been the main ingredient in international conflicts, but it is often factored into the problem due to its economic importance. (Peter Gledick, Water Conflict Chronology) "Conflicts over water arise from the fact that under conditions of increasing scarcity, competition levels also increase. Anthony Turton

6 For centuries war and conflict has been tied to the protection of water resources. With the risk of water shortages around the world becoming more and more of an issue, water has become the fuel of certain conflicts in many regions around the world. Water Wars are becoming inevitable in the world's future as the misuse of water resources continues among countries that share the same water source. International law has proven itself inadequate in defending the equal use of shared water supplies in some parts of the world (Darwish, Middle East Water Wars). The rapid population increase has greatly affected the amount of water readily available to many people. Water as a resource is very comparable to oil; it is essential to all daily human activities. Water is becoming a very valuable commodity, yet freshwater resources are unevenly distributed among developing countries. This scarcity in water has triggered desperation in countries that already have little access to water, let alone reliable water supplies. This desperation usually cannot be resolved by negotiations. If governments or rebels want water badly enough, they resort to force to obtain it. Water has very rarely been the main ingredient in international conflicts, but it is often factored into the problem due to its economic importance. (Peter Gledick, Water Conflict Chronology) "Conflicts over water arise form the fact that under conditions of increasing scarcity, competition levels also increase. Anthony Turton The Pollution Crisis There has been much speculation over what causes conflicts over water. The conflicts arise over who has the power to control water and therefore control the economy and population. By breaking it down into categories, we can begin to understand the causes. Conflicts can be caused by water use which includes military, industrial, agricultural, domestic and political uses. Through the military and political uses, conflicts can be exacerbated by the use of water systems as a weapon and as a political goal. In relation to industrial and agricultural uses conflicts may arise from the overuse and degradation of water resources, and the insufficient amount that is left over for communities. Conflicts can further be a result of pollution affecting the quality of the water supply. The military is already most likely the number one producer of wastes in the world, and the leftover chemical and weapons used in times of war can have an effect on water supplies. Wastes from industries and agriculture can contaminate groundwater resources if not disposed of properly, and cause frustration for those who must travel to obtain sufficient daily water supplies. This lack of water quality can cause a conflict to arise regarding the distribution of water. Not having water evenly distributed among people and countries creates an imbalance among those who share supplies, particularly in developing countries (Cause of Conflicts, Haftendorn). The increase of urbanization has increased the demand for water. However the supply cannot take care of the demand. With the problem of uneven water distribution future conflicts can

7 occur. As societies become more developed they tend to use more resources such as water (Klare). Regions of Conflicts Many regions around the world deal with shortages of water. However, some areas deal more with conflicts over inadequate water supplies and disputes over shared water supplies. In regions where countries compete for access to water, the relations between the countries are likely to be unstable. In regions where water supply is scarce, combat sometimes seems to be the only way to resolve the problem. It is estimated that there are 1,250 square kilometers of freshwater remaining in the world s semi-arid and arid regions and this supply is not evenly distributed among two or more countries sharing the same water source. Severe water scarcity is strongest in the Middle East and Northern Africa. The need for water in these regions is essential for food production used in irrigation farming (Klare). Water systems usually arise in one country and pass through others before reaching the sea or oceans. The rivers and lakes that come off these larger water systems are typically shared by more than one country. The states where these systems originated tend to try and gain the most control over the water. This is the case along river systems like the Nile, the Tigris-Euphrates, and the Jordan River (Klare). The Middle East Middle East conflicts are usually tied in the media to religion or oil, but water has become a major factor in recent disputes. In prominent watersheds such as the Jordan River Basin and the Tigris-Euphrates Basin, water supplies can be critical especially when they are being shared among multiple countries. These rivers play a very important role in the agriculture and economic development of these states. Jordan River Basin The area of the Jordan River Basin, including parts of Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Jordan, and the West Bank, is primarily an arid region. The river originates in Lebanon and has a total average flow of 1,200 million cubic meters per year. This river system consists of the Jordan and Yarmuk River, which flows from Syria. With the arid climate and low precipitation in this region, water has become the most valuable resource (Klare). Most countries in the Jordan River Basin are among some of the poorest countries in the region. Groundwater aquifers are the principle source for water supplies to the states that rely on the Jordan River. Water use varies throughout the region. Israel uses the greatest amount of water available in the basin, and next in line is Jordan. The Israeli-occupied West Bank uses the smallest amount. The daily amount of water per person in the Jordan River Basin is the lowest in the world (Water Scarcity in Jordan River Basin). The patterns of water use, overuse, and political territorial issues are resulting in disagreement over water distribution. The increase in population (both through natural increase and Israeli settlements) has led to significant challenges in managing limited water supplies. Without the

