×

Our award-winning reporting has moved

Context provides news and analysis on three of the world’s most critical issues:

climate change, the impact of technology on society, and inclusive economies.

Govts must cooperate more in water 'hotspots' to prevent conflict-UN University

by Magda Mis | @magdalenamis1 | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Friday, 2 October 2015 01:01 GMT

Village girls carry metal pitchers filled with water supplied by the government in the western Indian state of Gujarat April 23, 2013. REUTERS/Amit Dave

Image Caption and Rights Information

More than half world's population rely on rivers that flow from Himalayan glaciers for drinking water

By Magdalena Mis

LONDON, Oct 2 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Governments in water 'hotspots' need to scale up cooperation over shared water resources to avoid 'drastic' consequences such as international conflicts, the United Nations University (UNU) said on Friday.

The importance of water cooperation in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Middle East, where hundreds of millions of people depend on shared resources, is growing as climate change increasingly affects water availability, UNU said in a report.

"Water challenges are going to increase as a result of climate change and increasing population, so cooperation remains critical," Zafar Adeel, director of the Institute for Water, Environment and Health (INWEH) at UNU, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a phone interview from Hamilton, Canada.

More than half the world's population depends for drinking water on rivers that flow from the Himalayan glaciers, which are melting at an accelerating pace, the UNU-INWEH report on water cooperation said.

Faster-melting glaciers cause increased flooding, dry spells are more unpredictable, and cooperation is vital between countries affected by these changes, the report said.

Adeel said there would be "quite drastic" consequences if neighbouring countries did not cooperate more closely over shared water resources and give a higher priority to water issues in general.

"Part of the problem is that many of the 'hotspots' don't even have agreements," Adeel said.

Although more than 200 water treaties have been negotiated between countries over the past 50 years, there are no agreements on how to manage 60 percent of the world's 276 transboundary rivers, the report said.

Adeel said he was optimistic about governments understanding it was better for all to cooperate over water rather than fight over it.

"I think the political leadership and governments see the economic and political benefits in cooperation," he said.

The new set of targets adopted by the United Nations last week, the Sustainable Development Goals, which include ending poverty, combating climate change and improving water management, offer a good starting point for future international negotiations, Adeel said.

The U.N. climate summit in Paris, starting on Nov. 30, should make water a central point in a new deal to curb global warming because adaptation to climate change largely means adapting to worsening floods and droughts, Adeel said.

"For the society, what really is important is what happens to our water," he said. "We must consider water as part of the whole climate change adaptation agenda."

(Reporting by Magdalena Mis, editing by Tim Pearce.; Please credit Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, corruption and climate change. Visit www.trust.org)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

-->