{"id":49588,"date":"2019-11-13T20:18:45","date_gmt":"2019-11-14T01:18:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=49588"},"modified":"2019-11-13T20:18:47","modified_gmt":"2019-11-14T01:18:47","slug":"the-growing-threat-of-water-wars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=49588","title":{"rendered":"The Growing Threat of Water Wars"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/webapi.project-syndicate.org\/library\/7179b85caabea438a4f0d12088c986ee.jpg\" alt=\"ghosh15_Christopher FurlongGetty Images_africagirldroughtwater\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.project-syndicate.org\/commentary\/water-scarcity-conflict-africa-india-by-jayati-ghosh-2019-11\">The Growing Threat of Water Wars<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2015, United Nations member states adopted the Sustainable Development Goals, which include an imperative to \u201censure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.\u201d Yet, in the last four years, matters have deteriorated significantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>NEW DELHI \u2013 The dangers of environmental pollution receive a lot of attention nowadays, particularly in the developing world, and with good reason. Air quality indices are dismal and worsening in many places, with India, in particular,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/indias-losing-battle-against-pollution-delhi-air-quality-reaches-toxic-levels-again\/2019\/11\/04\/0901f378-fecc-11e9-8341-cc3dce52e7de_story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">facing<\/a>&nbsp;an acute public-health emergency. But as serious as the pollution problem is, it must not be allowed to obscure another incipient environmental catastrophe, and potential source of future conflict: lack of access to clean water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We may live on a \u201cblue planet,\u201d but less than 3% of all of our water is fresh, and much of it is inaccessible (for example, because it is locked in glaciers). Since 1960, the amount of available fresh water&nbsp;<em>per capita&nbsp;<\/em>has declined by more than half, leaving over 40% of the world\u2019s population facing water stress. By 2030, demand for fresh water will&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/ceowatermandate.org\/resources\/global-water-crisis-facts-2017\/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAno_uBRC1ARIsAB496IVFZ4D5CcZkrgDy0U40pMoYva-XiuxIS8JR9NH5IQXDe4C19LJA2iUaAjnTEALw_wcB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">exceed<\/a>&nbsp;supply by an estimated 40%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With nearly two-thirds of fresh water coming from rivers and lakes that cross national borders, intensifying water stress fuels a vicious circle, in which countries compete for supplies, leading to greater stress and more competition. Today, hundreds of international water agreements are coming under pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>China, India, and Bangladesh are&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-asia-41303082\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">locked in a dispute<\/a>&nbsp;over the Brahmaputra, one of Asia\u2019s largest rivers, with China and India actively&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-asia-india-26663820\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">constructing dams<\/a>&nbsp;that have raised fears of water diversion. India\u2019s government has&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2019\/02\/25\/are-india-and-pakistan-on-the-verge-of-a-water-war-pulwama-kasmir-ravi-indus\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">used<\/a>&nbsp;water-flow diversion to punish Pakistan for terrorist attacks. Dam-building on the Nile by Ethiopia has&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-africa-43170408\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">raised the ire<\/a>&nbsp;of downstream Egypt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Growing Threat of Water Wars In 2015, United Nations member states adopted the Sustainable Development Goals, which include an imperative to \u201censure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.\u201d Yet, in the last four years, matters have deteriorated significantly. NEW DELHI \u2013 The dangers of environmental pollution receive a lot of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[27574,8402,826,913],"class_list":["post-49588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","category-geopolitics","tag-jayati-ghosh","tag-project-syndicate","tag-united-nations","tag-water-wars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49588"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49589,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49588\/revisions\/49589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}