8 existence of a legitimate water sharing agreement, the countries of Syria and Israel have taken over the water supplies. The construction of reservoirs on the Yarmuk River has caused the reduction of discharge into the Jordan River (The Jordan River Basin). The Mountain Aquifer underneath the West Bank is a point of contention between Israelis and Palestinians. Issues include the domination of groundwater supplies by the Israeli state and settlers, and the walling off of Palestinian access to water supplies. Compared to Israeli settlers Palestinians are charged three times the cost for water that comes from under the West Bank (Villiers). The Tigris-Euphrates Basin The scarcity of water supplies in the river basin of ancient Mesopotamia has long fed disagreement among neighboring nations. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers originate in Turkey, and their watershed covers a much larger area than the Jordan River basin. The river system is shared by several countries and ethnic groups who regularly disagree on water issues. Like the Jordan River Valley, rising population in these areas is heavily affecting the availability of water. The Tigris and Euphrates are especially important to Syria and Iraq. Syria obtains approximately 85 percent of the renewable water supply while Iraq obtains 100 percent from the combination of both rivers (Klare). The Turks (and the Kurds who live in southeastern Turkey) are less dependent on the rivers, yet they still have plans for irrigation schemes to increase their utilization of both rivers. Along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, conflict arises from north to south. The downstream states of Iraq and Syria depend heavily on these two rivers for their water supply. Dams along the rivers installed by Turkey have prevented some of the water from flowing downstream to these warmer, drier countries.(haftendorn). All three countries (but mainly Turkey) have constructed dams on the rivers for purposes of agriculture, hydroelectric power and industrialization. Turkey and Syria have increased hostilities towards one another over the use of the Euphrates River. Turkey s plans to utilize its portion of the Euphrates have affected the share going to Syria for irrigation purposes. Hostilities between Syria and Iraq escalated due to the filling of Lake Assad by Syria, resulting to the reduction of downstream flow in the 1970 s. Iraqi s began accusing Syria of holding back water supplies. Among all three countries, the water supply conflict is equated with their national security.

9 Tigris-Euphrates River Warfare in Iraq The 1991 Gulf War brought on water crisis in Iraq due to the bombing of water treatment facilities in Iraq by the U.S., triggering water shortages in the country. Out of the seven major water pumping stations, four were destroyed. The targeting of sewage and water treatment plants contributed to the mass contamination of the Trigris River, and triggered many waterborne diseases. The bombing during the 2003 Iraq invasion again targeted civilian infrastructure, and left many southern Iraqis with little or no access to water in the first weeks of the occupation. Africa In many parts of Africa, water shortages are a part of everyday life. Many countries share one water resource for the use both of their populations. A large percentage of these countries are very dependant on the weather to provide proper irrigation to the agricultural industry, since water resources are so scarce. The major areas being shared among countries are the Nile River, Volta River, Zambezi River, and the Niger Basin. Conflicts rage from the privatization of the water resources to the many people displaced by dams along the rivers, and the unequal distribution of water supplies amongst neighboring countries. With the growing demand for water resources, conflicts seems almost inevitable, especially with many African governments' history of poor management of resources and inadequate conflict resolution mechanisms.

