Conflicts Over Water

A while ago, someone said to me that men conduct wars over oil, but women fight over water. We can see conflicts over water resource happen on a daily basis in villages in Asia, Africa and Latin America among rural women at wells or community water pump, where they fetch water for household use. Now, a large number of people live in cities, so conflict over water has become urbanized. Conflicts result from people asking for connection to the water supply without the means to pay for the cost or, in some areas from scarcity and lack of access to clean drinking water. The analysis of the controversy over the management of water resources in the urban setting by UNESCO gives us insight into these problems in Brazil, Mexico, France, India, Indonesia, Argentina, Italy and Germany. Publication of the analysis warns us that we should take good care of this limitted resource, and that drinking water supply is a scarce resource that human beings cannot live without therefore, people will fight when lack of supply. The study also provides us with knowledge of the origin and nature of water-related unrest and conflict in the urban context that requires urgent action by global community now and in the future, if we want peace in the world. The UN Millennium Development Goal has called for having the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015, which is only eight more years away. Population growth, hyper-urbanization, poverty, disparity in the world are related issues to water resource use. We should consider all these issues together for taking action to achieve the set goal.

Filed under Environment, United Nations |