International cooperation

Hey guys,

with this post I want to highlight the importance of international cooperation when it comes to possible conflicts about water. Therefore, I read three articles which show (partly) different opinions on this topic.

All of them focus on transboundary river basins and possible conflicts about the water use. Swatuk for example argues that there is in general more will for cooperation between two or more countries than a will for a conflict when it comes to the use of water (SWATUK 2015:215). As an example he uses the Southern African Development Community (SADC) which consists of 15 member states in Southern Africa. He makes clear that this part of the world has, like many other parts of the world as well, a long history of different conflicts (SWATUK 2015:217). The main reasons for conflicts in this area have been questions about land tenure and resources. Nowadays, the Southern African states share 15 river basins and six of them were labeled as basins which are potential objects of conflicts in 2003 (Cunene, Inkomati, Limpopo, Orange-Sengu, Okavango, Zambezi, according to the World Bank: global hotspots) (SWATUK 2015:218). So far, there have not been a conflict about any of these.
In contrast to this example, the author's main argument is that states with endemic water scarcity are more likely to cooperate with other states than to have a conflict with them (SWATUK 2015:218). Reasons for this are that it is in general the best solution for the future of a country but also that many different actors are involved in water management and therefore a dominance of regional cooperation exists (SWATUK 2015:218. The author also kind of criticizes that there is always this standard argument that you do not know what will happen in the future and there could be conflicts about water (SWATUK 2015:220). In his opinion cooperation will be the solution also in future time as there is no other useful solution. In this context he also claims that not all peaceful relationships are good relationships and not all conflictful relationships are bad relationships in general.

Some additional information about this topic can be found in an article written by Turton et al. At first, they indicate the international river basins as a consequence of the colonial legacy (TURTON et al 2006:22). They also offer some very interesting and impressive data about that. There are 263 known international river basins in the world and 63 of them are in Africa. These river basins (the ones in Africa) cover two-thirds of the total African land area and they are home to three-quarters of the entire African population. In total, they provide 93% of surface water resources on the continent (TURTON et al. 2006:23). These impressive statistics show how important water management is. And they also show the difference between the two articles. While Swatuk mainly focuses on cooperation and states that everything will be solved with international cooperation, Turton et al. try to highlight the importance of the water problem of the African continent. That does not mean that they want to say that there will be conflicts in future time, but they say that there is the possibility of conflicts and a holistic water management, and international cooperation is needed to prevent them. They also claim that cooperation between states is the best solution for regions with endemic water scarcity but at the same time they argue that the cooperations made so far are not enough. Most of them only focus on surface water and only a few also include groundwater (TURTON et al. 2006:29).

Kaniaru gives another insight into this topic. She shows the interdependence between the different countries very well and thus she adds another dimension to this issue. She argues, that South Africa is responsible for 80% of Southern African water use, but at the same time the country is home to one-third of the region's population only, and has only about 10% of the total water resources of Southern Africa (KANIARU 2015:383). Another interesting point is that four countries (of SADC; Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe) have already reached the maximum of their available water resources. In addition to this, many countries heavily rely on river basins in other countries. For example, 94% of river flows in Botswana originate in other countries. An interesting example from Zimbabwe shows that surface water is the most important source of the country's water supply (90% of water supply come from surface water)(KANIARU 2015:383).

If we link the three different articles there are some interesting results. All of them agree that cooperation about water use is the best solution for everyone. That has been the case in the past and it will probably be the case in future times. But especially the last article, which I just introduced to you, shows how complicated the interdependences are and that there is a lot of potential for conflicts (SWATUK would now say that is the standard argument). But the statistics Kaniaru offers, show how important the work, which countries and NGO's are doing, is and that a lot of will to cooperation will be needed in future times.

In my next post I will focus on some more of the consequences of these facts and will also give you some more historical context about cooperation and so on.

Feel free to comment!