10 Volta River Basin Niger River Basin

11 The Zambezi Water Basin The Nile River Basin The Nile is the longest river in the world, stretching for 4,130 miles. The Nile River for centuries has been the source of sustaining human life in Egypt and Sudan. The Nile s tributaries, lakes, and rivers collect and disperse water in nine African countries before it reaches the Mediterranean Sea. The Egyptians have used military force to ensure their control over the headwaters of the Nile, because the country has no other water source. Sudan, Ethiopia, and Uganda have constructed various river projects to increase their annual water withdrawals, affecting Egyptian control over the Nile (Klare). However, in some cases national governments have agreed to share water that flows between their countries. For example, the leaders of Uganda, Sudan and Egypt signed a pact to share the waters of the Nile River. Such solutions can potentially prevent water shortage and head off conflict. Egypt and Sudan agreed to divide up the Nile's flow in 1959 but declined to provide any supplies for Ethiopia and the other states that depend on the river's waters -- an obviously unstable arrangement. The Nile River basin has three mid-river states: Sudan, Uganda, and South Sudan. The academic literature has classified these states based on historical political allegiance and economic interest. For example, Sudan is usually categorized as a downriver state largely based on its historic allegiance to Egypt. Similarly, Uganda s advocacy for a fair share of the Nile River, along with Ethiopia, has led to its classification as an upriver state. These binary categorizations, however, do not accurately characterize the behavior and interests of these two states in the Nile Basin. In 1991, Sudan signed a bilateral agreement with Ethiopia, to the dismay of Egypt, that established a joint technical committee for data sharing and exploring mutually beneficial

12 projects, and that recognized a commitment to the principle of equitable and reasonable utilization of the Nile waters. Then Sudan.Then Ethiopia Then Burundi..Then Uganda Nile River Asia South Asian countries deal with conflict over the sharing of river water supplies both in downstream and upstream regions. The distribution of water resources throughout Southeast and Central Asia is increasingly becoming a political issue, with the tensions amounting over the control of water supplies (Biliouri). The idea of shared water supply has not been easily understood by the nations of this region. The growing populations come with the increase in demand and could be a catalyst for conflict to arise out of the ethnic and political disputes (Water and Conflict). In India and China water shortages pose both a social and economic threat. Throughout India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh, water shortages are increasingly triggering conflict. Although the freshwater resources are abundant, they are not well distributed to drier regions in dire need of water. With the immense amount of pollution being dumped in the freshwater supply, clean water is becoming scarce to the mass of people and tensions can easily escalate. The Indus River Basin has been an area of conflict between India and Pakistan. Spanning 1,800 miles, the river and its tributaries together make up one of the largest irrigation canals in the world. The basin provides water to millions of people in northwestern India and Pakistan. Dams and canals built in order to provide hydropower and irrigation ha dried up stretches of the Indus

13 River. Water projects have further caused the displacement of people and have contributed to the destruction of the ecosystem in the Indus plain. The divisions of the river basin waters have created friction among the countries of South Asia, and among their states and provinces. Accusations of overdrawing made by each central region or province has resulted in the lack of water supplies to coastal regions of Pakistan (Controversy over Indus River Water). The Ganges River has long been disputed over by India and Bangladesh. The two regions share a common river system, formed by the joining of the Bhagirathi and the Alaknanda. Map of the Indus River Basin Ganges River System: The Ganges River possesses strong economic and religious importance. The Ganges River as a water source has been strongly disputed between India and Bangladesh. With increasing demands of water in Calcutta for industrial and domestic use, and irrigation use in the Indian state of West Bengal, water conflicts between the two countries have increased. With large amounts of pollution in this river system, the available water is unsanitary and can increase illness, as well as trigger mass migration. Mekong Mainstream Dams

