A Matter of Survival: Learning to Cooperate over Water
Meeting our global water challenges is no ordinary task: it is a matter of survival. As global climate patterns shift, access to clean water will become more challenging; water will grow scarcer in some places, while others will suffer from too much. The Global High-Level Panel on Water and Peace, convened by a coalition of 15 countries, has developed a designed to prevent water-related conflicts and to enable water management be an instrument of peace, not war.
In this discussion with President Danilo T眉rk, Chair of the Panel on Water and Peace and former President of Slovenia, leaders from the U.S. and around the world share their insights on water and peace, and bring into focus the new U.S. Global Water Strategy. This high-level, half-day event provided an opportunity for U.S. water sector leaders to spur actionable partnerships and innovative, integrated solutions to the global water challenge.
Selected Quotes
President Danilo T眉rk
鈥淭he international water cooperation has not progressed sufficiently. The transboundary water cooperation of the world鈥檚 shared rivers and lake basins are still much below what is needed.鈥
鈥淲ater issues do not exist in isolation. They are linked with issues of energy, food, and environmental sectors. Policies of each of them are often designed without full appreciation of other sectors.鈥
鈥淧eace in our era means much more than mere absence of war among states. Peace today requires strong and sophisticated tools for security and cooperation.鈥
鈥淲ater security and wise resources of water management represent the cornerstone of global conflict prevention.鈥
Sundeep Waslekar
鈥淚s water the oil of the twenty-first century? I say definitely not. Oil has alternatives 鈥 natural gas, wind energy, solar energy, bioenergy. The only alternative to water is water, and therefore, the matter of water is a matter of survival.鈥
Ambassador Paula Dobriansky
鈥淸Water] has been manipulated 鈥 it鈥檚 been used by terrorists 鈥 and in that sense, there is a need to make those linkages, and to try to take concrete action to fix it.鈥
H.E. Pio Wennubst
鈥淲ho we don鈥檛 have on board is the youth. We have to move onto the future.鈥
Alvaro Uma帽a Quesada
鈥淲e found out that the mechanisms, the methods, the procedures that are applied at the international level are also applicable at the local level鈥ater is inherently a local issue.鈥
Sherri Goodman
鈥淲e see increasing global water stress affecting national security, human security, and the very element of survival.鈥
鈥淚ncreasingly, the transboundary water issues are not just about surface water, but about ground water and aquifers, and that means we need to think about new governance mechanisms and update our approaches from the past.鈥
鈥淲e need to find a way to leverage [data] capabilities and begin to use them in service of greater hydro-diplomacy in key strategic regions.鈥
Aaron Salzberg
鈥淭here are millions of people that still lack access to safe drinking water and sanitation. The lack of access to these basic services is not only a threat to the health and economic wellbeing of people throughout the world, but these conditions can also increase migration pressures, promote civil unrest, and contribute to terrorist recruitment.鈥
鈥淐ountries that are important to the United States might not have the water they need, and may as a result of that, become increasingly fragile and more prone to failure.鈥
鈥淎s water resources become scarce, confrontation will increase, and this will exacerbate tensions in already conflict-prone regions of the world.鈥
鈥淚t鈥檚 really at the grassroots level that you see cooperation emerge in more creative ways鈥he processes that local communities are building in order to solve their disputes at their level is really quite profound鈥t鈥檚 something we need to do more of.鈥
鈥淚f you can build the spirit of cooperation up at those levels, you鈥檇 be amazed at the political will that can create among national leaders to then take the steps that are necessary to reach an agreement.鈥
Gidon Bromberg
鈥淸EcoPeace] is the only organization, in any field, that is Palestinian, Jordanian and Israeli together. And that really speaks miles as to how important water is as a resource that can create opportunities.鈥
鈥淲hen I look at our part of the world 鈥 the eastern Mediterranean 鈥 I鈥檓 extremely fearful. I see a situation where governments are not taking water issues as seriously as they need to.鈥
鈥淲ater can be a critical entry point to promote cooperation when there are very few entry points that allow cooperation.鈥
"No country can do it alone. The water insecurity of yourself is not the only issue you need to look at. Every country needs to look at the water insecurity of their neighbor as something that threatens their own national security.鈥
鈥淭wo million people in Gaza have run out of drinking water. The fact that two million Palestinians don鈥檛 have any security for their basic water needs is a threat to the national security of Palestinian Authority, of Israel, of Egypt, and the broader Middle East. And the realization that we鈥檙e literally in the same boat together has motivated some change.鈥
鈥淵ou can鈥檛 disconnect from a shared environment.鈥
鈥淯nilateralism cannot work. Only focusing on control without focusing on fair share also will not create the right motivation to deal with solving transboundary issues.鈥
鈥淲e must include education for sustainability, for water security in our curriculum. And what better way to do that in a conflict setting than to bring people from the same basin together to learn about their interdependencies.鈥
鈥淲hen young people come and see that, you know what, the political borders that our politicians talk about make no sense when it comes to our shared environment. Those political borders don鈥檛 stop the spread of disease or sewage. My neighbor not having sufficient water to drink is not something I鈥檓 comfortable with as a person sharing the same basin鈥hat鈥檚 how you build political will.鈥
鈥淲e need to be the loudest voices in the room to help our leaders make these critical decisions that we need to promote the objectives of a more water secure, water-fair world.鈥
Gerald Galloway
鈥淲hen you start talking about national security and climate change, you鈥檙e talking about national security and water.鈥
鈥淲ater is a web that spreads throughout every bit of society鈥t is not just water supply.鈥
鈥淚n many places, we can come up with wonderful solutions to water problems and deal with transboundary issues, but you have to look at the bottom. Have you solved the problem of the inequities that might exist over the use of that water at the lowest water? Is the farmer at the end of the irrigation canal going to get any water?鈥
鈥淚nformation sharing is so critical.鈥
鈥淵ou can鈥檛 deal with these sorts of issues unless everybody is at the table with the same information.鈥
鈥淟eaders must know and understand the risks they face in the future with water鈥ou鈥檝e got to make sure that truth gets to power.鈥
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Speakers
Author, Threat Multiplier: Climate, Military Leadership & the Fight for Global Security. 聽 聽
Former Director of the Water Institute at the University of North Carolina
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Environmental Change and Security Program
The Environmental Change and Security Program (ECSP) explores the connections between environmental change, health, and population dynamics and their links to conflict, human insecurity, and foreign policy. Read more