14 The revival of plans to build a series of dams on the Mekong River's mainstream in Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand presents a serious threat to the river's ecology and puts at risk the wellbeing of millions of people dependent on the river for food, income, transportation and a multitude of other needs. Since the 1960s, several mega-schemes to dam the Lower Mekong River's mainstream to generate electricity have been proposed. The most recent plan, prepared by the Mekong Secretariat in 1994, was shelved in part due to public outcry over the predicted impacts on the river's fisheries and the large number of people who would be displaced or otherwise affected. But now there are troubling signs that the tide is turning. Since mid-2006, the Governments of Cambodia, Laos and Thailand have granted approval to Thai, Malaysian, Vietnamese, Russian and Chinese companies to investigate eleven mainstream hydropower dams. The projects are located at Pak Beng, Luang Prabang, Xayaburi, Pak Lay, and Sanakham in northern Laos; Pak Chom and Ban Koum on the Thai-Lao border; Lat Sua and Don Sahong in southern Laos; and Stung Treng and Sambor in Cambodia (see map). That these projects are once again being actively investigated is cause for alarm. Already serious concerns have been raised by non-governmental organizations and scientists over the Xayaburi Dam, which is at the most advanced stage of development. In September 2010, this dam became the first mainstream dam to be submitted for approval by the region's governments through a regional decision-making process called the "Procedures for Notification, Prior Consultation and Agreement" (PNPCA), facilitated by the Mekong River Commission (MRC). This leapfrogged the publication of the MRC's Strategic Environmental Assessment report by a mere three weeks, which provided a critical appraisal of the dam plans and recommended that decisions on whether to proceed with the mainstream dams be deferred for a period of ten years until further studies can be conducted to ensure that decision-makers are fully informed of the risks. With so much at stake, it is crucial that the Mekong region's decisionmakers endorse and adopt the SEA's recommendations before it's too late. China's dam construction on the Upper Mekong has already caused downstream impacts, especially along the Thai-Lao border where communities have suffered declining fisheries and changing water levels that have seriously affected their livelihoods. By changing the river's hydrology, blocking fish migration and affecting the river's ecology, the construction of dams on the Lower Mekong mainstream will have repercussions throughout the entire basin. International Rivers is working with partners in the region and internationally to keep the Lower Mekong River's mainstream flowing freely. FROM its headwaters more than three miles above sea level in Qinghai province, China, to its delta in Vietnam, the Mekong river runs more than 4,300 kilometres. It supports the world s most productive inland fishery, and its watershed boasts stunning biodiversity. But Mekong countries particularly China, Laos and Cambodia treat the river not as the anchor for one of the world s great ecosystems, but as their own private battery.

15 China has built six hydroelectric dams on its stretch of the Mekong; Laos and Cambodia plan another 11, along with dozens more on its major tributaries. Though power demand in the booming Mekong region is soaring, these dams will not come close to satisfying it. Instead, they threaten regional fish stocks and farmland, and may leave millions of people poor, hungry and displaced. China and Laos will reap the benefits; Cambodia and Vietnam will bear most of the losses.

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17 Proposed International Solutions. A proposed broad four-part solution: 1) governments must improve internal water policies that support efficiency and conservation; 2) countries must not act unilaterally and negotiate such things as river alterations and shared groundwater usage; 3) governments must establish intergovernmental river-basin institutions to identify and exploit opportunities for cooperation, including more involvement and aid from donor countries (the European Union in particular, can play an important role due to its success in building institutions that manage rivers like the Danube and the Rhine); and 4) political leaders must get involved in conversations that are "dominated by technical experts" in which "the absence of political leadership tends to limit the scope for far-reaching cooperation." Fracking While water scarcity in the West is generally not as critical an issue as it is in water-stressed nations, the issue of fracking's negative effect on groundwater has sparked regional clashes in the U.S. and Europe. Additionally, there are longstanding regional conflicts across the Western world, such as the ongoing legal and political battle over water rights in the water-stressed American West. Desalination As new technological innovations continue to reduce the capital cost of desalination, more countries are building desalination plants as a small element in addressing their water crises. Israel desalinizes water for a cost of 53 cents per cubic meter Singapore desalinizes water for 49 cents per cubic meter and also treats sewage with reverse osmosis for industrial and potable use (NEWater). China and India, the world's two most populous countries, are turning to desalination to provide a small part of their water needs In 2007 Pakistan announced plans to use desalination All Australian capital cities (except Darwin, Northern Territory and Hobart) are either in the process of building desalination plants, or are already using them. In late 2011, Melbourne will begin using Australia's largest desalination plant, the Wonthaggi desalination plant to raise low reservoir levels. In 2007 Bermuda signed a contract to purchase a desalination plant The largest desalination plant in the United States is the one at Tampa Bay, Florida, which began desalinizing 25 million gallons (95000 m³) of water per day in December In the United States, the cost of desalination is $3.06 for 1,000 gallons, or 81 cents per cubic meter. In the United States, California, Arizona, Texas, and Florida use desalination for a very small part of their water supply. After being desalinized at Jubail, Saudi Arabia, water is pumped 200 miles (320 km) inland though a pipeline to the capital city of Riyadh.